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Sep 11, 2010, 2:28 am
I particularly like your divisions here which are completely random and seem to based on which side of the bracket teams played in? I do not see similarities in style of play, roster make up, etc. between Greece, Spain and Serbia and conversely US, Lithuania, and Argentina but ok we'll go with go with your division for the sake of argument.
What justification do you have for Serbia, Spain and Greece being better than the US, Argentina and Lithuania?
The whole point of the world championship is to define the best team in the world. Will the most talented team always win? Not necessarily but you cannot fault whichever team wins this tournament because another team failed to perform.
With that said I see two direct areas where we can compare. Serbia beat Argentina and Lithuania beat Spain. That's it over and done. If you want to say that Serbia has been better than Argentina and Lithuania has been better than Spain I think it's very difficult to argue otherwise.
Did Spain under perform in this tournament? Absolutley. Would they beat Lithuania in a best-of-seven series? Probably. But that's the beauty of the FIBA game, you have to be focused and playing your best 100% of the time or you go home. If we lived in a hypothetical world where teams played a best-of-seven to demonstrate that they are the best team then it would be extremely difficult for any country to knock off the US.
The reality is that it doesn't work that way, the US in particular has been ill-prepared, caught off guard and unable to adjust to in game scenarios in the past which has cost them dearly. I'm glad that the FIBA tournaments are one and done, it forces teams to be at their best throughout the knock out stages.
What justification do you have for Serbia, Spain and Greece being better than the US, Argentina and Lithuania?
The whole point of the world championship is to define the best team in the world. Will the most talented team always win? Not necessarily but you cannot fault whichever team wins this tournament because another team failed to perform.
With that said I see two direct areas where we can compare. Serbia beat Argentina and Lithuania beat Spain. That's it over and done. If you want to say that Serbia has been better than Argentina and Lithuania has been better than Spain I think it's very difficult to argue otherwise.
Did Spain under perform in this tournament? Absolutley. Would they beat Lithuania in a best-of-seven series? Probably. But that's the beauty of the FIBA game, you have to be focused and playing your best 100% of the time or you go home. If we lived in a hypothetical world where teams played a best-of-seven to demonstrate that they are the best team then it would be extremely difficult for any country to knock off the US.
The reality is that it doesn't work that way, the US in particular has been ill-prepared, caught off guard and unable to adjust to in game scenarios in the past which has cost them dearly. I'm glad that the FIBA tournaments are one and done, it forces teams to be at their best throughout the knock out stages.