EuroBasket 2011

Inside of Žalgiris Arena

The group matches were played in four arenas, namely Alytus Arena, Šiauliai Arena, Cido Arena in Panevėžys and an arena in Klaipėda. The second stage matches were played at the Siemens Arena in the capital Vilnius and the playoffs at the new Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas.

All tickets were sold for matches in which Lithuania played in a matter of several hours after the start of sale. Other tickets were also sold out in advance for all venues except for Alytus (75% of available tickets sold in total). However the Organizing Committee's policy of selling tickets as a 3-game package meant that in some cases the sold-out arenas were not full as some fans would choose to go to only some of the games their ticket entitled them to. This policy was altered in Panevėžys where there were separate tickets for the games Lithuania played.

20,000 foreign visitors went to Lithuania for the championship. 135,000 local fans visited the arenas. 120,000 people (both local and foreign) watched EuroBasket 2011 matches in special fan zones that were constructed beside every arena with a large screen and outdoor seating available.[3]

Among the foreign teams the Georgian, Slovenian, Russian and Latvian national teams had the most fans traveling from their home countries. Georgians had certain city squares decorated in their flags in both Klaipėda and Vilnius.

Several famous people and heads of states went to championship. This included the president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov and prince of Spain Felipe.

Location	Picture	City	Arena	Capacity	Status	Round
Kaunas		Kaunas	Žalgiris Arena	15,442	Opened in 2011	Knockout stage
Vilnius		Vilnius	Siemens Arena	11,000	Opened in 2004	Group E, Group F
Šiauliai		Šiauliai	Šiauliai Arena	5,700	Opened in 2007	Group B
Panevėžys		Panevėžys	Cido Arena	5,656	Opened in 2008	Group A
Alytus		Alytus	Alytus Arena	5,500	Opened in 1981, reopened after reconstruction in 2011	Group C
Klaipėda		Klaipėda	Švyturio Arena	5,486	Opened in 2011	Group D

• 
  Postage stamp issued to commemorate the EuroBasket 2011
• 
  Slovenian national team bus in Vilnius
• 
  Huge ball for EuroBasket 2011 in Vilnius
• 
  Baskets and balls in Vilnius center
• 
  One Litas coin for EuroBasket 2011

EuroBasket 2011 participants.

It was first decided that 16 teams would participate in EuroBasket 2011, however FIBA Europe decided on 5 September 2010, in a meeting in Istanbul, that there would be 24 teams in the tournament, after the Qualifying Round was concluded.[5]

Lithuania automatically received a place as the hosts, nine other countries that competed in the 2010 FIBA World Championship also received a place, 12 Countries were determined through qualifying matches played in August 2010 (five had initially qualified, and seven were added after the decision to expand the tournament to 24 teams),[6] and two more qualifiers were decided in an additional qualifying tournament that took place in August 2011. All but one of the 15 countries that participated in the Qualifying Round qualified for the final tournament.

Bo McCalebb led Macedonia squad

Each team consisted of 12 players. Only 1 among the 12 could be a naturalised foreign player, who could not have been in the national team of another nation. Some of the teams had players that traced their ancestry to the teams they represent and were allowed to play for that team, such as Germany (US-born Chris Kaman) and Israel (US-born David Blu, who as Jewish was entitled to Israeli citizenship from birth). Other teams naturalised players participating in their country's league system, among them Spain (Congolese-born Serge Ibaka), Croatia (US-born Dontaye Draper), Bulgaria (US-born E. J. Rowland), Belgium (US-born Marcus Faison), and Poland (US-born Thomas Kelati, who qualified for Polish citizenship through marriage to a Pole). Montenegro and Macedonia each naturalised US-born players who had never played in their league system, but had played in neighbouring Serbia, respectively Omar Cook and Bo McCalebb. Other naturalised players moved to their current countries in their youth, with a notable example being Great Britain's Luol Deng, who fled the Sudanese Civil War with his family as a child.

Lithuania, Serbia, Portugal (Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony) and Finland are notable exceptions, with all of their players having been born in Lithuania, Portugal, Serbia and Finland respectively. Another exception was Latvia playing without foreign players. Turkey had Enes Kanter, who was born to Turkish parents in Switzerland as well as Emir Preldzic, who was born in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina and had already played on the national team of Slovenia in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2008 and Slovenian youth national teams.

Some of the Eastern European national teams, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, were composed mainly or entirely from players playing abroad. This was primarily true for countries that have good basketball players but no powerful clubs or leagues to match that.

On the other hand, for countries with strong leagues, such as Italy, the National teams were primarily composed of players playing in the local league. The same was true for countries weak in basketball (i.e. with both weak national team and local league) as their players are unable to get into strong foreign leagues. Portugal could be an example here.

Many NBA players represented their national teams, with the Spanish team having 6 NBA stars, the French team having 5, the Turkish team having 4, and so on. It was one of the strongest European basketball competition ever organized as a lot of European stars helped their nations.

The draw ceremony held on 30 January 2011 in the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Vilnius, divided the qualified teams into four groups of six, groups A, B, C, and D. The hosts of the evening were Jurgita Jurkutė and Vytautas Rumšas. The balls were drawn by retired basketball players European champions and Olympic medalists Stasys Stonkus, Modestas Paulauskas, Dino Meneghin, Sergejus Jovaiša, Alexander Anatolyevich Volkov and Arvydas Sabonis. A special concert followed the draw where a song was dedicated for each of the participating nations.

It was decided that Group A games would take place in Panevėžys, Group B in Šiauliai, Group C in Alytus and Group D in Klaipėda.

In the first stage every team had to play against every other team of their group (round robin). This meant five matches per team.

From every group the 3 best teams advanced to the second stage and the 3 worst teams were eliminated. In the second stage 2 new groups were formed. The 3 best teams from groups A and B were united to form group E whereas the 3 best teams from groups C and D were united to form group F.

In these two new groups of the second stage only matches by teams that had not yet played each other had to be played. As for the matches that had already happened in the first stage their results would also count in the second stage. Therefore, every team played 3 matches and there were 12 teams in the second stage.

Out of the second stage the 4 best teams from each of the two groups advanced to the quarterfinals (8 teams in total) whereas the 2 worst teams were eliminated from championship (4 teams in total).

Official mascot

A public contest was introduced to create the logo for the competition. 49 designs were presented initially to the organizers and the best three were sent to FIBA Europe, which selected the winning design. The author of it was designer Kęstutis Koira. The EuroBasket 2011 logo was unveiled on 24 January 2009 in Cido Arena, Panevėžys, during the final game of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation Cup. It displays the Columns of Gediminas overlaid on a backboard.

Lithuania is the first host country of EuroBasket to have an official EuroBasket song. The song "Celebrate basketball", written by Marijonas Mikutavičius and performed by Mia, Mantas Jankavičius and Marijonas Mikutavičius, was chosen by a televoting in Lithuania. There are two versions of the song – in Lithuanian[7] and English.[8] Later, another version was added – "Nebetyli sirgaliai" (lit. The Fans are no Longer Quiet).

The mascot of the championship was Amberis. Its head was in the form and color of a piece of amber. The name "Amberis" is a portmanteau of the English word amber and the Lithuanian nominative case masculine gender ending "is". The real word for amber in Lithuanian is Gintaras. There was an Amberis in every arena and quite frequently there were more than a single Amberis at a time interacting with each other as well as spectators. On the screens in the arenas a "legend" was shown where a piece of amber was given by a coach to a young basketball player to bring him luck and this piece turned into Amberis.

Huge ball in Vilnius center.

Basketball enjoys extraordinary popularity in Lithuania. As such, many events were organized to mark the championship, including:

• In summer 2011 a dribble marathon around the whole of Lithuania was organized. Groups of people would dribble from one town to the next one, where they would give the balls to another set of people who would then dribble to the next town and so on. Every town of Lithuania was visited with TV documenting the events every day. Among the people who took part in the event were the president of Lithuania, several ministers, mayors, sportsmen, opera and ballet stars and so on. In the end the 13 balls were given to the Lithuanian National Basketball team on 29 August 2011.
• On 29 August 2011, Lithuania set a new record for simultaneous dribbling, previously held by Poland. 60,000 Lithuanians from Vilnius, Kaunas, Panevėžys, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Alytus dribbled Molten balls simultaneously, beating Poland's record of 30,000 people.
• The Vilnius TV Tower observation deck was turned into a large basketball basket. It was made of lights that shone in the dark. The "basket" was 160 meters tall, higher than any other building in Lithuania.
• Composer Vidmantas Bartulis and poet Gintaras Patackas wrote an oratorio for basketball called "That Space-like Feeling of Basketball" ("Tas kosminis krepšinio jausmas"). This oratorio, praising basketball and Kauno Žalgiris team, was performed during the opening of Kaunas Arena on 16 August 2011.

Additionally, from Spring 2011, many of the TV and newspaper advertisements became basketball-oriented. Each of the cities where EuroBasket 2011 would take place received many minor details marking the championship: for example, the trash bins in Panevėžys were repainted to look like basketballs, an abandoned building in Vilnius had its windows covered by flags of the participant nations while balls were drawn on the pavement in some places.

Many ordinary Lithuanians decorated their cars with small Lithuanian flags flying above side windows (like during every other basketball championship). Flags covering the opposite side of the car mirrors are also popular. Some foreign fans who visited Lithuania during the championship adopted this practice as well.

A major Lithuanian news company adopted the practice of predicting each Lithuania national basketball team match in the EuroBasket. Lazdeika the Crab served as the oracle. The crab selected one of the two coconut shells to hide in when light was shone on it. Each of the two coconut shells has a country's flag – Lithuania's flag and opponent flag. At the beginning the crab's guesses would prove to be correct yet in the end they went wrong. Some people believe that the predictions were fixed - that is, the crab would be filmed many times and only when its "prediction" would match that of bookmakers would the "prediction" be aired on TV.

At least some matches were broadcast in 150 countries and territories all over the world.[3]

Country Broadcaster  Albania SuperSport Albania  Argentina DirecTV  Belgium Be TV TELENET  Bosnia and Herzegovina BHRT  Brazil SporTV ESPN Brasil Band Sports TV Esporte Interativo  Bulgaria BNT  Croatia HRT  Czech Republic ČTV Sport 1  Cyprus Lumiere TV  Denmark Viasat Sport  Great Britain ESPN BBC Red Button  Estonia Viasat Sport  Finland Viasat Sport Nelonen Pro  France Sport+  Macedonia Sitel Sitel 3  Georgia 1TV  Germany Sport1  Greece ERT  Hungary Sport 1  Israel IBA Charlton

TV commentators for EuroBasket 2011 Country Broadcaster  Italy RAI  Latvia TV6[9]  Lithuania TV3 Viasat Sport  Japan J Sports  Montenegro RTCG  Norway Viasat Sport  Philippines Basketball TV/AKTV  Poland TVP  Portugal Sport TV  Qatar Al Jazeera Sports  Russia NTV Plus Russia 2  Romania Sport 1  Serbia RTS 1  Slovakia Sport 1  Slovenia RTVSLO Šport TV  South Africa SuperSport  Spain La Sexta Marca TV  Sweden TV10  Taiwan Videoland  Turkey NTV Spor  Ukraine 2+2  USA ESPN3

According to the Lithuanian Basketball Association the championship expenses were 32 million Litas and the income was 34.8 million Litas, which means the profit of the event was 2.8 million Litas.[3]

Out of the 32 million Litas expenses some 9.8 million were funded by the Lithuanian state institutions whereas the remaining 22.2 million were amassed from sponsors or other sources. It is assumed that the state earned 11.9 million Litas due to VAT taxes paid by 20 000 foreign visitors therefore earning a 2.1 million Litas profit.[3]

Out of the 34.8 million litas income 24.7 million Litas were amassed by selling tickets (TV rights and certain other rights are owned by FIBA rather than the local basketball association and therefore are not included in the revenues).[3]

During the championship there were 3,984 people responsible for safety and 1,500 volunteers responsible for various duties such as helping spectators or giving the balls for play. The 1,500 volunteers were chosen out of 6,000 persons who wanted to volunteer.

1,300 journalists worked in the championships, out of them 200 were TV and radio commentators. 1,300 media accreditation licenses were issued.[3]

Teams played each other once. The top three placed teams move on to the next round. In the event of a tie on points, direct matches between (points and goal average, i.e. points for/points against) were taken into account, if still tied, goal average in all matches was used as tiebreaker and not points difference.[10][11]

All times are local (UTC+3)

Group A

Venue: Cido Arena, Panevėžys

Main article: EuroBasket 2011 Group A

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	GA	Pts.	Tie
Spain	5	4	1	404	364	1.109	9	1–0
Lithuania	5	4	1	429	374	1.147	9	0–1
Turkey	5	3	2	385	333	1.156	8
Great Britain	5	2	3	372	410	0.907	7	1–0
Poland	5	2	3	401	424	0.945	7	0–1
Portugal	5	0	5	344	430	0.800	5

31 August 2011
Spain	83–78	Poland
Turkey	79–56	Portugal
Lithuania	80–69	Great Britain
1 September 2011
Portugal	73–87	Spain
Great Britain	61–90	Turkey
Poland	77–97	Lithuania
2 September 2011
Spain	86–69	Great Britain
Portugal	73–81	Poland
Turkey	68–75	Lithuania
4 September 2011
Great Britain	85–73	Portugal
Poland	84–83	Turkey
Lithuania	79–91	Spain
5 September 2011
Great Britain	88–81	Poland
Spain	57–65	Turkey
Portugal	69–98	Lithuania

Group B

Venue: Šiauliai Arena, Šiauliai

Main article: EuroBasket 2011 Group B

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	GA	Pts.
France	5	5	0	438	391	1.120	10
Serbia	5	4	1	432	386	1.119	9
Germany	5	3	2	377	357	1.056	8
Israel	5	2	3	399	448	0.891	7
Italy	5	1	4	380	405	0.938	6
Latvia	5	0	5	385	424	0.908	5

31 August 2011
Serbia	80–68	Italy
France	89–78	Latvia
Germany	91–64	Israel
1 September 2011
Latvia	77–92	Serbia
Israel	68–85	France
Italy	62–76	Germany
2 September 2011
Serbia	89–80	Israel
Latvia	62–71	Italy
France	76–65	Germany
4 September 2011
Israel	91–88	Latvia
Italy	84–91	France
Germany	64–75	Serbia
5 September 2011
Israel	96–95 (OT)	Italy
Latvia	80–81	Germany
Serbia	96–97 (OT)	France

Group C

Venue: Alytus Arena, Alytus

Main article: EuroBasket 2011 Group C

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	GA	Pts.	Tie
Macedonia	5	4	1	362	337	1.074	9	1–0
Greece	5	4	1	360	324	1.129	9	0–1
Finland	5	2	3	373	366	1.019	7	1–1, 1.155
Croatia	5	2	3	396	404	0.980	7	1–1, 0.959
Bosnia and Herzegovina	5	2	3	380	409	0.929	7	1–1, 0.907
Montenegro	5	1	4	357	388	0.921	6

31 August 2011
Montenegro	70–65 (OT)	Macedonia
Greece	76–67	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia	84–79	Finland
1 September 2011
Bosnia and Herzegovina	94–86	Montenegro
Finland	61–81	Greece
Macedonia	78–76	Croatia
3 September 2011
Finland	92–64	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Greece	58–72	Macedonia
Croatia	97–81	Montenegro
4 September 2011
Macedonia	72–70	Finland
Montenegro	55–71	Greece
Bosnia and Herzegovina	92–80	Croatia
5 September 2011
Finland	71–65	Montenegro
Greece	74–69	Croatia
Macedonia	75–63	Bosnia and Herzegovina

Group D

Venue: Klaipėda Arena, Klaipėda

Main article: EuroBasket 2011 Group D

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	GA	Pts.	Tie
Russia	5	5	0	371	321	1.155	10
Slovenia	5	4	1	356	324	1.098	9
Georgia	5	2	3	352	343	1.026	7	1–1, 1.045
Bulgaria	5	2	3	339	357	0.949	7	1–1, 0.993
Ukraine	5	2	3	322	327	0.984	7	1–1, 0.960
Belgium	5	0	5	304	372	0.817	5

31 August 2011
Belgium	59–81	Georgia
Slovenia	67–59	Bulgaria
Russia	73–64	Ukraine
1 September 2011
Bulgaria	68–65	Belgium
Georgia	58–65	Russia
Ukraine	64–68	Slovenia
3 September 2011
Ukraine	67–56	Bulgaria
Slovenia	87–75	Georgia
Russia	79–58	Belgium
4 September 2011
Georgia	69–53	Ukraine
Bulgaria	77–89	Russia
Belgium	61–70	Slovenia
5 September 2011
Georgia	69–79	Bulgaria
Slovenia	64–65	Russia
Ukraine	74–61	Belgium

Finals: Spain vs. France

Bronze game: Macedonia vs. Russia

5th place game: Lithuania vs. Greece

All matches were played in: Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas[12]

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	14 September
	Spain	86
					16 September
	Slovenia	64
					Spain	92
	14 September
					Macedonia	80
	Macedonia	67
									18 September
	Lithuania	65
									Spain	98
	15 September
									France	85
	France	64
					16 September
	Greece	56
					France	79
	15 September
					Russia	71			Third place
	Russia	77
									18 September
	Serbia	67
									Macedonia	68
									Russia	72

5th place bracket

	Semi-finals				Fifth place
	15 September
	Slovenia	77
					17 September
	Lithuania	80
					Lithuania	73
	16 September
					Greece	69
	Greece	87
	Serbia	77
					Seventh place
					17 September
					Slovenia	72
					Serbia	68

Quarterfinals

14 September 18:00

Report

Spain	86–64	Slovenia
Scoring by quarter: 16–23, 19–8, 36–14, 15–19

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 11,000

14 September 21:00

Report

Macedonia	67–65	Lithuania
Scoring by quarter: 18–20, 12–14, 19–18, 18–13

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 15,000

15 September 18:00

Report

France	64–56	Greece
Scoring by quarter: 14–17, 13–14, 13–12, 24–13

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 9,000

15 September 21:00

Report

Russia	77–67	Serbia
Scoring by quarter: 16–12, 18–15, 20–21, 23–19

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 11,500

Classification 5–8

15 September 15:30

Report

Slovenia	77–80	Lithuania
Scoring by quarter: 20–19, 13–25, 24–19, 20–17

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 11,000

16 September 15:00

Report

Greece	87–77	Serbia
Scoring by quarter: 34–8, 14–18, 16–22, 23–29

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 1,500

Semifinals

16 September 17:30

Report

Spain	92–80	Macedonia
Scoring by quarter: 26–18, 18–27, 27–17, 21–18

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 11,000

16 September 21:00

Report

France	79–71	Russia
Scoring by quarter: 17–16, 22–18, 16–13, 24–24

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 14,000

Seventh place game

17 September 18:00

Report

Slovenia	72–68	Serbia
Scoring by quarter: 27–20, 17–19, 20–12, 8–17

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 5,000

Fifth place game

17 September 21:00

Report

Lithuania	73–69	Greece
Scoring by quarter: 14–20, 18–17, 24–11, 17–21

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 14,000

Third place game

18 September 17:30

Report

Macedonia	68–72	Russia
Scoring by quarter: 13–17, 17–19, 20–16, 18–20

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 11,000

Final

Main article: EuroBasket 2011 Final

18 September 21:00

Report

Spain	98–85	France
Scoring by quarter: 25–20, 25–21, 25–21, 23–23

Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas Attendance: 14,500 Referees: Luigi Lamonica (ITA), Ilija Belosevic (SRB), Sreten Radovic (CRO)

EuroBasket 2011 champions
Spain Second title

Results

Spain became the Champions of Europe

France won their second Silver medals

Russia won Bronze medals

Macedonia was only one-step away from their first ever EuroBasket medal

The results of the championship included some surprises. Finland and Georgia, the latter supported by some 1,500 fans who had traveled to Lithuania, managed to reach the second stage despite being allowed to take part in the championship only after FIBA Europe decision. In fact Finland had the possibility of advancing to the quarterfinals until the very last game against Slovenia.

Croatia on the other hand was a powerful team that failed to reach even the second stage. Turkey with 5 NBA players failed to reach the quarterfinals.

The biggest surprise was probably Macedonia, a country that had had no major basketball victories prior to this championship. Having lost only two games in the first and second stages and these two by just a single point each (one of them after overtime) Macedonia easily advanced to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals the Macedonians defeated the hosts Lithuanians, and went to the semifinals.

A match between Georgia and Russia in Klaipėda was regarded to have political significance due to these countries having recently fought a war (the South Ossetia War). There were more than 1,000 Georgians and under 1,000 Russians in the arena during the game and large police forces were amassed to prevent possible riots. Despite the tight battle the Russians defeated the Georgians and prevented any surprise result. No riots happened.

These are the final standings. Two countries, Spain and France, qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics basketball tournament outright. Four more qualified for the 2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament, with Russia and Lithuania obtaining qualification through the tournament. In addition, Great Britain qualified as host.

Rank	Team	Record
	Spain	10–1
	France	9–2
	Russia	10–1
4	Macedonia	7–4
5	Lithuania	8–3
6	Greece	7–4
7	Slovenia	6–5
8	Serbia	5–6
9-10	Germany	4–4
	Finland	3–5
11-12	Turkey	3–5
	Georgia	2–6
13-16	Croatia	2–3
	Bulgaria	2–3
	Great Britain	2–3
	Israel	2–3
17-20	Ukraine	2–3
	Poland	2–3
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2–3
	Italy	1–4
21-24	Montenegro	1–4
	Latvia	0–5
	Belgium	0–5
	Portugal	0–5