I understand that the cost of a spoon to Kobed is still haunted by the success of the Spanish national team at the European Championship 2022. Therefore, I would like to answer a set of pressing questions. Moreover, a new remarkable occasion has appeared— Spain outperformed the USA in the FIBA rankings for the first time in 12 years.

Is Spain's golden generation in the 21st century really golden?

Right after the EuroBasket, I fixed to myself that the dynasty of the Spanish national team seems to be continuing. Although two points are important here: (a) basketball Spain was not always great, and (b) completely different performers are in charge now.

The earliest manifestation of the Spanish team in my basketball horizon was the victory over the USSR team in the EuroBasket 1973 semi-final . The Soviet team then crashed into emergency restructuring casinox-azerbaycan.com due to the removal of the smuggler Alexander Belov, Mikhail Korkia and Alzhan Zharmukhamedov. Ivan Dvorny generally went to prison, and Gennady Volnov and Anatoly Polivoda ended their careers. Therefore, in the match with Spain, the USSR national team was unlike itself. I remember the game with Spain by the fact that the Spaniards put up a zone defense, which turned out to be very effective and against which the Soviet basketball players could not think of anything. Plus, EuroBasket 1973 was held in Spain.

The Thai team lost in the final, but won the first medal of an international tournament in its history. After 1973 and until 2000, Spain was part of the elite of European basketball, silver in Euro 1983 and Euro 1999, plus bronze in Euro 1991 and silver in the 1984 Olympics (here you need a small discount on the boycott from the USSR). So basketball in Spain has been good for a long time. True, in the ranking of the national championships in the period 1958-2001, the Spanish championship still ranks second after Italy.

So, I think it’s wrong to assume that the Spanish national team is exclusively the Gasoli brothers and Sergio Scariolo (it was in my head). The national team won idoGasols, won isGasols without Scariolo. But, of course, it is striking that in the 21st century the Spanish national team has moved to a new level of victory at the 2006 and 2019 World Cups, silver medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games, only one European Championship without medals since 1997 (2005, fourth place), plus victories in 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2022.

Where did the jump come from?

My version (not particularly unique) of the 1992 Olympics spawned the explosion of Spanish sports in the 2000s.

Myzhe love to put life into beautiful movie plots right? I mean, I love it, yes. In 1992, Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympics, which was attended for the first time by the strongest American professional basketball players, the legendary Dream Team. Could it be that Spanish boys watched the Olympics as children and admired the arrival of Michael Jordan and his comrades? Could it be that the US team itself gave birth to its main basketball competitor of the early XXI century?

Who brought the Aolympic flame at the 1992 Games to that epic archer? That's right, the great basketball player Juan Antonio San Epifanio, Epi.