Medal Round Predictions: Olympics Basketball

Quarter Finals: Spain beat Croatia modestly Lithuania beats China fairly easily USA beats Australia easily Greece beats Argentina barely

Semi-Finals

Spain beats Lithuania modestly USA gets crushed by Greece (just kidding, the US should win this, but you know who I will be rooting for)

Final USA beats Spain

Now these are all fairly conventional predictions except for Greece-Argentina where Argentina is favored so at least one will be wrong.

So far there have been few surprises. With the possible question of Australia, these are the best 8 teams in the world.

Greek Basketball

Background I am camped out on my couch at 8am watching the Greece-USA Olympic basketball game on USA Networks. This has potential to be a great game.

Team USA is, well, Team USA.

Greece is the third best basketball team in the world and, more interestingly, is the only team that beat the USA in their 21 international matches since the 2004 Olympics. Greece beat a very strong US team in the semi-finals of World Championship in 2006.

While I am watching I will give some background on how Greece, a nation of 10 million short stocky guys, has created a national team capable of hanging with the US and has a local league that is starting to pick off serious NBA players.

My prediction for the game. The US should win. It is still group play, the US has a loss to avenge, this team is a better team than the 2006 team (though that was the best US team in years).

Greece will be defensively strong as always; to win they also have to be hitting their threes. When they beat the US in 2006, they shot 62.5% from the floor. As usual, Greece only has a chance if everything goes right.

Current Score: Ok, we won't know the final score because I have to go to work, but the US will win easily. EDIT: Final Score 92-69 USA

First and third quarters were fairly even and the USA crushed the 2nd quarter and everyone is playing subs in the 4th. Greece turned the ball over a lot and couldn't hit threes and there is no way they will be competitive against the US doing that.

Greece needs to close out Angola and China and hopefully will be seeing the US again in the knockout round!

Good game summary at the SF Chronicle:

For nearly two years, it had been the burr under their saddle, the stick in their craw. If not a hot, searing memory that kept them awake at night, it at least burned their pride when the topic was brought up.

So Team USA took the floor Thursday night and served up a reminder of their own with a 92-69 thumping of Greece to run their record to 3-0 in the Olympics.

Their ultimate goal is to reclaim the gold medal. But there was the matter of taking care of business first against Greece.

It was Sept. 1, 2006, when Vassilis Spanoulis and his buddies stuck it to the U.S. at the World Championship in Japan. That game forced the Americans to settle for the bronze medal, but it also gave them the fire that has burned in their bellies on the long road to China.

Greece took the U.S. to the woodshed that night by running 42 pick-and-roll plays that Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s team was unable to stop.

The six players (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony) who were on the court that night at the Super Arena in Saitama had spent more than 23 months thinking about payback.

The U.S. had won 13 consecutive international games since then, but this was the one that really mattered.

Full Article here

Now, on to our Greek basketball history lesson!

Greece Basketball, the Ghali Era

Before the mid 1980s, Greece was not a factor in international basketball. Their rise to prominence can be directly traced to the decision by one man, Nikos Galis to come back to Greece after he was injured after he was drafted by the Celtics and was cut.

Galis was probably the best pure scorer in European basketball history.

He is only 6'1 and had a style of play that I have not seen before or since. He was not particularly a 3 point shooter and he did not have any other superstars on his team so Greek national games were basically Galis driving into the lane against guys 2x his size, double and triple pumping, and somehow getting it in. I have not seen that type of thing consistently from a guy his size.

Some stats:

Galis was the leading scorer in every major European and world international competition that he participated in from 1983 onwards, the Eurobasket 1983, the 1986 FIBA World Championship, the Eurobasket 1987, the Eurobasket 1989, and the Eurobasket 1991.

He averaged 33.0 points per game at the Eurobasket 1983, 33.7 points per game at the 1986 FIBA World Championship, 37.0 points per game at the Eurobasket 1987, 35.6 points per game at the Eurobasket 1989, and 32.4 points per game at the Eurobasket 1991.

Galis greatest moment came in the European championships in 1987 held in Athens. At that point, the overwhelming tournament favorite was the Soviet Union (which incorporated Lithuania) and had a monster and very large team. The Soviet Union had won the European Championship 14 (!) times and beat Greece all 12 times they had met.

Greece met them in the final and Galis single-handedly pushed Greece to victory 103-101 in overtime

At the time, this was probably Greece's single largest team sporting achievement and was seared into the minds of every teenager in Greece and made basketball an extremely popular sport.

That performance led former Soviet Union star Sergey Belov to comment:

“I admire him. When he plays one against one there is no way to stop him. I never thought that could be a player who could on his own beat the Soviet Union.”

“I feel that if Galis wants to make a basket, he will do it no matter who his opponent is,” said Lithuanian star Arvydas Sabonis.

Needless to say, he also dominated the Greek club league, both domestically and in international club play.

His personal scoring record in one game was 62 points, achieved in a Greek League game in 1981

He played 13 seasons with Aris, winning eight Greek titles, five Greek Cups, one Korac Cup (1985) and also making three EuroLeague Final Four appearances. Of the eight Greek titles, six were consecutive during which Aris put together a remarkable 80 game winning streak.

For those coaches who he came up against, most strategies to stop him proved futile. Former Nashua Den Bosh coach Rood Harrewain advocated locking Galis in the dressing room before the game, while Wojeck Krajowski of Lech Poznan looked to a higher power: “Before the game we made our plans on how we will stop the four players of Aris,” he said following a European club competition game. “For Galis, we made our prayers…

Greece Basketball, the Current Era

After Galis retired, Greece basketball receded slightly for a few years, but by the mid to late 90s the team was again among the best teams in the world as all the teenagers inspired by Galis came into prominence.

Over the last 15 years, Greece has consistently placed in the top 6 teams of the world and has been especially strong recently.

World Championships: 90 (6th), 94 (4th), 98 (4th), 06 (2nd)

European Championships: 87 (1st), 89 (2nd), 91 (5th), 93 (4th), 95 (4th), 97 (4th), 03 (5th), 05 (1st), 07 (4th)

Olympics: 96 (5th), 04 (5th)

In 2005, they again won the European Championship and in 2006, they had their biggest victory ever when they beat the USA in the semi-finals of the World Championships.

This was a bit of a shock to a US team that has not otherwise lost since the 2004 Olympics. Unlike the 2000 and 2004 teams, Team USA 2006 had real stars (james, wade, etc) and a good coaching philosophy.

Greece beat them with solid defense, non-stop pick and roll and great 3 point shooting.

Video highlights of that Game are here

ESPN on that game

Greece Basketball 2008 and beyond

Going into the Olympics, Greece is probably the 3rd best team after the USA and Spain. Spain has has been a massive thorn in Greece's side recently, beating them for the world title in 2006, the euro championships in 2007 and the Olympic group play.

Good overview of the Olympic teams is here.

All three teams should advance from group play, though it is going be tough going in the knock-out phase since all three top teams are in the same bracket.

The future of Greek basketball should remain solid regardless. Greece recently won the under 18 European championships and at the Club level, Greece has 2 of the best teams in Europe, Olympiakos and Panathiniakos, both of which are NBA-caliber teams.

Olympiakos recently made waves by signing away Josh Childress from the Hawks and rumored to be making a run at Lebron James in 2010.

So this remains to me a great example of how passion for a sport has transformed a country. There is no logical reason why a country of 10 million that is not particularly tall should be consistently a top 6 team against countries with 50,60,200, 300 million, 1.2 billion people. But that is hoop dreams I guess...As the NY Times said:

The Greek basketball team could be considered the Hoosiers of the Adriatic, with no players currently in the N.B.A. The team’s success, including a silver in the 2006 world championship, has been predicated on its ability to play together.

I will close with this very funny quote about the Lebron rumors.

I imagine that most of you out there doubt that the club is ready to pony up the sort of paper necessary to tempt LBJ. If my time living in Greece taught me anything, however, it’s that wealthy Hellenes are, almost without exception, passionate to the point of eccentricity. Consequently, I wouldn’t put anything past the Aggelopoulos (an-ghell-op-oo-loss) brothers, the billionaire owners of Olympiakos and two of the biggest hoopheads in Greece, a country where basketball is the national sport and "friendly" discussions thereof regularly lead to felony assaults.

Talking of which, it’s difficult to convey the place hoops holds in Greek culture with mere words, but a brief anecdote should give you some idea. Last week, I stayed in the Piraias suburb of Athens at my aunt’s place, a small, square house about five minutes from the “Peace and Friendship Stadium” in which Olympiakos play. Seeing the spotless interior of the house, I asked my aunt why they hadn’t painted over the numerous graffiti that scarred the front of the building. She pointed out that some of the scribblings had, in fact, been covered with whitewash, although the largest one was left untouched. I again asked why that was.

She explained that fans of Panathinaikos, a rival club, had painted their motto on the house, but before they could get rid of it an Olympiakos group had covered it with their own. Being Olympiakos die-hards themselves, they decided to leave the façade as it was. Not only was my fifty-five-year-old aunt fan enough to leave her home adorned with a crudely-drawn Olympiakos logo and several curse-filled exhortations, but she was also able to name Scoonie Penn, Qyntel Woods and Roy Tarpley as former players. Before I could retrieve my jaw from the lemon-scented floor of the cramped kitchen, she went on to detail the various reasons Josh Childress would have difficulties adapting to Euroleague defences. Then she cooked calamari. With six million more like her in the city, it’s no wonder Greek club owners are willing to dig deep to bring big names on board, even knowing that they’ll likely never recoup their investment.

Articles referenced are here: wikipedia, FIBA, Hopesvibe

Picture of the Day: Greek Orthodox Priests and GW Bush in Bethlehem

This flash of the exotic (to Western eyes at least) caught my eye today. An often forgotten thing in Israel/Palestine is the small but historically very important Christian community. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has been there the longest and is regarded by the Orthodox as the mother church of all Christendom.

It runs the main Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as well as many of the holy sites in Jerusalem such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, sometimes in partnership with the Roman Catholic, Coptic and Armenian Orthodox churches.

Picture from the NY Times article on George Bush in the Middle East

Of course, centuries of co-habitation do not prevent the occasional dust-up (pun sortof intended)

From this Christmas:

Members of rival Christian orders have traded blows at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, with four people reported wounded in the fray.

Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic priests were sweeping up at the church following the Christmas rites of the Western churches earlier in the week.

Reports say some Orthodox faithful encroached on the Armenian section, prompting pitched battles with brooms.

From the BBC

For more remarkable examples see the Wikipedia article on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: bolding is mine.

Establishment of the status quo did not halt the violence, which continues to break out every so often even in modern times. On a hot summer day in 2002, the Coptic monk who is stationed on the roof to express Coptic claims to the Ethiopian territory there moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians, and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fracas.[3]

In another incident in 2004 during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some people were arrested, but no one was seriously injured.[4]

Under the status quo, no part of what is designated as common territory may be so much as rearranged without consent from all communities. This often leads to the neglect of badly needed repairs when the communities cannot come to an agreement among themselves about the final shape of a project. Just such a disagreement has delayed the renovation of the edicule, where the need is now dire, but also where any change in the structure might result in a change to the status quo disagreeable to one or more of the communities.

A less grave sign of this state of affairs is located on a window ledge over the church's entrance. Someone placed a wooden ladder there sometime before 1852, when the status quo defined both the doors and the window ledges as common ground. The ladder remains there to this day, in almost exactly the same position. It can be seen to occupy the ledge in century-old photographs and engravings.

None of the communities control the main entrance. In 1192, Saladin assigned responsibility for it to two neighboring Muslim families. The Joudeh were entrusted with the key, and the Nusseibeh, who had been the custodians of the church since the days of Caliph Omar in 637, retained the position of keeping the door. This arrangement has persisted into modern times. Twice each day, a Joudeh family member brings the key to the door, which is locked and unlocked by a Nusseibeh.