Greece loves basketball, they join different tournaments for them to be known to the world as one of the best basketball teams.
The Greek national basketball team has a decade long tradition of excellence in the sport. In August 2008 Greece was able to rank 4th in the world. They had also won numerous championship titles such as European Championship which they’ve won twice in year 1987 and 2005. They had also reached the final four in three of the FIBA World Championships and was able to place second in the 2006 tournament.
Now let us discuss the history of basketball in Greece
The history of basketball in Greece was quite dramatic at the start, they had a hard time in becoming known in the world and they had a difficulty in defeating their opponents but thru time they were able to surpass the trial and had became successful in the field of basketball.
They were able to show that they are as well a good competitor like other international teams. In fact they even won numerous awards and had a place in some of the FIBA World Championships. They are also considered as the world’s top basketball team.
Greece National basketball team
The history of basketball in Greece would not be complete without the Greece National Basketball team, it is the representative for Greece in international men’s basketball competitions. It is organized and run by the Hellenic Basketball Federation.
The history of basketball in Greece is quite long, the country was one of the eight founding members of the International Basketball Federation in 1932. During the early years the Greece men’s National basketball team is considered as a second class power in international basketball, they were able to regain their name when they began winning in the mid-1980s in the EuroBasket 1987.
It was the first major international title they have ever won in any sports. Due to the championship title basketball became popular in the country and the people became more active in the sport basketball which results for Greece to place high level on the basketball stage. In 1990s they became successful in basketball but they were not able to get medals.
They never fell below the 6th place but they never ranked 3rd, 2nd or first they usually end up in the 4th place. But in year 1999-2002 the Greece was in their dark days they only ranked 16th in the EuroBasket 1999, they were defeated as early as in the preliminary round.
The revival of Greece started in EuroBasket 2003 where they finished 5th but the citizens of Greek was not interested that time maybe because of the successive lost of Greece in its previous competitions people their began to lose interest in basketball .In the 2004 Olympics in which Greece is the host of the competition the hopes of the people there where awaken it was in fact their biggest chance in winning the basketball competition unfortunately the lost against Argentina which made them not move in the finals.
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