All the stars: ranking the 10 most prominent players in the European Championship

Giannis has no excuses to fail, Doncic's challenge will be mental, the responsibility on Jokic is heavy.

And there's also a menacing Lithuanian duo, an MVP who shouldn't be praised and a Croatian with a national mission: the ten biggest stars to play in EuroBasket

Sasha Vargas

01/09/2022

Thursday, 01 September 2022, 10:30

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Tiktokno: today's summary clip, 1.9 (Sport1)

The absence of stars such as Ricky Rubio, Danilo Gallinari, Nemanja Bailice, Toko Shanglea and Sergio Yui will certainly be felt in the European Championship that will start today (Thursday) at noon, but the old continent has produced so much talent at the highest level in the world in recent years that the upcoming tournament promises to be one The highest quality we knew in this framework.

Just before the first intermediate ball is thrown into the air, we will warm up with the ranking of the 10 outstanding players who will participate in EuroBasket.

Franz Wagner (Photo: GettyImages, JILL DELSAUX / BELGA/BELGA MAG/AFP)

10. Franz Wagner (German national team forward, 21, 2.06)

Perhaps the only player listed based on skill and potential more than receipts.

The one who was selected by the Orlando Magic in eighth place in last year's draft, has just finished a rookie season in which he showed the ability to become a senior scorer in the best league in the world, mainly thanks to stable three-point shooting, excellent technical ability in bringing the ball to the floor and good movement without the ball.

In his first appearance with the German national team at a major tournament, Wagner's challenge will be to prove that he is capable of carrying them at least to the quarter-finals despite his young age, when to do so he will have to find a way to prevent the sometimes outrageous style of Dennis Schröder from rocking the ship.

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Lauri Markkanen (photo: official website, FIBA's official website)

9. Lauri Markkanen (forward/center of the Finnish national team, 25, 2.13)

The explosion of Markkanen (19.5 points on average), when he was 20 years old, led his team to a tremendous 1:4 balance in the group stage of Eurobasket 2017. But then the home crowd stood behind the Scandinavians, who were stopped in the round of 16 in the first game on foreign soil.

The test of the Cleveland Cavaliers player, a scoring machine in European basketball terms and the undisputed star of his team, will be to bring Finland one more step forward in the current tournament, which he will open with a meeting with the Israeli national team at home to be played in the Czech Republic.

The opening will be the key: victories over Israel and Poland will give Markkanen and his teammates a boost, and if they manage to overcome the host in the fourth round - it is very possible that the Finns will get the second place which will arrange a relatively comfortable crossover in the round of 16.

Goran Dragic (Photo: GettyImages, Jurij Kodrun)

8. Goran Dragic (Slovenia national team guard, 36, 1.91)

It is true that age is already showing its signs and in the last NBA season he spent too little time on the floor, but let's give due respect to the reigning MVP of the European Championship, who, for those who missed it, looked excellent in most of the games in which he appeared this summer.

After missing the Olympic tournament and seeing the team reach the semi-finals without him, Dragic will surely be particularly hungry for his latest adventure in the national uniform.

Although this is no longer his team - but that of another star, which we will get to later - but the expectations from the captain are high in any case, as Slovenia comes in as one of the favorites to win.

Dragic knows this: "I did not return to the national team to compete for fifth place," he said at the beginning of the month.

Jonas and Lanchionas (Photo: GettyImages, Zhizhao Wu)

7. Jonas Velanciunas (center of the Lithuanian national team, 30, 2.11)

The bearded chin is a safe share in the team, and at the age of 30, he comes with a wealth of experience as this will be his fifth European Championship, after in 2015 he led the Lithuanians to the silver medal and two years before that he shared the same achievement, only in a less senior role.

This time, Valenciennes' responsibility will not only be to deliver the goods at the level of numbers, but far beyond: in one of the only countries in the world where basketball is the number 1 sport, the ninth place the team finished in the previous EuroBasket and the 2019 World Championship, is really not considered an acceptable achievement , easy considering the absence from the Olympic tournament last year.

It is true that the competition will be tough, but with a partner like the one he will have in the front line (who will be mentioned in a few lines), less than a semi-final will not be considered a success for Valanciunas and his friends.

Boyan Bogdanovich (Photo: Reuters)

6. Bojan Bogdanovic (Croatian national team small forward, 33, 2.01)

While Bogdanovic is flourishing in the best league in the world, his team is in the doldrums, certainly compared to neighbors Slovenia and Serbia.

In the previous European Championship, she finished only in tenth place, she was absent from the 2019 MundoBasket, she did not appear in Tokyo either, despite hosting one of the houses in the pre-Olympic tournament, and the colossal failure in the 2023 World Championship qualifiers, which came after collapsing and missing an eight-point lead in the last two minutes against Finland in the elimination game, has already made the crisis in Croatia acute.

To take the team on a new path, Bogdanovic is the one who must lead it to success in this championship.

To do that, he'll probably need a performance that comes as close as possible to the one he delivered at the Rio 2016 Olympics, when he led the tournament's scoring with an average of 25.3 points en route to a fifth-place finish.

Apart from the threatening Greece, Croatia needs to overtake all its opponents in Group C, in order to get the second place and maybe win a comfortable crossover from the "Israeli" group that will ease the way to the quarterfinals.

From there the cliché is known: in one game,

Domantas Sabonis (Photo: GettyImages, Zhizhao Wu)

5. Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania national team forward/center, 2.11, 26)

How many interior players among the participants of the European Championship can register a triple double in an NBA game?

The Bosnian Yusuf Nurkic is one of them, the second also plays for the Lithuanian national team and you just read about him, the third is capable of much more than a triple double (you'll read about that as well soon).

Sabonis is one of the few who from his height can contribute in so many aspects of the game, and when he comes to his second career European Championship in the status of a superstar, after his previous appearances in the national uniform (EuroBasket 2015, Rio Olympics 2016 and MundoBasket 2019) has not yet reached his peak, he is expected to deliver the goods accordingly and demonstrate dominance that will return Lithuania to the places where it is used to being.

Rudy Gover (Photo: GettyImages, Catherine Steenkeste)

4. Rudy Gober (centre of the French national team, 2.16, 30)

This fearsome guard, who has already been crowned the defensive player of the season in the best league in the world three times, arrives at the second European Championship in his career with many achievements in the national team under his belt: Gober is listed on the bronze medals at the World Championships in 2014 and 2019, third place also at EuroBasket 2015 and a silver medal at the Olympic Games last year.

What's more, the same successes came when the tricolor was led by players like Tony Parker, Nando De Colo and Nicolas Batum.

This time Gober's role will not only be to control everything that happens under the baskets on both sides of the court, but also to show that he is capable of being the senior leader in a team loaded with stars, talent and expectations.

Oh, and also to carry her at least until the semi-finals, if not beyond that.

Nikola Jokic (Photo: GettyImages)

3. Nikola Jokic (Serbia national team center, 2.11, 27)

It feels like a grave injustice to place the reigning NBA regular season MVP, one of the few to win the title two years in a row, only third on this list.

The thing is that when Serbia won a silver medal at the Olympics six years ago, Jokic did lead them in the number of rebounds, steals and blocks, but he was only fourth in the scoring table, and in 2019 he was a participant in the surprising and painful elimination from the World Championship by the Argentine team in the quarterfinals, at the end of a tournament in which he Only 11.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game.

This time the "Joker", one of the brightest minds in the game of basketball today and in general, arrives at his first Eurobasket when he has to be everything for the Serbian national team: scorer, executor, leader and in view of the great talent among the interior players in the championship, also a defensive stopper.

The expectations are clear, especially when you consider that his supporting cast is probably the best: Jokic should lead this team to its first European title since 2001.

Slovenian national team player Luka Doncic (photo: official website, FIBA)

2. Luka Doncic (Slovenia national team guard, 2.01, 23)

If this list was compiled based on pure skills, Doncic would probably be at the top.

But past achievements are also part of the equation, and no - winning the 2017 European Championship does not give Luka an advantage over the player chosen before him in first place, since Dragic was, as mentioned, the main factor in that achievement, when the superstar of the Dallas Mavericks was only 18 years old. In terms of ability, Doncs Jitch already proved in last year's Olympic tournament that he has no problem carrying the team.

On the other hand, as that competition got closer to the deciding stages, the fatigue and the hot temper overwhelmed Luca, who was left empty-handed and without a medal.

In the upcoming EuroBasket, he will also have to demonstrate maturity and composure to keep Slovenia European champions for another three years, when this time it will no longer be a sensation - but rather meeting the goal that everyone is setting before it.

The road there will be particularly complex and will start from a "house of death" that includes France, Lithuania and Germany, so any stumble could complicate the title holder in the knockout stages.

Yannis Antetokounmpo (Photo: GettyImages, Srdjan Stevanovic)

1. Yannis Antetokounmpo (forward of the Greek national team, 2.11, 27)

The only player on the list who is an NBA champion, a two-time regular season MVP and a one-time Finals MVP cannot be ranked anywhere he isn't first.

So there is no doubt about Yannis' ranking among the stars of the European Championship, but about his ability to lead the Greek national team to success in a major tournament - there is, at least until the freak proves otherwise.

Yiannis did record reasonable performances in the past in the national uniform, but the bottom line was far from satisfactory, especially in the last World Championship where he was stopped in the round of 16 and finished in 11th place.

Greece has not been on the podium since 2009, which is also about the last time it showed up for a major tournament with a coach of his stature (Jonas Kazlauskas).

This year, the excellent Dimitris Itoudis lined up, the quality squad includes a combination of the younger Giorgos Papaianis and Tyler Dorsey and the experienced veterans Nick Kalathis, Kostas Sloukas and Kostas Papanicolaou, and even the brothers Thanasis and Kostas Antetokounmpo are there to make sure the big star stays happy.

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