Spain forward Juancho Hernangomez isn’t losing sleep over the perception that his national team is being underestimated heading into the 2025 EuroBasket.
Despite being the defending champions and a nation with one of the richest basketball traditions in Europe, Spain was ranked only 11th in the most recent EuroBasket Power Rankings released by FIBA.
For a team long regarded as a perennial powerhouse, such a position seems unusually low. Hernangomez, however, downplayed the importance of those standings.
“I don’t know who makes them [Rankings]: people who watch friendly games, who know about basketball…. We’ve never been concerned about rankings,” he said in an interview with Marca.
He pointed out that Spain has already shown its ability to measure up against elite opponents: “The matches are one game at a time and that’s what we saw against Germany. We can compete against anyone. We were 20 points up against France and had a shot at beating Germany and we’re supposed to be 10 places below them.”
For him, tournaments are decided not by early lists but by performance and resilience when it matters most.
“Anything can happen. You also have to have a bit of luck, which we’ve had when we’ve won,” Hernangomez added, acknowledging that Spain’s past triumphs have often combined preparation with fortune.
Spain’s title defense begins in the Group Stage in Limassol, Cyprus, where they will face a demanding slate of opponents: Greece, Italy, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and the host nation Cyprus.
Spain and Juancho Hernangomez "not concerned" about low spot in EuroBasket Power Rankingshttps://t.co/QhzHHSRIA1
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) August 23, 2025
