Euro Basket 2011 was the 37th continental championship, organized by FIBA Europe. The host nation was Lithuania and this was the second European championship, hosted by the country. Euro Basket is considered to be the largest sporting event in the history of the Baltic states.
The number of the teams, which took part in the tournament, was 24 (8 more than the previous European Basketball Championship). The played games in Euro Basket were 90, which is again the highest number. The organization was at a top level; there were six host cities in Lithuania: Kaunas, Vilnius, Siauliai, Panevezys, Alytus and Klaipeda.
The teams have been drawn into four groups (six teams per group). Then the first three from each group passed through into another two groups. After this, there were quarter finals and so on. The pleasant surprise of the tournament was Macedonia, which country went to the semi-finals, but eventually finished in the fourth position. However, that was a great success for the Macedonian basketball.
Great performance, shown by the UK team, but not enough for qualifying for the second group stage. Great Britain won against Portugal and Poland, but the defeats of Turkey, Lithuania and the champions Spain left us in the fourth place of Group A.
The host nation – Lithuania finished at the fifth place in the final standings of the tournament. ‘The Second Religion’ recorded 8 victories and 3 defeats, but their loss 65-67 to Macedonia at the quarter finals costed their elimination from the battle for the first place.
But let’s talk about the winners – Spain. The European Champions were in a difficult group with teams like Turkey, Great Britain, Poland, Portugal and the host nation – Lithuania. The Spaniards showed a great performance and didn’t have problems with qualifying for the next round. Their only loss was surprisingly against Turkey (57-65).
In the next round Spain proved they’re pure class, beating Germany (77-68), Serbia (84-59) and France (96-69). After these three matches the question was if there is any team to stop them in their run to the title. In the quarter finals, Spain easily beat Slovenia 86-64, then won against Macedonia in the semi-finals. The final match was Spain against France. In the second group stage the Spaniards weren’t troubled by the Frenchmen, recording an easy victory. But now, the things were different. Eventually, Spain won 98-85 and got their second European Basketball Championship title.
In conclusion, we can say that it was a great tournament with a high number of points scored and tough battle between the teams. Every single team wanted the title, but there was only one winner – Spain. That was their second continental title. For The Most Valuable Player of the tournament was picked Barcelona’s player Juan Carlos Navarro. The most productive player was Frenchmen Tony Parker (22.1 points per game on average). Another prize for the Spaniards was ‘the most productive’ team – 85.2 points per game. So, what can I say – the best team won the tournament, just like it happens in the fairy tales.