super heavy artillery

Chapter 742 Once glorious

Speaking of the Russian men's basketball team, one has to show off the glory of their ancestors.Of course, all of this is what they inherited from the Soviet men's basketball team.

Like their powerful country, the Soviet men's basketball team has dominated European basketball since the 50s.A total of 14 European Championships, 3 European Championship runner-ups and 4 European Championship runner-ups, including a wave of terrible eight consecutive championships.

苏联篮球也多次征服世界，2枚奥运会金牌、4枚奥运会银牌、3枚奥运会铜牌、3次世锦赛冠军、3次世锦赛亚军和2次世锦赛季军是苏联男篮在世界舞台留下的印迹。

As the only two superpowers in the world at that time, the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union was also reflected on the basketball court.Of course, the American basketball undoubtedly has an overwhelming advantage in the confrontation between the two sides. From 1952 to 1968, although the Soviet men's basketball team achieved three silver and one bronze in the Olympic Games, they lost six times. US team.

All this changed in 1967, when the Soviet men's basketball team began to break the monopoly of the American men's basketball team in the World Series.That year, under the leadership of the legendary Soviet defender Sergei Belov, the Soviet men's basketball team won the World Championships for the first time.However, the US men's basketball team has never valued the World Championships.However, at the Munich Olympics in 1972, the Soviet men's basketball team really broke the monopoly of the American men's basketball team.In the last 3 seconds of the men's basketball final, they "lore" the basketball overlord of the US team at the time, and won the Olympic men's basketball gold medal for the first time.

However, the American men's basketball team was not convinced by the loss this time. They believed that the last 3 seconds should not exist, and even refused to go on stage to receive the silver medal.But in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the Soviet men's basketball team once again dealt a heavy blow to the US men's basketball team.The Soviet elite team led by Sabonis met the U.S. team in the semi-finals, defeated the U.S. and successfully defeated Yugoslavia in the final to win the Olympic gold medal.

In that game, Sabonis, known as the "No. 90 Center in Europe", beat the "Admiral" David Robinson, one of the top centers in the 28s NBA, to the point where he could not fight back.Kurtinides was like no one in the US defense, scoring 6 points!Although the final point difference between the two teams was only [-] points, the proud Americans thought it was a complete failure.

It was after this defeat that the Americans finally realized that the era of relying on college players to dominate the world is gone forever.They began to move around in various ways, just as the Olympic Games were encountering a bottleneck period, Samaranch also hoped to reform the Olympic Games, so in 1989, FIBA ​​changed the rules to allow professional players to participate in international basketball events.Ever since, in 1992, the "Dream Team" composed of NBA superstars such as Jordan, Magician, Bird, Barkley, etc. was born at the Barcelona Olympics, shocking the entire basketball world!

No matter how dominant the American men's basketball team was after that, the Soviet men's basketball team was always the team that directly defeated them in international competitions.Of course, after many years, Argentina turned out to share this great achievement with the Soviet men's basketball team.

The glory of the Soviet men's basketball team, just like their country, was completely sealed in the dust of history after 1991.The "Polar Bears", who inherited the mantle of most of the Soviet men's basketball team, ushered in the last period of glory: they won the runner-up in the European Men's Basketball Championship in 1993; they won the runner-up again in the 1994 Men's Basketball World Championship; In 97, they won the third place in the European Championships and the second place in the World Championships respectively.

Since then they have fallen into a 10-year downturn, and they have not even been able to qualify for the Athens Olympics.It was not until the 2007 European Championships that under the leadership of the new basketball leader Kirilenko and coach Blatter, he recovered and reached the top of Europe.

However, this period of high light came to an end at the 2012 London Olympics.After that Olympic Games, the Russian men's basketball team experienced Kirilenko's fading out and Blatter's departure, and they fell silent again.Next, the Russian men's basketball team missed the 2014 Basketball World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.The European Cup performance in 2013 and 2015 was also mediocre, only finishing 21st and 17th.

Until 2017, the Russian men's basketball team won No.4 in the European Championship under the leadership of their basketball association chairman Kirilenko, and finally showed signs of recovery.Since then, the Russian men's basketball team has always been a strong force in European basketball.The world rankings are basically around 10th.

However, before the start of this World Cup, people ranked the Russian men's basketball team at 18th through the performance of each team in the World Cup qualifiers, which is not only lower than the 15th Chinese team, but also far behind the Chinese team. Nigeria in the same group.You know, Nigeria's world ranking is outside the 30th place.

The main reason for all this is still their core player Sheved.He withdrew from the World Cup due to an ankle injury.This is a huge blow to the Russian men's basketball team. In the 2017 European Cup, Shved is definitely one of the most eye-catching players.The highest score in a single game reached 33 points, and his lowest score was 20 points. He averaged 24.3 points per game and led the European Cup scoring list. .2017.He also participated in 4 games in this world preliminaries, averaging 2 points, 19 assists and 6 rebounds per game.

However, even without Sheved, Russia's strength is still very strong.Their backcourt combination is one of the most powerful offensive backcourt combinations in Europe.In the world preliminaries, point guard Kovostov averaged 12.1 points and 4.4 assists per game, and averaged 2.9 three-pointers per game, with a three-point shooting rate of 55.2%; shooting guard Kuragin averaged 12.9 points and 4.4 per game. With 4.4 rebounds and [-] assists, the two became the "splash brothers" of the Russian team.Forward Karashov is also a player with outstanding offensive ability. He is a left-handed shooter with a keen shooting awareness. He has good field vision and imagination and is willing to pass the ball for his teammates.As for other players, most of them are from CSKA Moscow and other domestic clubs. They are good at physical confrontation, have excellent overall ability and good tactical quality.

What's more, the Russians are known as the "fighting nation", and their men's basketball team also inherits this sturdy gene.Their style of play is fierce, emphasizing confrontation and full of fighting spirit.Therefore, in the game, the players of the Russian men's basketball team are often able to display extraordinary combat effectiveness.

In this World Cup, the "polar bear" is definitely not here to travel to China.Although they lost to the Argentine men's basketball team in the first round of the group stage, this does not mean that their strength is weak.

(End of this chapter)