Following Spain’s 95-75 gold medal victory over Argentina in the 2019 FIBA World Cup Sunday morning, head coach Sergio Scariolo praised his team’s hard work, determination and efforts.
Spain wound up finishing first in the competition, despite not having the likes of Serge Ibaka, Nikola Mirotic and Pau Gasol, surprising observers around the tournament.
“I can only be proud of what these guys did and feel that basketball was fair to these guys,” Scariolo said, as relayed by Sportando’s Nicola Lupo. “We weren’t the tallest, the most talented we weren’t in the odds when the competitions started but we worked hard. They worked hard, they prepared, they kept fighting in tough moments. There were some really tough moments during a couple of games and they didn’t lose faith in themselves. And then basketball rewarded them with this big award which they fully deserve.”
Spain was led by players such as World Cup MVP Ricky Rubio and veteran center Marc Gasol, among others, winning its first title since 2006. The team also did a tremendous job neutralizing red-hot Luis Scola in the gold medal game, limiting him to just eight points on 1-of-10 shooting.
Here are some other odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Kobe Bryant believes it doesn’t matter which NBA team has the best duo entering the 2019/20 season, explaining his thoughts in a recent interview. “It doesn’t matter. I think it matters what they put around those two guys, and then what is the offensive and defensive system they’re going to be executing. You could have marquee names and put those marquee names together, and guess if they could play together or not, but it ultimately comes down to what system do you have them in and how does that affect the rest of the guys.”
- Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki has been appointed Chair of the FIBA Players Commission for the 2019-23 term, FIBA Basketball announced. “Dirk is one of the greatest players to have ever played basketball, and is highly respected worldwide,” FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis said. “He has had an exceptional career both with the NBA and with his national team and will bring with him a huge amount of experience and knowledge. He is the perfect person for this position and we look forward to working closely with him over the next term of office.”
- The NBA is fighting a losing battle when it comes to the topic of tampering, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News writes. “I think it’s pointless at the end of the day to have rules that we can’t enforce,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “It hurts the perception of integrity around the league if people say, ‘Well, you have that rule and it’s obvious that teams aren’t fully complying, so why do you have it?’ I think the sense in the (Board of Governors meeting) room was we should revisit those rules.”
Too bad they put so little around AD and LBJ. How far are the Lakers going to make it with players like Danny Green, Kuzma, Rondo, Bradley, and a run-down Dwight Howard as their supporting cast?
They will go farther than Houston that’s for sure, any of the guys you mentioned is better than anything Houston has beyond Harden/Westbrook.
IslandFlava I think your wrong there mate about who Houston have. Capela and Tucker are better than Kuzma and Green. The Lakers have a hole at PG with the likes of Rondo and Cook. The Rockets have a hole at SF with House Jr most likely starting. Then in terms of impact off the bench the Rockets have Eric Gordon, Rivers and Chandler but the Lakers have KCP, Bradley, McGee, Howard and so on.
So in terms of starters the Rockets support its star duo better than the Lakers but in terms of depth off the bench the Lakers have better depth. A huge factor in the Lakers having a better depth is because players want to be in LA and with Bron whereas the rockets don’t have that huge attraction.
In terms of going further I think the Rockets finish higher up in the conference but won’t go far, the Lakers won’t win heaps of regular season games because Bron will rest and they also have lots of new players that need time to gel, but come the playoffs Bron will step it up a couple levels and the Lakers will go further I think
Danny Green (Spurs and Raptors) and Rajon Rondo (Celtics) have proven to be great championship team members.
So has Bill Russell – doubt he’d help the Lakers. Danny Green will be dependable but Rondo is nothing like the Celtic Rondo. That said, I still like LeBron and any four in the playoffs.
By that Logic, dear Adam, let’s abolish rules against speeding on motorways, tax fraud, child abuse … it’s “obvious that not everyone is fully complying, so why have them?”
What an idiot! Rules don’t only make sense if everyone is fully complying with them. It’s ludicrous if you think about that attitude …
But it’s easy to enforce the rules you state. There’s Highway Patrol with radar guns, there’s tax documents from other parties involved in your transactions that you reported that contradict each other, Etc.
Tampering? How you going to enforce that? It’s two guys talking, “hey come on over to my team.”
Tampering rules are enforceable too…if they want them to be. Corporations have rules against “two guys talking” and sharing information about the company. They fire the offending employee and then sue them for trying to undermine their company by sharing information with a competitor. If the league truly wants to stop tampering, they can regardless of how hard it is. If a couple of these athletes lose their “guaranteed money,” they will be far more careful when they are one of “two guys talking.” Sure, that would be probably excessive punishment, but my point is that it is enforceable if you truly want it to be.
You’ve heard of “attorney/client privilege”? How many attorneys dont discuss their cases and clients with their friends while drinking at the bar?
That’s regular people stuff. NBA activities get much more scrutiny.
You’re right I didn’t think about that. Sort of like insider trading. Just talkin. Information being passed. Highly illegal.