RIGA (Latvia) - Latvia certainly made their intentions clear about winning it all in 2025, as their FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers run saw them pull six straight wins despite already having a guaranteed spot at the Final Round as one of the four hosts.
With their Cinderella run at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 still in everyone's minds, and Kristaps Porzingis back with the squad, it wouldn't be the craziest of all outcomes to see them on the top step of the podium in the biggest arena in Riga on September 14.
Incredibly, the last time the hosts won the FIBA EuroBasket was in 1993, when Germany beat Russia in the Final.
Schedule
August 27: vs Türkiye (17:00 CET) August 29: vs Estonia (17:00 CET) August 30: vs Serbia (17:00 CET) September 1: vs Portugal (17:00 CET) September 3: vs Czechia (17:00 CET)
Star Player
Since coach Luca Banchi took over, Latvia have been one of the hottest teams in the world. And yet, this EuroBasket will be the first major tournament where the Italian playcaller will have the privilege of coaching Kristaps Porzingis.
When healthy, Porzingis is one of the most dominant players in the basketball world, helping the Boston Celtics win the NBA Finals in 2024. He is now 30, with plenty of motivation to keep going having just moved to the Atlanta Hawks this summer.
The Latvian giant played just one FIBA EuroBasket to date, back in 2017. It was a memorable campaign, during which he 23.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game, but Latvia had to settle for fifth, after losing to Luka Doncic and Slovenia in the Quarter-Finals.
Porzingis played two more games for the national team in 2023, helping the team reach the World Cup by scoring 51 points with 28 rebounds and 6 blocks in two games. Hence the "one of the most dominant players" sentence a few paragraphs ago.
History
Latvia missing the EuroBasket in 2022 was one of the biggest shockers in this event's history, as the nation connected on nine straight appearances, with three Quarter-Finals runs, one led by Kaspars Kambala in 2001, and two consecutive in 2015 and 2017.
However, even those Top 8 finishes aren't the country's best result. Latvia won the inaugural FIBA EuroBasket event in 1935 and finished third four years later.
Now, they will fight the curse of the hosts, trying to emulate Germany's 1993 run. Since then, the only host countries to win any medal were Türkiye (silver in 2001), Spain (silver in 2007), France (bronze in 2015) and Germany (bronze in 2022).
Best finish: 1st in 1935
EuroBasket Top Scorers
Rank | Player | Games | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Valdis Valters | 32 | 476 |
2 | Kristaps Janicenoks | 33 | 302 |
3 | Ainars Bagatskis | 20 | 301 |
4 | Dairis Bertans | 29 | 298 |
5 | Janis Blums | 37 | 261 |
6 | Janis Krumins | 22 | 254 |
7 | Roberts Stelmahers | 18 | 237 |
8 | Kaspars Kambala | 13 | 221 |
9 | Janis Strelnieks | 29 | 220 |
10 | Gunars Silins | 20 | 214 |
How they qualified
Gameday 1: ESP 75-79 LAT Gameday 2: LAT 64-52 SVK Gameday 3: LAT 75-72 BEL Gameday 4: BEL 83-85 LAT Gameday 5: LAT 83-66 ESP Gameday 6: SVK 68-89 LAT
Poll: Where will they finish?
Tickets
FIBA