Harlesburg
06-09-2006, 12:16
EL PABLO DIABLO SPAIN NUMEROUNO CHILI DOG PUTA, QUE!
Game Report, Spain vs Greece, 70-47 GOLD MEDAL GAME
SAITAMA (FIBA World Championship) – Spain played their hearts out for injured hero Pau Gasol and captured their first world title with a 70-47 mauling of Greece on Sunday.
Gasol, their superstar power forward who led the team in scoring and rebounding as they went undefeated in the build-up to the FIBA World Championship and the tournament itself, suffered a partial fracture of his fifth metatarsal in his left foot late in Friday’s semi-final win over Argentina and was ruled out of the contest against the Greeks.
The Spanish got inspirational efforts from Jorge Garbajosa, Juan Carlos Navarro, captain Carlos Jimenez, Felipe Reyes and Marc Gasol, Pau's 21-year-old brother, and rolled to victory.
Pau Gasol, because he had been so dominant in the tournament before the injury, was honoured as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after the Spanish team was presented with its gold medals.
“This is fantastic,” said Spain coach Pepu Hernandez.
“We’ve come out with so much emotion on the court and we are world champions.”
Spain's victory in their first final means they finished the summer unbeaten and qualified for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The defeat ends a terrific run for Greece, who went unbeaten in the very difficult Group C in Hamamatsu.
They also beat the United States 101-95 in their semi-final.
“We had a tough game against the USA so we came into this game with a lot of nerves,” said Greece’s legendary coach Panagiotis Yannakis.
“It's unbelievable to see two European teams in the final. We saw that the level of basketball in Europe is very high.”
Players wore T-shirts which read “Pau tambien juega” (Pau is also playing) as they entered the court before the game.
Felipe Reyes started in Pau Gasol’s place and had 10 points – including six of the team’s first 10 – while coach Pepu Hernandez went to Marc Gasol early and he rewarded him with seven rebounds, two points and excellent defense to neutralise the impact of Greek center Sofoklis Schortsianitis.
Spain's swarming defense in the lane caused problems for the Greeks, who felt pressure on most of their shots. Even when Yannakis' men passed the ball to the perimeter, it seemed Spanish hands were always in their faces.
Feyes’ jump shot put Spain in front at 10-9 and Jose Manuel Calderon and Navarro followed with three-pointers as Herndez’s team built a lead they would never lose.
By the end of the opening quarter, Spain led 18-12, and they delivered a knockout punch at the start of the second.
Navarro started things off with a jumper inside the arc, and Garbajosa buried back-to-back three-pointers before Navarro struck again with a basket to take the lead to 28-12.
Greece’s players and their fans were shell-shocked.
They had trailed Qatar by the same deficit in their first game of Group C and come back to win easily, but Spain are a far better side and they pressed home the advantage.
When Berni Rodriguez nailed a three-pointer – Spain’s sixth of the first half – with just three seconds remaining in the second quarter, Pau Gasol jumped up from his seat on the bench and hopped on one foot to celebrate as they took a 43-23 lead to the changing rooms.
Greece closed to 43-27 on Dimitris Diamantidis’ jumper less than two minutes into the third quarter, but Spain quickly restored their lead and cruised to victory.
Jose Luis Saez, the president of the Spanish federation, said: “This is the greatest basketball lesson I have ever seen.
“It’s a lesson of pride, rage and team effort.
“Everybody thought that without Gasol, we had no chance but Spain has proved it has a team, and Pau Gasol was today the best player on the court.
“I just want the Spanish people to enjoy this moment.”
Garbajosa and Navarro led the scoring parade with 20 points apiece with the former a scintillating six of 11 from the arc and Navarro four of nine.
Jimenez was immense on the boards and defense. He had 11 rebounds and two steals to go with his four points and was a warrior in the paint against Greece’s big men.
Mihalis Kakiouzis had 17 points to pace Greece and Theo Papaloukas added 10.
By Jeff Taylor, FIBA
http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/06_wcm/news/lateNews/FE_news_lateNews_arti.asp?newsID=16275
1.Spain, 2.Greece, 3. USA, 4.Argentina, 5.France, 6.Turkey, 7.Lithuania, 8.Germany, 9.Angola, Australia, China, Italy, New Zealand, Nigeria, Serbia & Montenegro, Slovenia, 17.Brazil, Japan, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, 21.Panama Qatar, Senegal, Venezuela.
Final placings with some spots being in Alphabetacal order.
Baldwin Bitter As Tall Blacks Climb Rankings
Outgoing New Zealand men's basketball coach Tab Baldwin has fired a salvo at Government funding agency SPARC after the Tall Blacks climbed to 12th in the latest world rankings.
Despite their disappointing showing at the just-finished world championship in Japan, New Zealand's top-16 finish saw them climb four spots to hover just outside the top 10 among 213 member nations.
The Tall Blacks entered the tournament ranked 16th in the world, but have moved past Russia, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Canada.
"The rankings reflect the continued performance of the Tall Blacks at the elite international level, and with wins over Japan and Panama, we have moved closer to the top 10," said Baldwin, who announced his intention to step down after his side were eliminated by Olympic champions Argentina.
"However, it does get tougher to continue moving up unless we can achieve better results."
Baldwin took the chance to criticise SPARC's recent decision to direct about 75 percent of its high performance budget to athletics, cycling, rowing, sailing, swimming and triathlon.
Cricket, netball and rugby will also be eligible for financial support while sports such as basketball will fight it out with all others for about a quarter of the funds.
"It brings into scrutiny the decision of SPARC to not place us among the elite sports in New Zealand when, in fact, we are now firmly placed among an elite sport's elite teams," Baldwin said.
"What other New Zealand team competing in a truly elite world sport ranks as high?"
Despite falling to Greece in the world championship semifinals,the United States remain atop the rankings, followed by Argentina, while newly crowned champions Spain leap two spots to third.
Australia slipped a notch to 10th after following New Zealand out at the top-16 stage.
Latest world rankings:
United States 1, Argentina 2, Spain 3, Serbia and Montenegro 4, Lithuania 5, Greece 6, Italy 7, France 8, Germany 9, Australia 10, China 11, New Zealand 12, Puerto Rico 13, Angola 14, Canada 15, Turkey 16, Brazil 17, Russia 18, Croatia 19, Slovenia 20
http://xtramsn.co.nz/sport/0,,12021-6259419,00.html
I find and found it surprising that New Zealand would climb up the rankings from 16th to 12th after doing so poorly, in saying that Yugoslavia/Serbia & Montenegro/Serbia... went from Champs to chumps, but in saying that i didn't think they were the best team in Indiana 4 years ago, both Argentina and Germany were better, New Zealand was magnificant only some dodgy eyegouging against Sean Marks(New Zealand's Star NBA Player(Shut up he won an NBA Finals Ring!))
Pero Cameron made the World All-Star team, i think it was Vlad Divac, Dirk Nowitzki, Manuel Ginobali and someone...
Anyways, Phil Jones New Zealands leading scorer at the last World Champs was so out of form it wasn't funny, Dillon Boucher still doesn't shoot just steals the ball, Paul Henare only passes the ball, Mark 'Sparky' Dickel when not suspended for failing a drug test(Marijuana) was punished by New Zealand Basketball and then again by FIBA, missed the first 3 games of which we lost all 3 including to Angola(African Champs but still) he didn't feel like shooting either.
Sean Marks had retired, Winatana is a Mormon and doesn't play on Sundays...
Enough about the Tall Blacks...
America had C Team last Champs, most players were afraid of Terrorism or didn't care...
Yugoslavia won it then ceased to exist as a nation.
Back on '06
China Imploded
Lebannon did well, as did France and especially Greece, that was a real surprise, the win against the USA in the Semi's was awesome, i really enjoyed that game, America had a lead and the greeks chipped away at it then came through at the end to win.
US tore Argentina up in the 3rd/4th place game.
The Final was a lot closer than the score suggests, only 3-pointers was the difference wit hSpain making theirs and the Greeks failing from outside the circle.
Greece 5/21
Spain 12/30
Thats 21 extra points, would have made the game a lot closer.
2nd Quarter blow out seals game.
http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/06_wcm/scheResu/fe_scheStat_boxScor.asp?roundID=5154&groupName=80&gameName=A¤tPageToDisplay=4&langLC=en&statisticsRoundID=ALL&statisticsSection=PTS&eventID=3507&lid_7739_openNodeIDs=
Game Report, Spain vs Greece, 70-47 GOLD MEDAL GAME
SAITAMA (FIBA World Championship) – Spain played their hearts out for injured hero Pau Gasol and captured their first world title with a 70-47 mauling of Greece on Sunday.
Gasol, their superstar power forward who led the team in scoring and rebounding as they went undefeated in the build-up to the FIBA World Championship and the tournament itself, suffered a partial fracture of his fifth metatarsal in his left foot late in Friday’s semi-final win over Argentina and was ruled out of the contest against the Greeks.
The Spanish got inspirational efforts from Jorge Garbajosa, Juan Carlos Navarro, captain Carlos Jimenez, Felipe Reyes and Marc Gasol, Pau's 21-year-old brother, and rolled to victory.
Pau Gasol, because he had been so dominant in the tournament before the injury, was honoured as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after the Spanish team was presented with its gold medals.
“This is fantastic,” said Spain coach Pepu Hernandez.
“We’ve come out with so much emotion on the court and we are world champions.”
Spain's victory in their first final means they finished the summer unbeaten and qualified for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The defeat ends a terrific run for Greece, who went unbeaten in the very difficult Group C in Hamamatsu.
They also beat the United States 101-95 in their semi-final.
“We had a tough game against the USA so we came into this game with a lot of nerves,” said Greece’s legendary coach Panagiotis Yannakis.
“It's unbelievable to see two European teams in the final. We saw that the level of basketball in Europe is very high.”
Players wore T-shirts which read “Pau tambien juega” (Pau is also playing) as they entered the court before the game.
Felipe Reyes started in Pau Gasol’s place and had 10 points – including six of the team’s first 10 – while coach Pepu Hernandez went to Marc Gasol early and he rewarded him with seven rebounds, two points and excellent defense to neutralise the impact of Greek center Sofoklis Schortsianitis.
Spain's swarming defense in the lane caused problems for the Greeks, who felt pressure on most of their shots. Even when Yannakis' men passed the ball to the perimeter, it seemed Spanish hands were always in their faces.
Feyes’ jump shot put Spain in front at 10-9 and Jose Manuel Calderon and Navarro followed with three-pointers as Herndez’s team built a lead they would never lose.
By the end of the opening quarter, Spain led 18-12, and they delivered a knockout punch at the start of the second.
Navarro started things off with a jumper inside the arc, and Garbajosa buried back-to-back three-pointers before Navarro struck again with a basket to take the lead to 28-12.
Greece’s players and their fans were shell-shocked.
They had trailed Qatar by the same deficit in their first game of Group C and come back to win easily, but Spain are a far better side and they pressed home the advantage.
When Berni Rodriguez nailed a three-pointer – Spain’s sixth of the first half – with just three seconds remaining in the second quarter, Pau Gasol jumped up from his seat on the bench and hopped on one foot to celebrate as they took a 43-23 lead to the changing rooms.
Greece closed to 43-27 on Dimitris Diamantidis’ jumper less than two minutes into the third quarter, but Spain quickly restored their lead and cruised to victory.
Jose Luis Saez, the president of the Spanish federation, said: “This is the greatest basketball lesson I have ever seen.
“It’s a lesson of pride, rage and team effort.
“Everybody thought that without Gasol, we had no chance but Spain has proved it has a team, and Pau Gasol was today the best player on the court.
“I just want the Spanish people to enjoy this moment.”
Garbajosa and Navarro led the scoring parade with 20 points apiece with the former a scintillating six of 11 from the arc and Navarro four of nine.
Jimenez was immense on the boards and defense. He had 11 rebounds and two steals to go with his four points and was a warrior in the paint against Greece’s big men.
Mihalis Kakiouzis had 17 points to pace Greece and Theo Papaloukas added 10.
By Jeff Taylor, FIBA
http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/06_wcm/news/lateNews/FE_news_lateNews_arti.asp?newsID=16275
1.Spain, 2.Greece, 3. USA, 4.Argentina, 5.France, 6.Turkey, 7.Lithuania, 8.Germany, 9.Angola, Australia, China, Italy, New Zealand, Nigeria, Serbia & Montenegro, Slovenia, 17.Brazil, Japan, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, 21.Panama Qatar, Senegal, Venezuela.
Final placings with some spots being in Alphabetacal order.
Baldwin Bitter As Tall Blacks Climb Rankings
Outgoing New Zealand men's basketball coach Tab Baldwin has fired a salvo at Government funding agency SPARC after the Tall Blacks climbed to 12th in the latest world rankings.
Despite their disappointing showing at the just-finished world championship in Japan, New Zealand's top-16 finish saw them climb four spots to hover just outside the top 10 among 213 member nations.
The Tall Blacks entered the tournament ranked 16th in the world, but have moved past Russia, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Canada.
"The rankings reflect the continued performance of the Tall Blacks at the elite international level, and with wins over Japan and Panama, we have moved closer to the top 10," said Baldwin, who announced his intention to step down after his side were eliminated by Olympic champions Argentina.
"However, it does get tougher to continue moving up unless we can achieve better results."
Baldwin took the chance to criticise SPARC's recent decision to direct about 75 percent of its high performance budget to athletics, cycling, rowing, sailing, swimming and triathlon.
Cricket, netball and rugby will also be eligible for financial support while sports such as basketball will fight it out with all others for about a quarter of the funds.
"It brings into scrutiny the decision of SPARC to not place us among the elite sports in New Zealand when, in fact, we are now firmly placed among an elite sport's elite teams," Baldwin said.
"What other New Zealand team competing in a truly elite world sport ranks as high?"
Despite falling to Greece in the world championship semifinals,the United States remain atop the rankings, followed by Argentina, while newly crowned champions Spain leap two spots to third.
Australia slipped a notch to 10th after following New Zealand out at the top-16 stage.
Latest world rankings:
United States 1, Argentina 2, Spain 3, Serbia and Montenegro 4, Lithuania 5, Greece 6, Italy 7, France 8, Germany 9, Australia 10, China 11, New Zealand 12, Puerto Rico 13, Angola 14, Canada 15, Turkey 16, Brazil 17, Russia 18, Croatia 19, Slovenia 20
http://xtramsn.co.nz/sport/0,,12021-6259419,00.html
I find and found it surprising that New Zealand would climb up the rankings from 16th to 12th after doing so poorly, in saying that Yugoslavia/Serbia & Montenegro/Serbia... went from Champs to chumps, but in saying that i didn't think they were the best team in Indiana 4 years ago, both Argentina and Germany were better, New Zealand was magnificant only some dodgy eyegouging against Sean Marks(New Zealand's Star NBA Player(Shut up he won an NBA Finals Ring!))
Pero Cameron made the World All-Star team, i think it was Vlad Divac, Dirk Nowitzki, Manuel Ginobali and someone...
Anyways, Phil Jones New Zealands leading scorer at the last World Champs was so out of form it wasn't funny, Dillon Boucher still doesn't shoot just steals the ball, Paul Henare only passes the ball, Mark 'Sparky' Dickel when not suspended for failing a drug test(Marijuana) was punished by New Zealand Basketball and then again by FIBA, missed the first 3 games of which we lost all 3 including to Angola(African Champs but still) he didn't feel like shooting either.
Sean Marks had retired, Winatana is a Mormon and doesn't play on Sundays...
Enough about the Tall Blacks...
America had C Team last Champs, most players were afraid of Terrorism or didn't care...
Yugoslavia won it then ceased to exist as a nation.
Back on '06
China Imploded
Lebannon did well, as did France and especially Greece, that was a real surprise, the win against the USA in the Semi's was awesome, i really enjoyed that game, America had a lead and the greeks chipped away at it then came through at the end to win.
US tore Argentina up in the 3rd/4th place game.
The Final was a lot closer than the score suggests, only 3-pointers was the difference wit hSpain making theirs and the Greeks failing from outside the circle.
Greece 5/21
Spain 12/30
Thats 21 extra points, would have made the game a lot closer.
2nd Quarter blow out seals game.
http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/06_wcm/scheResu/fe_scheStat_boxScor.asp?roundID=5154&groupName=80&gameName=A¤tPageToDisplay=4&langLC=en&statisticsRoundID=ALL&statisticsSection=PTS&eventID=3507&lid_7739_openNodeIDs=