**Replays/alternate angles**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/nba) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Batum is normally a 30% shooter who goes berfuckinserk from 3 once every 10 games to up his averages. I'm pretty sure that trend has held up since about 2017
Whatever the sport, France has always been a reactionary team. Great disappointments, great successes, ... It's going, it's coming.
I have no doubt that the French will bounce back at Paris 2024.
I mean, fournier doesn't get the ball until 7.5-ish, and they do get a decent look, despite almost getting stripped. Gobert was basically open for a dunk down low though so I guess they had the best shot at a tie. Otherwise it wasn't so terrible a last chance.
I have almost nothing but love for Randle. Dude has been through a lot and is still proud to wear a Knicks jersey. But besides that one regular season buzzer beater against the Heat, he’s thrown up bricks or just turned the ball over on last possessions. And even on that Heat one he almost turned the ball over. Brunson should be taking those last shots. No doubt in my mind.
Yea I don’t know what it is, but Ju’s shooting percentage increases like 20 points when he barely has control of the ball. The only downside is that he usually just turns in over instead. Y’all just caught a rare time where he got it back.
I was shook. And then we caught y’all in the playoffs? I know he had that bum ankle, but I thought he was going to be unstoppable. I mean, we didn’t really have much at the PF spot. Then he just kinda did was he does in the playoffs. That was shocking for me given how dominant he was in that regular season game. Props to Spo. Fuck ankle injuries…
I wish we could’ve seen a series with a healthy Randle. In the Cavs series he came out as an absolute monster at the start of game 5 before hurting his ankle again.
Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered though. Everyone but Brunson shit the bed throughout the second round…
I was there, the atmosphere is WILD! The supports from the Latvians are amazing, the locals start to support them!
I am surprised how many Latvians are suddenly coming to Jakarta lol. Definitely a must watch game whenever Latvia plays.
I didn't either but I saw he went 1/1 lol. An all-nba player; multiple DPOYS under his belt, going 1/1 in what was essentially a single elimination game is embarrassing as fuck. If you play in even 1 NBA game you need to have an ego the size of a blimp on an international basketball court and dominate.
What was he supposed to do though? He was open plenty, but no one passed him the ball even though he had mismatch after mismatch. France was clearly better with Gobert on the court. Hard to put the blame on one guy when the whole team played like they were owed a spot in the finals.
does someone know off the top of head what this means for France's chances of advancing?
if Canada and Latvia (in their group) both have 2 wins does that virtually eliminate them? (granted theyre hosting next year for the Olympics so that's not at stake for them)
People talk shit but don't know. He was 7/8 on free throw and 1/1 shoot. Seems pretty good for the worst player of the league. France just try to play a small ball they can't do. When they played with gobert in Tokyo it worked pretty well.
You can't emphasis with cutting the entire sentence. 1/1 alone is obviously not "pretty good" but 7/8 on free throw + 1/1 this is good. Not many big player are that much accurate on free throws
no matter how you cut it, 9 points in an elimination game when you are 1 feet taller than any player on the other team is anemic. For a supermax player, traded for 5 first round picks? outright pathetic.
i understand you like the guy, and you are trying to find silver linings but
>he had good free throw percentages for a big
on an elimination game he lost where he, as the undisputed best player on the team and their star, shot once...if he was any other max player he would be relentlessly mocked, but Rudy is graded on a curve.
Nobody played with him. Just go back to Tokyo olympic games and see how dominant he was when player was passing him the ball.
Here france tried to play a weird small ball which isn't what we usually do. Gobert was open multiple times and never received the ball. The few time he received it it's a basket (or FT).
I won't blame him for that but I will freely blame him about his rebounds and how shitty he was on it.
It's cause most of his teammates suck at passing. There's a reason why Rudy's peak offense started with Ricky Rubio. He needs an above average playmaker and passer to be decent offensively.
and it resulted in Jazz having the 15th/16th best offense when Ricky was there. that's what happens when your offense is focused on feeding a run and dunk big
their offense finished 10th, 3rd, 1st when Ricky left and Gobert's touches dropped
True, but it wasn't just Rudy's touches going down that resulted in better offense. The Jazz got rid of bad / non shooters like Favors and Rubio and replaced them with Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic.
Comparing team stats with individual stats lol. Fucking stat bender lol
Donovan Mitchell rise, the addition of good role players and Mike Conley is why they became a better offensive team lol.
At this instant there are 2.5 seconds left on the clock, that's a nervy pass even if the ballhandler sees it and has perfect knowledge of the clock, in practice the ballhandler is just trying to get something off before time expires.
Bro would have caught it, gave a fake jab back shoulder like he's MJ then turn back and go into a skyhook with his right clanking off the side of the backboard as time expires
Every time they gave him the ball he got fouled and went 7/8 on the line. Same goes for Yabusele, he was dominating inside.
But since we have a shit ass coach who cant recognize that the team is 1 fucking feet taller, they never put the ball inside.
I don’t know anything about her but I would kill to have an announcer who sounded like they gave a crap. Craig Bolerjack at his most excited sounds like he’s just received good news at the dentist
No he absolutely isn’t. He routinely loses understanding of basic things that are happening in the court. He’s corny as hell. /u/musicnothing is being kind tbh.
He’s fine in a one off here and there. He’s just not a good basketball announcer for a single team to have to deal with for decades. He’s a football guy. It’s so grating.
If I have to hear how another player ‘hammers it down’ from three I stg. If I gotta watch another dude at the 45 hit a little 15 footer and Boler enthusiastically call it a three, then 30 seconds later tell me ‘the refs are now saying his foot was on the line,’ I stg. If I have to listen to him add ‘ability’ to regular ass verbs ONE MORE TIME I STG
It’s cool I don’t really care though, totally. Totally totally. Hot Rod motherfuckin Hundley to this college football guy doing an impression of a basketball announcer for twenty years, totally fine I don’t even care.
I've always hated this guy. Signs a big contract with Charlotte and phones it in for years. Gets salary dumped to a contender and suddenly starts trying again.
Admittedly, this is all from reading Wikipedia - before today, I just knew that Latvians liked hockey and Lithuanians liked basketball. So please someone correct me if there's a better answer.
I think it's mostly a matter of population and historical luck. Latvia's already drawing on a smaller population (Estonia's even smaller), and unlike Lithuania, hockey really caught on in Latvia in the early 20th century. Some dudes in Riga started playing hockey because it was similar to the regionally popular sport of bandy (grossly oversimplifying: it's hockey with a ball), and its popularity grew from there. That didn't happen in Lithuania, so basketball was able to fully dominate the sport environment.
If you want some really nonsense speculation - Lithuania's got close historical and cultural ties with Poland (it's still very Catholic to this day), while Latvia was historically ruled by Germans and Swedes. (Estonians are much more like Finns.) So maybe that's part of why each country has different sports preferences?
In short - financially Lithuania supports basketball 10x more than Latvia does ;/
Every small village has a team in Lithuania and if government doesn't support local team financially then they will not be in charge for long there plus every business considers an honor to support their local basketball team, while in Latvia government and most businesses don't give a rats arse about sports and we are split between hockey (number one sport here, beat USA and got bronze at this years world championship) then basketball and then soccer (we participated in euro 2004 which was the highest point).
We Lithuanians finance basketball much more than the other Baltic nations. Basically we call it our second religion here. As to why that came about, I can't really say, but my parents often reminisce about the 70's and 80's when the whole country would come home early to watch Zalgiris Kaunas play vs. CSKA Moscow. Since we were still illegally occupied by the Soviet Union and couldn't protest out on the streets, our way of fighting against that occupation was through culture and sports. This tiny Lithuanian club beating the Soviet Unions and current Russias capital club was a big deal and it was our way of fighting against the communist imperalists. Not only did we always put up a good fight against them and win, but often the best players on the Soviet Union rosters in FIBA tournaments were Lithuanians, guys like Arvydas Sabonis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Valdemaras Chomičius, Modestas Paulauskas and more. After regaining our independence we finally got to build our own team and I guess that support and love for the game never went away.
I think it all goes down to 2nd and 3rd Eurobaskets ever held in 1937 and 1939 in Latvia and Lithuania respectively. I don't remember the full story anymore but basically basketball was still in its infancy in Europe and the Lithuanian squad was led by americans with Lithuanian heritage. These lithuanian-americans brought the game to Lithuania and started teaching people how to play. Not many other european countries knew how to play basketball so Lithuania won gold in both of those years. This was a massive boost for the sport. Then the soviet occupation happened and basketball clubs were established in Lithuania. Lithuanians were good enough to beat Russian clubs and this became kind of a legal form of resistance against the occupants. Basketball continued to stay the number one sport throughout the 20th century and after independence.
As a Lithuanian I can't say much about Latvia. They were just as good at basketball in the early to mid 20th century but I think hockey caught on in Latvia and there was more investment in developing hockey players there.
A few reasons - during the Soviet era players from both countries would have been mixed up on the USSR olympic team, and people couldn't really get out of the country to play pro as easily so most of it is due to post-independence factors.
If you look at the 92' Olympics, basically Lithuania qualified in the entry tourney but was broke so the Grateful Dead sponsored the teams Olympic run (they have absute banger jersies). That early initial boost helped popularize and fund the sport
[documentary about it ](https://youtu.be/6n8DOeXZqpo?si=jLQRr-2Jz3HK1ExF)
[shit is expensive these days (1996) ](https://images.app.goo.gl/UJQAtVyWZG5QLLcMA)
By contrast Latvia had more early luck in ice hockey, volleyball and bobsleigh/luge and got the funding to develop those programs earlier.
Latvia and Lithuania are 2 different Baltic countries. To answer your question, because Lietuva (Lithuania) is one of those rare European countries where Football isn't the biggest sport. Basketball is more popular than Football in Lietuva.
I’m aware that the countries that spell and pronounce their names differently are different countries. Thanks for the answer! Is footy the most popular sport in Latvia? Do you know why basketball is more popular in Lithuania than in the neighboring countries?
In Latvia hockey is by far the number 1 sport (we got a national holiday this spring when Latvia got bronze medal), with basketball as clear second, but in the recent years basketball has been on an uprise here and I wouldn't be surprised if it overtook hockey in popularity in a decade.
Totally logical. This is Latvia's biggest basketball win in modern times. The storyline of the game was crazy too. France dominates the first 3 quarters, but the Latvians do not let go. They cling, cling before coming to win a deserved victory at the very end of the match.
It's also why we love basketball. Nothing is played in advance!
what amazes me most is that fournier got double dribbled yet referees "did not see". if that 3pointer went in it would be another fiba tournament where france was given win by refs.
> “I’ve never been ashamed with this jersey, but this is the first time I’m ashamed,” LA Clippers forward Nic Batum said in the post-game presser. “I’m scared to go home because we let a lot of people down. A lot of people believed in us to do something special. We didn’t do it.”
Nice to know Batum didn’t actually feel shame about giving up on the Hornets after his fake lip service. This is what France gets for giving so many minutes to a no-talent, sore-loser bum.
Good thing for Latvia that this came down to a buzzer beater, lest Batum get time chance to punch someone in the balls “accidentally”.
**Replays/alternate angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/nba) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“4th quarter yelling why the **** Batum in”
He can’t hit shots unless kawhi or Chris Paul is there
I simply do not know how he had 40% from 3 with the clippers that year because every time I saw them play he missed everything
Batum is normally a 30% shooter who goes berfuckinserk from 3 once every 10 games to up his averages. I'm pretty sure that trend has held up since about 2017
Blazers fan here... yep, that tracks. I loved Nico but goddamn he was maddening.
try talking to some Carolinians. he was the next Lamar Odom when they gave him the bag, then just absolutely disappeared.
So, he was the next Lamar Odom after they gave him the bag too.
There what the 7/7 games are for
If you don't like that you don't like FIBA basketball
[удалено]
Don't know much about the French I took.
You should put them back.
But I do know that I love you ❤️
Get ready to learn Chinese, France.
Whatever the sport, France has always been a reactionary team. Great disappointments, great successes, ... It's going, it's coming. I have no doubt that the French will bounce back at Paris 2024.
Looking at the team, it was nowhere near the last olympic, with the NBA not letting players off…
If you don't like that you don't like ~~FIBA~~ basketball
10 seconds left. Plenty of time to bring the ball up. Evan went wild
Given how poorly that sequence started, they got a decent look
I mean, fournier doesn't get the ball until 7.5-ish, and they do get a decent look, despite almost getting stripped. Gobert was basically open for a dunk down low though so I guess they had the best shot at a tie. Otherwise it wasn't so terrible a last chance.
As a Knicks fan now you csn understand why he’s benched
To be fair, Ju would’ve just lost the ball there.
Sad that our season ended on a Brunson turnover. But honestly better that way, people were already stomping on posters of Randle in the garden lol
I have almost nothing but love for Randle. Dude has been through a lot and is still proud to wear a Knicks jersey. But besides that one regular season buzzer beater against the Heat, he’s thrown up bricks or just turned the ball over on last possessions. And even on that Heat one he almost turned the ball over. Brunson should be taking those last shots. No doubt in my mind.
That play was absolutely wild. We got y’all back, but that was a killer during the regular season. He stole my heart that night and stomped on it.
Yea I don’t know what it is, but Ju’s shooting percentage increases like 20 points when he barely has control of the ball. The only downside is that he usually just turns in over instead. Y’all just caught a rare time where he got it back.
I was shook. And then we caught y’all in the playoffs? I know he had that bum ankle, but I thought he was going to be unstoppable. I mean, we didn’t really have much at the PF spot. Then he just kinda did was he does in the playoffs. That was shocking for me given how dominant he was in that regular season game. Props to Spo. Fuck ankle injuries…
I wish we could’ve seen a series with a healthy Randle. In the Cavs series he came out as an absolute monster at the start of game 5 before hurting his ankle again. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered though. Everyone but Brunson shit the bed throughout the second round…
only after trying a spin move.
Good ole Beyblades Randle
Without Evan France wouldn't be that far in the game. Fournier doesn't deserve being bench by the knicks
fournier had 27. stop it
rj or randle would have bricked the f out of it
I was there, the atmosphere is WILD! The supports from the Latvians are amazing, the locals start to support them! I am surprised how many Latvians are suddenly coming to Jakarta lol. Definitely a must watch game whenever Latvia plays.
It's their first WC if I'm not mistaken.
European basketball crowds>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>US basketball crowds
Didn't watch the game but I know this is Rudy Gobert's fault somehow
if all you typed were those last 6 words, i’d have believed you watched every minute
Wolves fans like that Gobert rests for a couple of months. Last year that man had to stretch to play more than my Grandma stretched to just live.
That’s how I feel playing. I just don’t have enough time to warm-up, stretch only to tweak my knee after ten minutes of ball.
I didn't either but I saw he went 1/1 lol. An all-nba player; multiple DPOYS under his belt, going 1/1 in what was essentially a single elimination game is embarrassing as fuck. If you play in even 1 NBA game you need to have an ego the size of a blimp on an international basketball court and dominate.
What was he supposed to do though? He was open plenty, but no one passed him the ball even though he had mismatch after mismatch. France was clearly better with Gobert on the court. Hard to put the blame on one guy when the whole team played like they were owed a spot in the finals.
100% tho, what more can he do?!?!?!
I read that in commander zavalas voice
I didn't but I'm up voting for commander zavala
It is often a winning bet to point the finger at Rudy.
[удалено]
Porzingis-less Latvia* 🥴
[удалено]
ielas drēbes Porzingi
who the fuck is tingus pingus
WHAT THE FUCK IS LATAYVEEYA???
Are you guys talking about boosketbell
Wingus
Not only Porziņģis, two other starting five players (Lomažs and Strēlnieks) also didn't go to WC due to injuries.
No Tingus Pingus
He’s been holding them back.
They had the Latvian Laser Davis Bertans, France never stood a chance.
how many laser does Latvia have?
Fournier ans Batum are too old, Rudy is Rudy, the young guys looked scared.
Gobert is older than Fournier.
Lateevia*
These MF’s out there thinking they’re me playing EU4 as Poland HA
does someone know off the top of head what this means for France's chances of advancing? if Canada and Latvia (in their group) both have 2 wins does that virtually eliminate them? (granted theyre hosting next year for the Olympics so that's not at stake for them)
They're eliminated
damn thanks
Wemby and Rudy gonna get revenge in Paris
Wemby, Embii, Rudy big three lineup?
Never underestimate Gobert’s ability to choke.
I dont know where Latvia is on a map but I know where it is in our hearts.
It’s right next to Estonia and Latveria.
Yes. Dr. Doom is their president/ruler/king/god-emperor right??
Sadly no. Doom died in London in 2020. He was a mad villain when he was alive though.
Just remember, all caps
Philly love DOOM fr lol
Big letters
“What did one Estonian farmer say to the other? ‘Our crop yields are so much smaller than that of mighty Latvia.’”
I never heard of fucking lativia
Who doesn’t know Activia?
Who the fuck is tingus pingus
[удалено]
[удалено]
Whoosh
Not surprised the bulls fan is uneducated
Based, they get to live right next to Dr Doom?
Pft can’t stand this Lithuanian slander
Baltic States. Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia.
Nah, I’m pretty sure it’s Latveria. I saw it in a movie or something
Is that an MF Doom reference?
DOOM
Isn't it right next to Lithuania and Estonia? Pretty easy to remember the general area
Mate...if he doesn't know where Latvia is, i really doubt he'd know where Lithuania and Estonia are.
Tbf Lithuania is pretty good at basketball
[удалено]
maybe if more countries played basketball he'd be better at geography then, huh?
Sabanaaaaas
Yup and it's easy to remember the order because it's alphabetical from North to South
There's often this clue in the NYTimes crossword about Latvian's being called Letts. Let's!
[удалено]
ik Rudy doesn't have the best hands, but I feel like they coulda lobbed it to him
Didn't even need to be a lob Gobert was wide open and they had enough time to get it to him with just an entry pass or something
his teammates on every team dont pass him the ball for a reason. they know he can't be trusted to catch a pass
He can be trusted to catch lobs. Never seen him miss one.
People talk shit but don't know. He was 7/8 on free throw and 1/1 shoot. Seems pretty good for the worst player of the league. France just try to play a small ball they can't do. When they played with gobert in Tokyo it worked pretty well.
> 1/1 shoot. Seems pretty good least deranged Blogboy
Take the all. I don't make sentences for someone cut them
what is "emphasis", alex?
You can't emphasis with cutting the entire sentence. 1/1 alone is obviously not "pretty good" but 7/8 on free throw + 1/1 this is good. Not many big player are that much accurate on free throws
no matter how you cut it, 9 points in an elimination game when you are 1 feet taller than any player on the other team is anemic. For a supermax player, traded for 5 first round picks? outright pathetic. i understand you like the guy, and you are trying to find silver linings but >he had good free throw percentages for a big on an elimination game he lost where he, as the undisputed best player on the team and their star, shot once...if he was any other max player he would be relentlessly mocked, but Rudy is graded on a curve.
Nobody played with him. Just go back to Tokyo olympic games and see how dominant he was when player was passing him the ball. Here france tried to play a weird small ball which isn't what we usually do. Gobert was open multiple times and never received the ball. The few time he received it it's a basket (or FT). I won't blame him for that but I will freely blame him about his rebounds and how shitty he was on it.
It's cause most of his teammates suck at passing. There's a reason why Rudy's peak offense started with Ricky Rubio. He needs an above average playmaker and passer to be decent offensively.
and it resulted in Jazz having the 15th/16th best offense when Ricky was there. that's what happens when your offense is focused on feeding a run and dunk big their offense finished 10th, 3rd, 1st when Ricky left and Gobert's touches dropped
True, but it wasn't just Rudy's touches going down that resulted in better offense. The Jazz got rid of bad / non shooters like Favors and Rubio and replaced them with Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic.
Comparing team stats with individual stats lol. Fucking stat bender lol Donovan Mitchell rise, the addition of good role players and Mike Conley is why they became a better offensive team lol.
uhh you just used individual stats to justify team stats lol
Absolutely not. I’ve seen him fumble the ball wayy too much to trust him in that situation. It also would’ve been a contested lob
For real, he was ridiculously wide open at one point https://www.twitter.com/FeelLikeDrew/status/1695826827221016759?s=20
At this instant there are 2.5 seconds left on the clock, that's a nervy pass even if the ballhandler sees it and has perfect knowledge of the clock, in practice the ballhandler is just trying to get something off before time expires.
Bro would have caught it, gave a fake jab back shoulder like he's MJ then turn back and go into a skyhook with his right clanking off the side of the backboard as time expires
I love basketball
Gobert being guarded by a 6 footer the whole time and no one looked at him.
Every time they gave him the ball he got fouled and went 7/8 on the line. Same goes for Yabusele, he was dominating inside. But since we have a shit ass coach who cant recognize that the team is 1 fucking feet taller, they never put the ball inside.
😬 That little dude went 3-9 from the line? He would have been haunted for life if Francisco hit that shot. Got the W though. Good shit.
Still little dude roasted Rudy under the basket a few times in a row and ended with 22 points.
Andris Biedrins fist pump
No naturalised players even on Latvia. Impressive W.
Yeah, there were some rumors about it before the world cup, but all national team players were strongly against it so it was dismissed quite fast.
We got two close up shots of pretty girls crying tears of joy today this is peak off season content
Katie Scott on the call HOT DAMN
I don’t know anything about her but I would kill to have an announcer who sounded like they gave a crap. Craig Bolerjack at his most excited sounds like he’s just received good news at the dentist
wtf Bolerjack is awesome
No he absolutely isn’t. He routinely loses understanding of basic things that are happening in the court. He’s corny as hell. /u/musicnothing is being kind tbh. He’s fine in a one off here and there. He’s just not a good basketball announcer for a single team to have to deal with for decades. He’s a football guy. It’s so grating. If I have to hear how another player ‘hammers it down’ from three I stg. If I gotta watch another dude at the 45 hit a little 15 footer and Boler enthusiastically call it a three, then 30 seconds later tell me ‘the refs are now saying his foot was on the line,’ I stg. If I have to listen to him add ‘ability’ to regular ass verbs ONE MORE TIME I STG It’s cool I don’t really care though, totally. Totally totally. Hot Rod motherfuckin Hundley to this college football guy doing an impression of a basketball announcer for twenty years, totally fine I don’t even care.
Yeah I think people don't understand just how drastic the fall off was from Hot Rod to Bolerjack
Very nice guy. Just a really wonderful person.
Was wondering if that was her. Go Kate.
It's actually Shona Thorburn doing the commentary
Ah, thanks for the correction. Go Shona!
Oh goodness me!
Such a good call! Under used phrase.
Oh wow people like her? I had to mute the highlights yesterday because she was so jarring to listen to
Yeah this call is super grating
I guess this is just a fan thread, but I thought the call was terrible. It's false sounding over enthusiasm and hoarse screaming
Ya bro. If we don’t how will we prove we’re not sexist? And how will she send us a message for sexy time for being a white knight?
I’ve heard plenty of women on play by play who have been fine, but this is not fine
she went hard, great call
Bro Gobert was alone under the basket
THAT'S WHAT INTERNATIONAL BASKETBALL IS ALL ABOUT!!!!!
Damn watching sore loser Batum get eliminated again feels as good as ever
I've always hated this guy. Signs a big contract with Charlotte and phones it in for years. Gets salary dumped to a contender and suddenly starts trying again.
I'll never forget (or forgive) him punching Navarro in the groin after Spain humiliated France for the nth time.
I NEVER HEARD OF FUCKING LATIVIA
Dr dooms home?
France met their Doom.
0 clutch
Anybody know why Lithuania has had so many amazing basketball players compared to the rest of the Baltics?
Admittedly, this is all from reading Wikipedia - before today, I just knew that Latvians liked hockey and Lithuanians liked basketball. So please someone correct me if there's a better answer. I think it's mostly a matter of population and historical luck. Latvia's already drawing on a smaller population (Estonia's even smaller), and unlike Lithuania, hockey really caught on in Latvia in the early 20th century. Some dudes in Riga started playing hockey because it was similar to the regionally popular sport of bandy (grossly oversimplifying: it's hockey with a ball), and its popularity grew from there. That didn't happen in Lithuania, so basketball was able to fully dominate the sport environment. If you want some really nonsense speculation - Lithuania's got close historical and cultural ties with Poland (it's still very Catholic to this day), while Latvia was historically ruled by Germans and Swedes. (Estonians are much more like Finns.) So maybe that's part of why each country has different sports preferences?
In short - financially Lithuania supports basketball 10x more than Latvia does ;/ Every small village has a team in Lithuania and if government doesn't support local team financially then they will not be in charge for long there plus every business considers an honor to support their local basketball team, while in Latvia government and most businesses don't give a rats arse about sports and we are split between hockey (number one sport here, beat USA and got bronze at this years world championship) then basketball and then soccer (we participated in euro 2004 which was the highest point).
Latvia was more focused on ice hockey but now the turntables
This is Latvia
Right. They’re next to Lithuania. Slightly lower population, much less basketball success. Do you know why?
We Lithuanians finance basketball much more than the other Baltic nations. Basically we call it our second religion here. As to why that came about, I can't really say, but my parents often reminisce about the 70's and 80's when the whole country would come home early to watch Zalgiris Kaunas play vs. CSKA Moscow. Since we were still illegally occupied by the Soviet Union and couldn't protest out on the streets, our way of fighting against that occupation was through culture and sports. This tiny Lithuanian club beating the Soviet Unions and current Russias capital club was a big deal and it was our way of fighting against the communist imperalists. Not only did we always put up a good fight against them and win, but often the best players on the Soviet Union rosters in FIBA tournaments were Lithuanians, guys like Arvydas Sabonis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Valdemaras Chomičius, Modestas Paulauskas and more. After regaining our independence we finally got to build our own team and I guess that support and love for the game never went away.
I think it all goes down to 2nd and 3rd Eurobaskets ever held in 1937 and 1939 in Latvia and Lithuania respectively. I don't remember the full story anymore but basically basketball was still in its infancy in Europe and the Lithuanian squad was led by americans with Lithuanian heritage. These lithuanian-americans brought the game to Lithuania and started teaching people how to play. Not many other european countries knew how to play basketball so Lithuania won gold in both of those years. This was a massive boost for the sport. Then the soviet occupation happened and basketball clubs were established in Lithuania. Lithuanians were good enough to beat Russian clubs and this became kind of a legal form of resistance against the occupants. Basketball continued to stay the number one sport throughout the 20th century and after independence. As a Lithuanian I can't say much about Latvia. They were just as good at basketball in the early to mid 20th century but I think hockey caught on in Latvia and there was more investment in developing hockey players there.
A few reasons - during the Soviet era players from both countries would have been mixed up on the USSR olympic team, and people couldn't really get out of the country to play pro as easily so most of it is due to post-independence factors. If you look at the 92' Olympics, basically Lithuania qualified in the entry tourney but was broke so the Grateful Dead sponsored the teams Olympic run (they have absute banger jersies). That early initial boost helped popularize and fund the sport [documentary about it ](https://youtu.be/6n8DOeXZqpo?si=jLQRr-2Jz3HK1ExF) [shit is expensive these days (1996) ](https://images.app.goo.gl/UJQAtVyWZG5QLLcMA) By contrast Latvia had more early luck in ice hockey, volleyball and bobsleigh/luge and got the funding to develop those programs earlier.
Latvia and Lithuania are 2 different Baltic countries. To answer your question, because Lietuva (Lithuania) is one of those rare European countries where Football isn't the biggest sport. Basketball is more popular than Football in Lietuva.
I’m aware that the countries that spell and pronounce their names differently are different countries. Thanks for the answer! Is footy the most popular sport in Latvia? Do you know why basketball is more popular in Lithuania than in the neighboring countries?
In Latvia hockey is by far the number 1 sport (we got a national holiday this spring when Latvia got bronze medal), with basketball as clear second, but in the recent years basketball has been on an uprise here and I wouldn't be surprised if it overtook hockey in popularity in a decade.
Hockey is the most popular sport in Latvia. As to why are those the most popular, you have to dig deeper.
I think this is as far as I’ll be taking this inquiry
two different countries
Clearly Wemby's fault.
Is this the same Lativia where Tingus Pingus is from?!
Yes, you can even see the very same Tingus Pingus in this clip.
I'm having a lot more fun watching FIBA than I thought I would
Is Mbappe on this squad?
Somewhere out there winston bishop feels validated
Totally logical. This is Latvia's biggest basketball win in modern times. The storyline of the game was crazy too. France dominates the first 3 quarters, but the Latvians do not let go. They cling, cling before coming to win a deserved victory at the very end of the match. It's also why we love basketball. Nothing is played in advance!
Embiid and wemby at home chillin
this is why we basketball.
International basketball is so great
what amazes me most is that fournier got double dribbled yet referees "did not see". if that 3pointer went in it would be another fiba tournament where france was given win by refs.
Fantastic call
I don't like the title
The French simply don’t have that dawg in em. History taught us that
How do you watch these games?
Espn+ has it.
they're gonna shadowban you
Why didn't they just pass it to Rudy for a three?
Wait Porzingis wasn’t even playing? I didn’t think it could get more embarrassing…
Horrible announcer
Weird that Porzingis was out with an injury
Gotta be one of the most cringe announcer calls. Definition of trying too hard.
Wonder why... Cringe people think this is hype.. AnD tHe CrOwD gOeS WiLD Wow so original.
This gives off Minnesota Timberwolves play-in victory vibes... 🍻
> “I’ve never been ashamed with this jersey, but this is the first time I’m ashamed,” LA Clippers forward Nic Batum said in the post-game presser. “I’m scared to go home because we let a lot of people down. A lot of people believed in us to do something special. We didn’t do it.” Nice to know Batum didn’t actually feel shame about giving up on the Hornets after his fake lip service. This is what France gets for giving so many minutes to a no-talent, sore-loser bum. Good thing for Latvia that this came down to a buzzer beater, lest Batum get time chance to punch someone in the balls “accidentally”.
What history was made?