As we count down the days to the start of NBA training camps, many of us lament the absence of real basketball news from our lives.
But guess what?
The most prestigious continental tournament in the world is taking place as you read this, as Eurobasket ’13 is underway in Slovenia.
Bunch of guys you never heard of? Not at all. There are 27 NBA players competing in the tournament, a bunch more Eurostash players whose draft rights are held by NBA teams, and there are the usual FIBA oddities such as Mike Fratello coaching Ukraine with an American point guard, Pooh Jeter, at his disposal.
And in Venezuela, the Tournament of Americas resumes today will pool play now finished. The most surprising development was Brazil going 0-4 and getting eliminated, which means we won’t be seeing Anderson Varejao in a major international competition until the 2016 Olympics, when Brazil will qualify as the host team.
The teams competing in Slovenia and Venezuela are vying for spots in the 2014 World Cup, which will be played in Spain next summer. The Spaniards have already qualified by virtue of being the host nation, but that doesn’t mean they are tanking this tournament. When the defending NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Marc Gasol, is anchoring the team, you get an idea of how much national pride comes into play for these competitors.
For a full rundown of who is playing at Eurobasket, and who our international editor, A.J. Mitnick, thinks will advance, this preview package is required (and exceptionally informative) reading. For daily updates, have a look at FIBA.com, which posts game recaps and box scores on every single game.
(RELATED: EUROBASKET ’13 PREVIEW AND PREDICTIONS)
In this post, we will keep things simple. We mentioned the 27 NBA players competing, plus Eurostash players. So here they are in a nice, tidy list:
Group A – Ljubljana
Viacheslav Kravtsov, Ukraine (Phoenix)
Omri Casspi, Israel (Houston)
Nicolas Batum, France (Portland)
Tony Parker, France (San Antonio)
Nando de Colo, France (San Antonio)
Boris Diaw, France (San Antonio)
Group B – Jesenice
Mirza Teletovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Brooklyn)
Jonas Valanciunas, Lithuania (Toronto)
Donatas Motiejunas, Lithuania (Houston)
Pero Antic, FYROM (Atlanta)
Nikola Vucevic, Montenegro (Orlando)
Nemanja Nedovic, Serbia (Golden State)
Group C – Celje
Marcin Gortat, Poland (Phoenix)
Goran Dragic, Slovenia (Phoenix)
Marc Gasol, Spain (Memphis)
Jose Calderon, Spain (Dallas)
Ricky Rubio, Spain (Minnesota)
Victor Claver, Spain (Portland)
Jan Vesely, Czech Republic (Washington)
Group D – Koper
Alexey Shved, Russia (Minnesota)
Sergey Karasev, Russia (Cleveland)
Marco Belinelli, Italy (San Antonio)
Luigi Datome, Italy (Detroit)
Jonas Jerebko, Sweden (Detroit)
Jeffery Taylor, Sweden (Charlotte)
Ersan Ilyasova, Turkey (Milwaukee)
Ömer Asik, Turkey (Houston)
Hedo Turkoglu, Turkey (Orlando)
Rights Held (12)
Tibor Pleiss, Germany (Oklahoma City)
Renaldas Seibutis, Lithuania (Dallas)
Sergii Gladyr, Ukraine (Atlanta)
Bojan Dubljevic, Montenegro (Minnesota)
Ante Tomic, Croatia (Utah)
Bojan Bogdanovic, Croatia (Brooklyn)
Sergio Llull, Spain (Houston)
Tomas Satoransky, Czech Republic (Washington)
Viktor Sanikidze, Georgia (San Antonio)
Petteri Koponen, Finland (Dallas)
Kostas Papanikolaou, Greece (Houston)
Emir Preldzic, Turkey (Washington)
Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers Euroleague and other international basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. You can follow him on Twitter.