• The Euro basketball is held in Germany from September 1 to 18, 2022.

  • Olympic vice-champion, the France team has great ambitions but it will have a lot to do if it wants to go for gold in Berlin in two weeks.

  • Because this year, no star is missing in a Euro which seems, at least on paper, like one of the most raised of all time.

We don't know about you, but we are damn excited about this European basketball championship which starts this Thursday, in Germany, where the French team will face the locals in the boiling Lanxess Arena in Cologne (8:30 p.m., to be continued live on our site).

Because if the NBA remains the most watched basketball championship in the world, it is now on the side of old Europe that you have to watch to feast on the greatest talents in the world.


The moment we've all been waiting for!

Who's taking the đť—Ş on opening day?

🤔💬#EuroBasket x #BringTheNoise



đź“ş https://t.co/XA74Vlj3Yw

— #EuroBasket 2022 (@EuroBasket) September 1, 2022

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By switching to a new formula with, since the 2017 reform, a Euro only every four years, against every two years previously, there is no longer any question for the stars to ignore.

"We are going to live a Euro where all the players are concerned, they all want to participate and that necessarily gives more salt to the competition", advanced Jean-Pierre Siutat, the president of the French Basketball Federation, during a press conference organized in Bercy last week.

Indeed, they are all there.

From Giannis Antetokounmpo to Nikola Jokic via Luka Doncic or Rudy Gobert, all the monsters of the NBA met during this first half of September.

From there to say that it is the most raised Euro of the history?

If many think so, Evan Fournier prefers to remain cautious.

“I don't like to make cash statements like that, already because the other Euros I didn't make.

Since I've been playing basketball, I've had Euro 2011 in mind, it was a great Euro, but it's true that it still looks very tough on paper.

»

“Europeans increasingly dominate the NBA”

For his part, Vincent Collet also compares it to that of 2011, just before the London Olympics.

“Everyone was there, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Kirilenko, Juan Carlos Navarro, lists the coach.

The Euros contested since, including the one we won in 2013, were below.

There, it is an exceptional plateau.

“Basketball consultant for Canal +, the former coach of Paris-Levallois Christophe Denis enjoys the idea of ​​commenting on this competition.

"It's only my opinion, but I know that Vincent Collet agrees with me: apart from the Olympics, because there are the United States and Australia, the European championship is what which is best done today in international competitions, he says.

You still have the two former NBA MVPs, Antetokounmpo and Jokic, the best defender who is Rudy Gobert, the star of the next ten years in the NBA who is Luka Doncic, how are you?

".

No big favorite

By opening up to the international scene in the early 1990s, the NBA allowed young European talents to show what they had in their stomachs and the result is clear: today, the old continent can watch the States - United in the whites of the eyes.

“It's a fact, the Europeans are increasingly dominating the NBA,” assures Evan Fournier.

And as the Euro is more rare now, it will become a flagship event in the world, the United States will follow it on ESPN, it's a good advertisement for European basketball and it will give even more credit to the one who will win it.

Christophe Denis continues:

If this Euro is particularly expected, it's also because you don't have a huge favorite but a lot of teams, I would say between five and eight, who can claim a place in the final.

There is Slovenia (defending champion) of course, Serbia, Spain, Lithuania, Greece, but why not Germany too, who will play at home and who are in very good shape at the moment.

»

In the game of predictions, Evan Fournier is also struggling to identify a great favorite.

“We talk a little without knowing, he told us on the Bercy floor after training last week.

The Greeks have never played together, the Serbs with Jokic haven't played together for a while either, the Spaniards are new, the Slovenians are bound to be among the big favourites.

There you go, those are the four seeds, with us.

»

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  • Vincent Collet