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BallinEurope’s Official Fearless Predictions™: 2012 Olympic Basketball Group A

July 29, 2012

Yeah, these guys will probably start 5-0...

Okay, with just a few hours before men’s basketball tips off at the 2012 Olympics, BallinEurope’s got just enough time for some Official Fearless Predictions™. If done properly, these things are never as easy as they look. Right, starting with Group A, then, we’ve got:

1. USA (5-0)

also

5. Nigeria (1-4)
6. Tunisia (0-5)
.

BiE’s taking Team USA to run the table for a few reasons … foremost is, that under Coach K, this team is undefeated in international pool and friendly play. On a day-to-day basis, Krzyzewski successfully motivates his Americans to do the extras that make up for what are, despite a wealth of talent, the team’s shortcomings: making the extra pass, protecting the offensive glass, finding the weaknesses in a European zone defense.

Compelling reason #2: A fairly reasonable schedule. Team USA tips it off today against what BiE considers to be an overrated France side, then gets games against the two African squads. Game four looks like a classic trap game scenario, with a 3-0 and cruising Yankee side meeting the talented and fearless Lithuanian side in a near must-win game; Lietuva starts with a gamut of Argentina-Nigeria-France, which reasonably puts them at 2-1 or 1-2, either way gunning hard against Team USA for favorable seeding. Despite an advantage in size (and maybe even experience, with Saras running things), however, the US should take this game – as long as they don’t go to sleep on the Lithuanians and particularly scary-good international Jonas Valanciunas.

The final game pits Team USA against Argentina, who demonstrated that they can give the US a game but is running with quite the thin roster: Possibly a key factor that tips the advantage to Team USA enough for at least another six-point win.

And oh, they’ve got Lebron James. In short, BiE goes with the odds on the NBAers.

As for Teams Nigeria and Tunisia … in this 20th anniversary year of Dream Team et al, it really feels strange to be missing Angola: Stretching back to 1990, Team Angola had represented Africa in nine of 10 FIBA Worlds and Olympic Games; they’d also taken 10 of the previous 11 African Championships before suffering the upset to Tunisia in the 2011 finals.

In any case, does anyone expect good results from the African sides in ’12?

Now here’s where it gets difficult; you’ve got to believe at least one “upset” will go down among the group-within-a-group of Argentina, France and Lithuania. All are quality sides with strong nuclei that have earned a few caps with one another: Argentina has Ginobili/Scola/Delfino as a core with long-timers Andres Nocioni and Pablo Prigioni aboard; France returns most of its 2010 FIBA Worlds/2011 Eurobasket group in Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum, Nando de Colo, Boris Diaw, Mickael Gelabale, Florent Pietrus and Ali Traore (but not, of course, Joakim Noah); and while Team Lithuania may appear a bit patchwork, its entire roster excepting Antanas Kavaliauskas has played internationally before.

...but what about these guys?

Argentina would appear to be the favorites for the no. 2 spot simply based on the nice game played against Team USA … but then there’s the blowout loss to Spain* of two days prior. France may overcome the loss of Noah (though BiE doubts it), yet nevertheless opens with a run of USA-Argentina-Lithuania, one of the tournament’s tougher draws. And Lithuania, the X factor…

Right, so here it is. BiE gazes into the Official BallinEurope crystal ball to go with Argentina over Lithuania today; France over Argentina in a small-ball struggle in game two; and Lithuania surprising France in game three, making the Fearlessly Predicted marks as the following.

Argentina, 3-2
France, 3-2
Lithuania, 3-2

And if you think BiE’ll hedge on the tiebreakers, forget it. These Predictions may be Fearless, but they ain’t *that* Fearless.

Jul 29, 2012ballineurope
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This post was published on July 29, 2012
Seven (or eight) games on which 2012 Olympic basketball will turnBallinEurope’s Official Fearless Predictions™: 2012 Olympic Basketball Group B
Comments: 42
  1. Eurohoops
    12 years ago

    We don’t want to be smartasses but Coach K’s Team USA was defeated by Greece in the 2006 World Championship’s semifinal (Let the flame wars begin)

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  2. Jack
    12 years ago

    Olympics are becoming a joke for basketball. The USA is almost the only country in the world that is even airing the basketball games on TV.

    It’s astonishing how insane NBA American fans are with how they really believe the “whole world watches Olympic basketball” and it is “the most prestigious event”.

    At the point Olympics basketball is about 1/10 as relevant as the World Basket Cup is to every country in the world other than the USA.

    That thing 2 years ago was on TV all over the world and this Olympics basketball is hardly being aired anywhere outside USA.

    No wonder Stern and Cuban want to abandon the Olympics basketball. No one except stupid racist xenophobic Americans gives a damn about it.

    How can they, the games don’t even get shown on freaking TV.

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    • OregonUte
      12 years ago

      I’m an American in Argentina. Olympic basketball is on TV constantly here.

      ReplyCancel
  3. Phileus
    12 years ago

    France looks pretty bad so far. They can’t play a lick of defense and their offense looks like a stalled car. Team USA shot atrociously in the first quarter and yet just one and a half quarters later, the game looked pretty much over.

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  4. Biscayne
    12 years ago

    Olympic Basketball is generally a joke because of the regional tournaments. Some of the teams that qualify from Asia and Africa would be beaten by almost any decent Europe country.
    Italy,Germany,Greece,Turkey,Lithuania,Crotia,Slovenia,Spain,France,Russia,FYROM,Brasil,Argentina and America would make great competition to watch. I mean who would want to see Nigeria or Tunisia against Argentina when you know the result already.

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    • Phileus
      12 years ago

      Wow would you set up Olympic qualifying, then? How about for the FIBA Basketball World Cup?

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  5. Biscayne
    12 years ago

    Well the FIBA World Cup is the closest thing that I am talking about.

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    • Phileus
      12 years ago

      The FIBA World Cup has two slots go to Oceania (seriously, wtf?), three slots go to Africa, and three slots go to Asia, meaning a larger percentage of the overall tournament berths (33%) automatically go to teams from the weakest basketball regions than in the Olympics (25%). The wildcard selection is also puzzling and inferior to the Olympic qualifying tournament in terms of sending the best actual teams to the tournament.

      I agree that the tournament selection is flawed, but basically it just seems like you want to have more European teams easily qualify for the tournament 😛 I’m guessing you like Stern’s idea to de-emphasize the Olympics, then?

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  6. Biscayne
    12 years ago

    Honestly I dont care. At least the group stages. There is so much power difference that it is not even fun to watch most of the time.

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  7. LG
    12 years ago

    It would not be hard to change the qualifying process to be more fair. Instead of giving out automatic bids based on region, the automatic bids would be based only on the world championships. Say the top 4 teams in the world championships get an automatic bid, then you have 24 teams invited to the qualifying championship with 8 spots up for grabs. You would still have to have bids for the qualifying tournament based on region, but at least for the actual olympics there would be more opportunities for weaker teams in the stronger continents. I believe Serbia and Slovenia are among the 12 best countries in the world, and i think it’s a shame they didn’t even get a chance to compete in the qualifying tournament. Had they been playing in a different region I think at least one, if not both could have made it to they olympics.

    Why should you be penalized based on your region? I just read that one of the US women’s gymnasts won’t get to compete in the all around finals because you are only allowed to have 2 girls from 1 country and she was beaten out by 2 girls on her own team. How does that make sense? So she could be the third best gymnast in the world but she doesn’t get to win the bronze medal because the first 2 are from the same country? In the same way if there are many great basketball teams from one continent they should not be punished (nor others rewarded for coming from a weaker continent.)

    The olympics should be only about the best players, and not about everyone getting to participate.

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    • Biscayne
      12 years ago

      Exactly. Many good teams are out of this tournament just because they are at a strronger continent. It is not only Serbia and Slovenia. Even Germany, Crotia,Turkey and Italy would have qualified if they were in a weaker region.
      The fact that only the champion of FIBA World cup gets a direct ticket to the Olympics is ridiculous. 2nd,3rd and 4th placed countries should be awarded too. It is the WORLD CUP we are talking about. If you are one of the top 4 countries in WORLD, there is pretty good chance that you still be one in 2 years and that should be awarded.

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    • Phileus
      12 years ago

      Yes, I think what you’re saying is fair. It’s probably just that the IOC doesn’t agree with this statement: “The olympics should be only about the best players, and not about everyone getting to participate.”

      Automatic regional bids are never going to go away, but I do think in FIBA the numbers of automatic bids should be reduced in favor of an OQT-style play-in.

      I think it would also be interesting to see countries put out more than one team, but this is totally impossible of course… 🙂

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  8. LG
    12 years ago

    I’m sure you’re right, the IOC doesn’t agree with my statement. That’s just a personal opinion. I’m not even saying that some of the teams from weaker continents (Nigeria, Tunisia China, Australia, and host GB) wouldn’t have made it to the olympics anyway. If there was a bigger qualifying tournament with more spots at stake we may have ended up with much the same teams. I just don’t like it that no matter we there cannot be more than 5 teams from europe (not counting host team,) or 3 teams from africa, etc. What if one continent has an unexpected number of really good teams? At least give them a chance to play in a qualifying tournament. They could also make the competition bigger, by exanding the field to 16 teams at least then i wouldn’t feel like there are legitimate quarterfinal teams that didn’t get a chance.

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    • Phileus
      12 years ago

      Maybe reducing the number of regional slots for the WC, then using the regional tournament rankings (below #1) to choose teams for a play-in like the OQT would be the most “balanced” way of doing it, as well as having automatic slots for #1-3 of the Olympics or something?

      I do understand your frustration; nobody really wants to see Tunisia play over, say, Serbia, Slovenia, Greece, Croatia, etc. On the other hand, I don’t think the sport would grow by making it too hard for teams from weaker regions to participate, which is probably the main concern.

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  9. Biscayne
    12 years ago

    Teams from weaker regions should be able to participate if they truly deserve it.

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    • Gabe
      12 years ago

      Yeah Nigeria which were the bronze medal winners in the African Championship advanced out of the qualifying tournament while the 4th & 6th place teams of Eurobasket (FYR of Macedonia & Greece) were not able to.

      Nigeria also just beat the African Championship gold medal winner, Tunisia. The Nigerian team for the Olympic qualifier and now the Olympics is almost entirely different and a lot better than the 2011 team. Diogu, Dagunduro and the Aminu brothers were not in Madagascar.

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  10. Miguel
    12 years ago

    France looks pretty bad so far. They can’t play a lick of defense and their offense looks like a stalled car. Team USA shot atrociously in the first quarter and yet just one and a half quarters later, the game looked pretty much over.

    WTF? You act surprised? France has always been a joke. It’s one of the worst European teams.

    Hell they barely even beat Greece’s C team last year.

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    • Gabe
      12 years ago

      One of the worst European teams? lol That’s why they won silver in Eurobasket!!!

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  11. Miguel
    12 years ago

    The FIBA World Cup has two slots go to Oceania (seriously, wtf?), three slots go to Africa, and three slots go to Asia, meaning a larger percentage of the overall tournament berths (33%) automatically go to teams from the weakest basketball regions than in the Olympics (25%). The wildcard selection is also puzzling and inferior to the Olympic qualifying tournament in terms of sending the best actual teams to the tournament.

    I agree that the tournament selection is flawed, but basically it just seems like you want to have more European teams easily qualify for the tournament 😛 I’m guessing you like Stern’s idea to de-emphasize the Olympics, then?
    Reply

    Just stop. The Olympics are a joke. No Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Turkey, etc.

    The Olympics is pretty much a scrub tournament at this point.

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    • Gabe
      12 years ago

      You know all those teams had a chance to be in the Olympics but guess what? They lost and were eliminated. The Olympics is only for top teams (minus the host nation this year).

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  12. Miguel
    12 years ago

    Gabe says:
    July 31, 2012 at 12.23am

    Yeah Nigeria which were the bronze medal winners in the African Championship advanced out of the qualifying tournament while the 4th & 6th place teams of Eurobasket (FYR of Macedonia & Greece) were not able to.

    Nigeria also just beat the African Championship gold medal winner, Tunisia. The Nigerian team for the Olympic qualifier and now the Olympics is almost entirely different and a lot better than the 2011 team. Diogu, Dagunduro and the Aminu brothers were not in Madagascar.

    OMFG you are an IDIIOT

    Nigeria only beat Greece because the refs rigged the game, and even then, Nigeria would lose 99 times out of 100 to Greece.

    Good god man get serious.

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    • Gabe
      12 years ago

      Good god man, Greece got eliminated by Nigeria. Sorry!

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  13. Phileus
    12 years ago

    Hehehe, I knew the conversation was getting too reasonable for typical BiE threads. It was too good to be true 😉

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  14. John
    12 years ago

    That Gabe person is one very disturbed and sick individual.

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  15. mike
    12 years ago

    Yeah Gabe, it was rigged. Can’t you get it? FIBA is in on it with Colangelo, George W. Bush, British intelligence, and of course, the FIBA refs. I am fully aware of this because I have a mole working as a double agent. This is a plot against Greece, but specifically billy spanoulis, who every one knows is the world’s best point guard.

    Colangelo knows that if billy plays in the Olympics, it would ruin all his plans for NBA world domination. BTW anybody who disagrees with this is a @#$%^ idiot and &^%$#@ moron and probably takes drugs, crack to be more specific.

    That okay John? hehehe

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  16. Sergio
    12 years ago

    12 Greek League players beat 12 NBA all starts

    therefore Greek League is better than the NBA and Team USA is much worse than Greece.

    If what Gabe says is true in this site about Nigeria beating Greece, then the above is also TRUE.

    Gabe, you are one seriously stupid douche bag.

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  17. mike
    12 years ago

    Sergio, let’s assume you’re right about your logical conclusions in 2006 with the Greece over US victory(that’s when all the planets aligned properly). The point is though that since 2006, the US has won 2 Gold medals, and about to win a 3rd in London, and has been demolishing opponents including Greece in 2008. This proves US losses in international play are basically flukes or due to US negligence when they don’t scout the opposition or pick the right stars to join the NT.

    Greece meanwhile, hasn’t done squat since 2006, and has sunk to qualifying for the Olympics, and losing to Nigeria. Get it?!

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  18. Paul
    12 years ago

    mike says:
    August 1, 2012 at 5.53am

    Sergio, let’s assume you’re right about your logical conclusions in 2006 with the Greece over US victory(that’s when all the planets aligned properly). The point is though that since 2006, the US has won 2 Gold medals, and about to win a 3rd in London, and has been demolishing opponents including Greece in 2008. This proves US losses in international play are basically flukes or due to US negligence when they don’t scout the opposition or pick the right stars to join the NT.

    Greece meanwhile, hasn’t done squat since 2006, and has sunk to qualifying for the Olympics, and losing to Nigeria. Get it?!

    I am an American NBA fan that gets that you are a stupid loser. If you really think Nigeria could win more than 1 game out of 100 against Greece with fair reffing, then you are truly as crazy and nuts as Gabe is.

    Personally, I find both of your comments in this site to be a huge black eye against all Americans, all NBA fans, and all basketball fans everywhere. The two of you have all by yourselves made fans of the game all over the world hate all American NBA fans.

    You have taken trolling to a level that is truly outrageous.

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    • Gabe
      12 years ago

      The Niger River is the third biggest river in Africa and the biggest in Western Africa. Some of the countries it cuts across have taken their name from this river. The Republic of Niger and the most populous African country…The Federal Republic of Nigeria!

      NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA! NIGERIA!

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  19. Viper Relics
    12 years ago

    Your thoughts about playing against Spain? We’re obviously excited about the game. Playing against Spain, a championship-level team, World Champs in 2006, silver medalist in Beijing … They’re just one of the top teams. It gives us the opportunity before the Olympics to play the toughest game that we could play which should help us in our preparation.

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  20. mike
    12 years ago

    Hey, all I’m saying is if Greece made it’s free throws they would have won. The fact is they didn’t. So who’s fault is that? Is it still the refs?

    Use your head, and stop being emotional. It’s just basketball,man.

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  21. Oz
    12 years ago

    3 European teams won on the same day. If Europeans were as crazy and retarded as the Americans here – they would cthings like, “this proves that European basketball has reached above any other, and that Euroleague is the best”.

    Of course, no Europeans say anything like that, because they are nuts and retarded like the Americans here are.

    PS – Nigeria has looked like absolute CRAP so far playing with 50-50 refs. Hilarious.

    Even more pathetic is after they lost to Lithuania, playing with 50-50 refs, Nigeria’s coach threw a big fit and told the media the refs were against his team and wanted Lithuania to win.

    Yeah, not one complaint here from the American ASSHOLES about this.

    For weeks the same American ASSHOLES have bitched about anyone that pointed out Greece got two horrible calls against them in the last 3 seconds of their game against Nigeria and caused them to lose……….

    Endless bitching from the American fascists here about how dare anyone point that out and Greece needed to shut the fuck up.

    Well, Nigeria gets reffed 50-50 (instead of being helped) and their coach tells the media his team lost because the refs wanted Lithuania to win.

    And NOT A SINGLE FUCKING WORD from the American scumbags here about it.

    On more thing, it’s a disgrace watching crap like Great Britain, Nigeria, China, and Tunisia at the “premiere and most prestigious basketball tournament”.

    What a freaking joke. The level of the Olympics is just pathetic. Anyone that says this crap is as good or better than FIBA World Cup or EuroBasket needs to have a lobotomy.

    I REALLY hope they do can Olympic basketball, because it REALLY sucks.

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  22. mike
    12 years ago

    Well, Oz, once again, MAKE YOUR FREE THROWS, and the refs don’t matter! Can you get that through your thick skull? Look, maybe Greece got some bad calls, but guess what, FIBA refs are notoriously unreliable and inconsistent. The US team knows this, and always try not to leave it in the hands of these unreliable officials.

    The point really is why did Greece allow itself to be a point down to the Nigerians, or if you think they were down because of this cheating, why didn’t Greece AGAIN make it’s damn free throws or play better defense? Huh?

    Is that really hard to understand?

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  23. Aussie NBA Fan
    12 years ago

    Message to: Americans mike, Gabe, and Phileus

    From Australia:

    Greece didn’t get just one bad call. They 4-5 HORRIBLE calls called against them in the last 2-3 minutes of the game. 2 in the last 3 seconds. Why were they down 1 with 3 seconds to go?

    Because Dagunduro did a clear offensive foul and instead of the refs calling him for it, they sent him to the free throw line. Otherwise, Greece should have been leading by 3 points with 3 seconds left.

    You sound like petulant little spoiled brats the way you keep trash talking and ridiculing people over that Greece vs. Nigeria game. I am Australian and I was watching that game online and I was absolutely stunned at how the refs stole that game for the Nigerian team.

    It was one of the most clearly rigged games I’ve seen in my life. It was like watching the 2002 NBA WCFs of Lakers against Kings all over again. I really think you need to shut up and quit bashing people that complain about that game.

    Because the refs rigged it without question. Hell, there was an 8 second violation by Nigeria at the end of the game and the refs didn’t even call it. Nigeria got the ball over the line one on possession towards the very end of the game at the 12 second mark. 12 seconds on the shot clock and the refs didn’t even call the 8 second violation. This cannot happen unless there is a purposely done game rigging by the refs.

    I really wonder what the hell is wrong with people like you three. You come here telling everyone that you are basketball fans, yet you are absolutely giddy, tickled, thrilled, and happy when one of the elite teams of world basketball gets blatantly stolen of the Olympics by the refs.

    So instead we get to see one more scrub team like Nigeria competing. Between the hosts GB, China, Tunisia, and Nigeria we have 4 awful scrub teams to watch. Then we have my Aussie team, which isn’t a scrub team, but still is definitely below the European teams like Greece in quality.

    I am sorry but I agree with the Euros here about you two. You are definitely NOT basketball fans. You are trolls. Because you obviously do NOT care about basketball at all. You are just coming here to attack and criticize Europeans on a daily basis.

    I don’t know what your malfunction is, but you definitely act like ugly Americans on a daily basis here. Any REAL and actual basketball fan would be furious that FIBA refs are intentionally knocking good teams out of the Olympics and making the already extremely watered down tournament even weaker. To the point even of being practically unwatchable in the early stage.

    USA versus Nigeria, Lithuania versus Nigeria, GREAT! What wonderful games to watch such a terrible team like Nigeria. Can’t imagine why any Euro nuts as you call them would have rather seen Greece instead.

    Since naturally anyone thinking that is both Euro and nuts according to freaks like you. Also I really find it hypocritical that yanks are saying no one should complain about the refs to the Greeks that visit here.

    Yanks are STILL complaining about the 1972 Olympic final, and that was a case where the refs didn’t actually help the Soviets, according to EVERYONE from outside the USA. Yanks are STILL bitching about that game and claiming the refs stole it from them, even though after numerous independent reviews FIBA has always claimed the refs did nothing to help the Soviets, and in fact actually helped the US.

    Compare that to this Greece – Nigeria game that you bloody ugly Americans keep telling Greeks to shut up about it. FIBA reviewed the game and almost immediately sent a letter of apology to Greece’s federation and admitted the refs blew the game with bad calls at the end.

    So, for a couple weeks some Greeks were naturally and understandably upset over the refs taking away their Olympics place, and you are here cussing them, telling them off, calling them crazy, making fun of them, etc. But you Americans are still going on about a game that happened 40 years ago and where no one from outside the USA has ever believed the refs actually blew the game.

    Your own precious Coach K bitched about the 1972 Olympic final to the media just 2 years ago, and here you are openly trashing the Greek coach in this website for being mad that the refs screwed his team over.

    You know what you are? I will tell you what you are. You are,

    HYPOCRITES

    HUGE HYPOCRITES

    SICKENINGLY HUGE HYPOCRITES

    Here we are even today with you calling Euro people nuts and telling them off over this and having the guts to call them trolls. I just want to vomit every time I have to read this idiocy from you fools. PLEASE just stop it.

    You are either 10 years old, racist (as some others say), or you are psychos. I don’t know which, but just stop it. I assure you that many people coming to read this site are incredibly sick of you. You are low-life trash and you are destroying the good will of international basketball and making basketball fans from all over the world hate every yank and every NBA fan.

    You really are three trashy individuals. I am so sick of reading your filth in this site that I am now actually hoping Team USA loses. I normally root for them, but now I think it would only be justice for them to lose, because it is clear that there is something very wrong with a lot of the NBA fans from the USA.

    I could not even use the word arrogant or ignorant, because you three are about 1000 times beyond that. Your trashy comments in this site have made enough bad karma against Team USA to last for a decade.

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  24. DallasTexasSaqartvelo
    12 years ago

    @ Aussi NBA Fan….. (and all the other individuals on this forum who complain about poor officiating for that matter)

    “Compare that to this Greece – Nigeria game that you bloody ugly Americans keep telling Greeks to shut up about it. FIBA reviewed the game and almost immediately sent a letter of apology to Greece’s federation and admitted the refs blew the game with bad calls at the end.”

    You should not make comments such as this, because oftentimes when people do, it is assumed that they are making up facts. In fact, I believe that until some sort of evidence is presented supporting this claim, the validity of Aussi NBA Fan’s last post rests on presumptions assumed fallacious.

    Other erroneous or circumstantial arguments include:

    “I am Australian and I was watching that game online and I was absolutely stunned at how the refs stole that game for the Nigerian team.”

    – Irreverent. A strong argument cannot be made using a personal anecdote.

    “Nigeria has looked like absolute CRAP so far playing with 50-50 refs. ”

    – This is an example of an ad hominem, in fact, it would not be a stretch to consider it an abusive ad hominem. This is not a valid argumentative strategy because, instead of attacking the claim “Nigeria legitimately defeated Greece in a basketball game” with any sort of substantial evidence, you are instead choosing to attack Nigeria in hopes that you are attacking the team’s credibility. This is a common strategy for people to use when they are frustrated because they are arguing a losing cause yet are still (unreasonably) emotionally invested.
    For more information on this fallacy, here is a link: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html

    And my last example:

    “You are either 10 years old, racist (as some others say), or you are psychos.”

    Let’s examine this argument a little more closely.

    Aussie NBA Fan is making the claim, ” (Gabe, Phileus and mike) are definitely NOT basketball fans.” (he has failed to define “basketball fans”, but we’ll save that for another time…..

    For his support of this claim, he presents only three possible options for these three BiE contributors’ identities, that Gabe, Phileus and Mike are:
    a)10 years old
    b) racist
    c) psychos

    and they are either a) b) or c) because they do not dogmatically adhere to the common Greek belief in a game fixing conspiracy in the Olympic qualifiers.

    Now, individuals who belong to option c) generally believe in, and certainly do not refute, conspiracy theories that are not backed up by proper evidence.

    Individuals that belong to option b) would probably indicate so at some point, somewhere in their previous posts.

    Individuals that belong to option a) would probably not be using the internet so much, and if they were, I think that, as an adult, you should not call them “ignorant”, because if they were to have made such a comment on a message board at this age, they would, in fact, be quite the opposite.

    Anyway, Team USA is going to run away with the gold regardless, and would likely have blown out Greece. Olympiacos is a 10-15 win team at best in the NBA, and their best player, Spanoulis, had this stat-line: 2.7 points and 0.9 assists in 8.8 minutes per game… and was released by SA the next year.

    These are profit-maximizing companies, and their interest is in increasing their revenue, which is done by winning. If Spanoulis helped a team win in the NBA, or even had the ability to, no coach would have let a grudge get in the way, because his owner probably has never heard of the Euroleague and certainly does not see it as a threat to his money-making ability. Winning = money, and Spanoulis couldn’t win in the NBA.

    This message board is hilarious and I can’t wait to see some of the comments on this, lol.

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  25. mike
    12 years ago

    Welcome DallasTexas, I mean who cares if it’s Nigeria, Greece, or Australia, right? They all get blown out by the US anyway. Spanoulis pissed in his pants in ’08 when the game was over by halftime.

    Greece didn’t medal in ’08, ’10, or anywhere else, that is why it was fighting for a spot in the qualifiers 2 weeks ago vs. Nigeria. Oh wait, I forgot, the refs stole it from them in 08, 10, in the Eurobasket, and everywhere they play. Maybe Greece should stop playing basketball if they are always getting cheated..

    ReplyCancel
  26. Phileus
    12 years ago

    You must be new here, Dallas! Welcome to our happy community. “Aussie” is our resident troll. He’s made those kinds of posts unrelentingly on this site for several years now (though he posts with different names/identities each time), and I’m ashamed to say it took me far too long before I realized he was not to be taken seriously or replied to at all. Gabe, meanwhile, has transitioned from trying to make reasoned arguments to happily jumping into the flame war. Have your fun as you will, though, but just don’t expect to ever make the troll change its trollish ways 😉

    ReplyCancel
  27. FIBA
    12 years ago

    BTW, Gabe is NOT an American. I work at the FIBA website watching the comments sections. Gabe is from Turkey and pretends to be an American.

    His little friends Mike and Phileus might want to know that, while they are being so easily manipulated by him.

    ReplyCancel
    • Gabe
      12 years ago

      gobble gobble

      ReplyCancel
  28. DallasTexasSaqartvelo
    12 years ago

    FIBA, are you the same person as Aussi NBA Fan?

    ReplyCancel
  29. DallasTexasSaqartvelo
    12 years ago

    And thank you Phileus, I am glad to be here. What a crazy situation to have!

    ReplyCancel
  30. Pissed Off NBA Fan
    12 years ago

    If was FIBA I would fire every ref that worked that qualification tournament.

    Them rigging the tournament so Nigeria made it was the single worst decision in the history of FIBA.

    Watching USA versus Nigeria and their roster full of guys that are somewhere in the 2000-3000 best player in Europe range was the most pathetic thing I have ever seen in sports in my entire life.

    USA average margin of victory against Greece = 7 points

    USA beat Nigeria by 83.

    Seriously, at this point in time, FIBA and its corrupt bull shit has become the biggest disgrace in the whole world of sports.

    We don’t fucking want to see shit teams like Nigeria in the Olympics. STOP RIGGING IT SO THEY MAKE IT IN.

    BURN IN HELL FIBA.

    I can’t even watch this crap the Olympics basketball competition is so fucking awful. This shit is rigoddamndiculous.

    ReplyCancel
Pingbacks: 5
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12 years ago 47 Comments FIBA, More2010 FIBA World Championship, 2012 Olympic Games, Ali Traoré, Andres Nocioni, Antanas Kavaliauskas, Boris Diaw, Carlos Delfino, EuroBasket 2011, fearless predictions, FIBA, Florent Pietrus, Joakim Noah, Jonas Valanciunas, Luis Scola, Manu Ginobili, Mickael Gelabale, Mike Krzyzewski, Nando de Colo, Nicolas Batum, Pablo Prigioni, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Team Angola, Team Argentina, Team France, Team Lithuania, Team Nigeria, Team Tunisia, Team USA, Tony Parker
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