SPORT / SPORTS
sport much later, in 1956. FIBA – and with it the EuroBasket tournament – on- ly started applying the shot clock rule as of 1958, with a limit of 30 seconds per possession. It is today reduced, as you know, to 24 seconds. Two more European championships were held prior to the outbreak of World War II, with Lithuania proving trium- phant on both occasions. The most pe- culiar EuroBasket was held in 1949, in Cairo. Oh yes, in Africa. The Soviet Un- ion had refused to host the tournament and the Egyptians stepped in and ac- cepted the obligation, and they ultimate- ly won gold. This was the first continen- tal championship to be held beyond the borders of Europe, which caused contro- versy and led to a small number of par- ticipants competing – just seven in total, with some countries refusing to take on the costs and logistical challenges of the journey. Only four national teams came from Europe – France, Greece, the Neth- erlands and Turkiye – while, in addition to Egypt, Lebanon and Syria also played. The Soviet Union dominated the tour- nament from 1947 to 1971, winning a whopping 11 titles of a possible 13! With the exception of the tournament in Egypt, they only failed to take the title in 1955, when host nation Hungary cel- ebrated victory. And then came the peri- od of Yugoslav national team dominance and three consecutive titles from 1973 to 1977. That was the golden age of our basketball, and it continued with golds at the 1978 World Cup and the 1980 Mos- cow Olympics. Yugoslavia won a total of 13 continental championship medals, five golds, five sil- vers, and three bronzes. That was the era of the likes of Dražen Dalipagić. Dragan Kićanović, Krešimir Ćosić et al. Our country’s second golden age ran from 1995 to 2001, with three EuroBas- ket golds and a silver brought home by Aleksandar Đorđević, Predrag Danilović, Željko Rebrača, Predrag Stojaković... Back then, following celebrations in Is- tanbul in 2001, no one could have had any inkling that it would be our last gold. Under the name of Serbia, we’ve won two silvers and a bronze. That’s why we now rightly expect a re- peat of that 9 th September, when Ser- bia bested Turkey in the final with a re- sult of 78:69. We are again in a group
with Turkiye, but also on the bench once again will be coach Svetislav Pešić, who brought us our last two golds at the Eu- ropean and world championships. “There have never been this many med- al candidates at any previous European championship, and this is actually like a mini world cup. The final of the last FIBA world cup pitted two European nations, Germany and Serbia, against one anoth- er, while three of the best four teams at the last Olympic Games were also from Europe, in the form of France, Serbia and Germany. Apart from these coun- tries, we have at least another six med- al prospects at this year’s championship. This will be a huge challenge and great competition for us. From this perspec- tive, it’s good that we will be in Riga and won’t have to travel from one side of the continent to the other,” said coach Pešić. We believe that Serbia’s “Eagles” will be at their strongest and that the squad will be led by captain Bogdan Bogdano- vić, Nikola Jokić, Vasa Micić, Nikola Jo- vić, Aleksa Avramović and others who’ve brought us lots of joy over the previous two years.
Učesnici Evropskog prvenstva Grupa A (Riga, Letonija): Srbija, Letonija, Češka, Turska, Estonija, Portugalija Grupa B (Tampere, Finska): Litvanija, Cr- na Gora, Finska, Velika Britanija, Šved- ska, Nemačka Grupa C (Limasol, Kipar): Španija, Grčka, Italija, Gruzija, Bosna i Hercegovina, Kipar Grupa D (Katovice, Poljska): Francuska, Slovenija, Poljska, Izrael, Belgija, Island
EUROBASKET 2025 PARTICIPATING NATIONS
Group A (Riga, Latvia): Serbia, Latvia, Czechia, Turkiye, Estonia, Portugal. Group B (Tampere, Finland): Ger- many, Lithuania, Montenegro, Fin- land, Great Britain, Sweden. Group C (Limassol, Cyprus): Spa- in, Greece, Italy, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus. Group D (Katowice, Poland): Fran- ce, Slovenia, Poland, Israel, Belgium, Iceland.
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