EuroBasket 2017 Wraps Up, Russia Places 4th

Russia’s national basketball team placed in the top four teams at EuroBasket 2017, which came to a close on Sunday in Istanbul. In a tournament that was won by Slovenia for the first time, the Spanish national team beat out Russia’s for the third place prize, in a game that ended 85:93.

"Fourth place is a good result, but the main thing is that the team played really well, the basketball players gave all their strength on the floor," former Russian national team coach David Blatt said on Sunday, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. Blatt led the Russian team to a gold medal victory in the 2007 EuroBasket. 

Russia’s standing in this year’s EuroBasket is significant, as it broke through two consecutive failures at previous EuroBasket tournaments, in 2013 and 2015. This year’s journey by the team began with a good group stage performance, winning six out of the nine games it played.

In the 1/8 final match, the team outpaced their rivals from Croatia by 101:78, while in the quarterfinal game they defeated the Greek team 74:69.

“Before the tournament, not many expected a good performance by the Russian team,” Blatt said. “The team did not show their best since 2012,” he added, referencing the national team’s bronze win at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

The team’s head coach, Sergei Bazarevich, who is a veteran Russian basketball player and played in 10 games for the Atlanta Hawks during the 1994–95 NBA season, is credited as the motivational force behind Russia’s come-back.

EuroBasket 2017, which was held this year in Istanbul from August 31 through September 17, brought 24 teams from 49 basketball federations from across Europe. The competition is organized by the European division of the International Basketball Association (FIBA). Beginning this year, the continental championships take place every four years with a similar system of qualification as for the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

"It was a very successful tournament and Sergey Valeryanovich [Bazarevich] showed the whole of Europe that he can create an excellent team," Andrei Kirilenko, the president of the Russian Basketball Federation, told TASS on Sunday.

Notable individual performances within the Russian team included defender Alexey Shved, a former player for the New York Knicks. Having scored 219 total points throughout the 2017 EuroBasket tournament, or an average of over 24 points per game played, Shved earned this year’s “Top Scorer” title.

Basketball falls behind football (soccer) and ice hockey in Russia in terms of popularity, and the efforts are underway to increase its numbers nationwide by 2020.