The gap between European basketball and the United States is narrowing, and Western Europe has surpassed Eastern Europe

In the European Cup of Men's Basketball Team, Germany defeated Türkiye and won the championship.

This is a landmark event. In recent years, Western European basketball has risen in full swing.

The European representatives such as Spain, Germany, and France have achieved records in the European Cup, World Cup and Olympics, which have surpassed Eastern European teams.

When we look at this historical process again, it is not difficult to find that

European basketball has risen in full swing, and the gap between them and the United States is narrowing significantly. For example, the United States was once defeated by Lithuania, Germany, and Canada in the World Cup; in the Olympics, the United States defeated Serbia and France, and the process was very difficult. We can't even imagine the record of the US team in the Olympics after James Durant Curry retired.

Europe has risen and gradually approached the US team for the reasons as follows:

1. Rules impact:

FIBA does not have the NBA's defensive three-point rule, so that the big center can enter the penalty area and reduce physical energy consumption; therefore, European teams attach great importance to the training of big centers.

Due to the NBA's defensive rules, it even affected the construction of the US team, making the US local center more mobile, modern centers, while modern centers suffer losses when encountering European team big centers under FIBA ​​rules.

If this continues, the US center has become a shortcoming, which is an important reason for narrowing the gap.

2. Institutional impact:

European youth training training mechanism is becoming increasingly optimized, and the echelon construction is gradually improving, providing talent reserves for European basketball. Antetokounmpo and Jokic learned basketball very late and were also discovered.

Clubs and leagues have developed well, such as the European Basketball Champions League, the Spanish ACB Basketball League, the Turkish BSL League, the Italian LBA League, and the German BBL League have developed well; while Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Olympiacos and Panasinaks have become increasingly prosperous.

3. Player influence:

In addition to European local excavation, Europe has had a great impact on immigration, mixed race and naturalization in recent years, which has improved the team's strength. For example, Schroeder and Wenban Yama are both second-generation immigrants with mixed races; Antetokounmpo is even an African refugee.

4. Influence of the small ball era:

With the arrival of the NBA's small ball era, offensive space and team basketball are increasingly valued, which happens to be the expertise of European basketball.

has absorbed the idea of ​​European offensive in the NBA, so European players are becoming more and more popular in the NBA and joining the NBA training, which naturally improves the abilities of European players.

In addition, Western European countries (represented by Spain, France and Germany) have shown strength beyond Eastern Europe.

Let's first sort out the changes in European basketball regional strength

1. After World War II-80s: Eastern Europe has long suppressed Western Europe

Eastern European powers led by the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, ruled the European basketball world, and Soviet players such as Belov and Sabonis emerged; former Yugoslav players such as Korachi, Dalipadic, and Petrovic

These countries adopt a national system, with strong support for materials selection, training, and scientific research, and a mature coaching system.

The Olympics, World Championships and European Championships were almost monopolized by Eastern European countries at that time. Western European teams (France, Spain, Italy, Greece) can only occasionally show their talents.

2. 1990s: The gap between East and West Europe narrowed, and Eastern Europe remained strong.

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the strength of these two super-strong teams was dispersed, forming several strong teams, with Serbia, Croatia and Lithuania the strongest. In addition, Russia, Latvia, Georgia and other companies are also in good shape.

At this time, after the disintegration, Eastern Europe still retained the players trained by the national system, and Eastern Europe is still strong.

For example, in Croatia, there are the golden generations of Petrovic, Kukochi and Raja, Serbia has the golden generation represented by Peja and Divac, and Lithuania has the golden generation represented by Jaskovihus and Sabonis, and it is very strong.

Western Europe began to catch up, and the level of youth training and professional leagues improved rapidly, and Nowitzki even entered the NBA with a draft.

3. First decade of the 21st century: East and West Europe remained the same

With Western European players such as Nowitzki, Parker, and Gasol becoming famous in the NBA, the level of European youth training and professional leagues improved, Western Europe caught up with Eastern Europe in all respects.

Spain represented by Gasol, Navarro, Rudy Fernandez and Calderon, France represented by Tony Parker and Dior have become world-class teams; Germany and Italy also have good strength.

Eastern Europe is also strong, such as the Greek team represented by Spanoris and Papalucas, and Türkiye represented by Tkoglu and Okur.

4, 2010~Today: Western Europe is even slightly stronger than Eastern Europe.

Spain has long been at the forefront of the world (Gasol Brothers, Rubio, Fernandez, etc.). France and Germany are not as strong as any team.

Relatively speaking, the Eastern European national team is also strong, but the strength lies in individuals (such as Antetokounmpo's Greece, Doncic's Slovenia, Jokic's Serbia), while Western European countries are more prominent in collective honor. The reason why Western Europe can surpass Eastern Europe is:

1. Eastern European countries generally have fewer populations than Western Europe, which determines that the talent pool is inferior to Western Europe.

Eastern European countries have top superstars, but it is difficult to equip a strong teammate group.

Actually, if Yugoslavia did not disintegrate into Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and these players are still in the same team, then how strong is Yugoslavia now.

2. Eastern Europe is not as wealthy as Western Europe, which makes talents migrate to Western Europe.

After the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the South China Sea, the country gave up the national system and changed to the path of professionalism. At this time, their competitiveness was not as good as that of Western Europe, which had a strong financial situation.

3. There are also African immigrants, mixed races and naturalized players who are constantly joining in Western Europe.

France, Spain, Italy and Portugal are countries that accept a lot of African immigration. In recent years, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have also seen significant growth. Black people's speed and explosive power can fill the shortcomings of European basketball.

In addition, the second and third generations of African immigrants have also improved the local basketball genes. Schroeder and Wenban Yama are both typical representatives.

Naturalized players are also supplementing the talent pool. Spain is a typical representative. He once naturalized Ibaka of Congo and Mirotic of Montenegro.

4. The youth training and professional leagues in Western Europe are better than those in Eastern Europe.

Western Europe has many talents, good youth training, and professional leagues are held with great success, such as the European Basketball Champions League, the Spanish ACB Basketball League, the Italian LBA League, and the German BBL League are all in full swing.

In fact, Eastern Europe is more representative of the Turkish BSL League, Greece A1 League, and Russia's VTB League. They also have good wealthy families, such as Fenerbahce in Turkey, Effis, Olympiacos in Greece, Panasinaikos in Russia, and CSKA Moscow in Russia.

Türkiye and Greece have very high basketball skills. Greece also has the golden generation of Spanoris and Papalucas.

However, in recent years, the overall decline in the leagues in Eastern Europe have been completely different from the upward trend in Western Europe. This is mainly because the Greek league was affected by the European debt crisis; and due to the influence of the Russian-Ukrainian war politics, Russia's Eastern European VTB League has long since lost its courage as before.

All these things have led to the gradual overtake of Eastern Europe by Western Europe.