Genjuro wrote:Mirotic12 wrote:Genjuro wrote:We're talking about top level here. The Eurobasket may very well enjoy a better average talent, but when it comes to winning gold you will eventually face tougher competition at the world stage, which is just obvious. That's why only the Soviet Unión, Yugoslavia/Serbia and Spain have ever managed to do it. Meanwhile, besides those countries, there's also Lithuania, Italy, Germany, Greece or France topping the Eurobasket.
I'm really sorry if your favourite country has never managed, but it's clearly a lot more difficult to win a World Championship. Just get over it.
Basically almost every coach and player asked has said EuroBasket is the hardest tournament by far. On one hand we have that, then on the other hand, we have your personal opinion.
Sorry, if your personal opinion is outweighed and overruled by the numerous opinions of experts on the subject. But it most definitely and certainly is.
What personal opinion? I gave you facts.
I don't care what a random coach/player says. They often have an agenda when talking, and they may very well refer to average level rather than grabbing gold. If they are talking during a Eurobasket summer, they will stress how difficult it is either to justify failure (usually preventively) or to enlarge triumph. I would love to hear any of those dudes saying something like that while playing the World Championship. So let's hear those numerous opinions, bring them here.
World championship has USA who is the overwhelming favorite, and you also have Brazil, Argentina, Australia that periodically have good teams. But you have less number of good European teams and also a number of weak teams from other conferences.
Eurobasket has a more level playing field. Most knockout matches are competitive.
The main difference is USA who usually are very strong, so that makes WC more difficult to win, but if they send a college team, or someone else manages to knock them out before you face them then WC becomes a competition like eurobasket. The last non-USA team that won wc was Spain in 2006, they faced good teams, Lithuania, Argentina, Greece. Russia next year won eurobasket 2007, they faced France, Lithuania, Spain. I don't see a big difference in competition.
Actually now that I am thinking about it the only other time USA lost in WC with NBA players was in 2002, correct?