Farewell to Eurobasket 2011 - my impressions
Yesterday Lithuania said good bye to the biggest sporting event in this country not only this year but also this decade: European basketball championships 2011. Championships were really impressive and were held and felt not only in the arenas:
In this report my impressions about the championships.
I don't want to talk much about the results. They are well known: Spain - the champions , France - the silver medalists, Russia - bronze medalists. In the fourth place - the biggest surprise of the championships - Macedonia. This team made particularly painfull stab to the Lithuanian team in the quaterfinals. Lithuania finished fifth. In principle the results are fair: Spanish team now is clearly strongest team with the French team just behind them. Russian, Lithuanian and Serbian teams are approximatelly the same in the power and quality of the play but Macedonians really deserved their position for their devotion and will to win. But the report is about what's went outside the arenas. And here were many very interesting things.
Statistics says that there are only three countries in the world were basketball is the sports Nr. 1 - Lithuania, Lebanon and Phillipines :) And only Lithuania among those three countries may be assigned to the elite league in the basketball. So probably only in the Lithuania basketball championships may occupy whole towns and cities ... What was good from the organizational side - the championships were organized in 6 different towns and the big basketball festivity felt whole country.
How the center of Kaunas looked last week in example. The improvised basketball courts were built:
And those courts were used - the children played, the fans of various teams played , etc,.:
The fan of CSKA Moscow team in red shirt:
The man in gray hair in this photo - Nar Zanolin, the secretary general of FIBA:
Another interesting thing was the presence of various stars in Lithuania. Since our towns aren't big and the downtowns are rather concentrated this presence of various stars was felt particularly good. In example, last Saturday walking along the central street of Kaunas I met Spanish star Marc Gasol with girlfriend, looked further and saw how another Spanish megastar Juan Carlos Navarro goes in front of me, later met young Spanish star Ricky Rubio with girfriend and few other Spanish friends, Russian team with coach David Blatt and star Andrei Kirilenko sitting in open air caffe, former famous French tennis player (Nr 1 in the world in 1986) Yannick Noah who arrived to support his son - the center forward of French team Joaquin Noah, another French megastar, several times NBA champion Tony Parker walking with parents (it's pitty that he is divorced with his wife - Hollywood star Jennifer Lopez - since I probably missed the opportunity to drink a coffee in the same bar with Hollywood star :))) Anyway I drank coffee together with NBA star :))) And I also saw another Hollywood star - John Malkovich. (He is filming in Vilnius now and being an avid basketball fan didn't missed the opportunity to visit Eurobasket). In supermarket near Kaunas Žalgiris arena we met deputy prime minister of Russia Sergey Ivanov on a shopping - he looked for the Lithuanian chocolates :)
But I made only one photo of the participants. It's the biggest surprise of the championships - the coach of the Macedonian tema Marin Dokuzovski. The man who worked only in Macedonia and Bulgaria led his team to the 4th place and was very close to the bronze (Macedonians made close to win game also against the Spaniards in the semis):
The hotels were teams lived. Here lived Spain, France and Serbia:
And here - Macedonia, Russia, Greece and Slovenia:
Teams had the privilege to go escorted as the heads of states are usually escorted :))
I observed how one team arrived to the arena with escort:
Near the municipality - flags of the Eurobasket and FIBA at the place were normally the flags of the guest countries are placed:
The widespread sales of attributes for the fans:
What was boring - the increased security elsewhere:
Medical students used the opportunity to promote healthy way of life - even using the orchestra:
And the best seen thing - the fans from various countries. What we missed here in Kaunas is the fans from Georgia. In the first round in Klaipėda there were about 1500 Georgian fans. It was big thing for this country - their national team took part in the major European championship for the first time. And there were fewer fans from Slovenia than in the first rounds. But very successfull participatioin of Macedonian team attracted more than 1000 additional fans from Macedonia.
So the fans. Macedonian fans only begining to gather:
Slovenian fans marked bars with their signs:
Serbian fans - there were few of them but they had some very nice ladies:))
French supporters - they were special ones. Least seen in public but very eager to buy the souvenirs, etc. Not surprise may be since French team was supported mainly by older people:
Russian fans - easily recognizable since used to wear national shirts:
But the best recognizable were the Spanish fans. There were many of them and they were loudly :)) "Viva Espana" - this slogan was heard many times in the Kaunas center last week :)))
These Spanish fans were too late probably and now probably desperatly looking for the place to live here for a few days :))
Unindentified fan :)))
Slovenian and Serbian fans could be easily confussed with the Russians :)
Still two hours before the match will begin but people beginning to gather :))
Good bye championships. I am also making the break and heading for a several days to the south of France :)))
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In this report my impressions about the championships.
I don't want to talk much about the results. They are well known: Spain - the champions , France - the silver medalists, Russia - bronze medalists. In the fourth place - the biggest surprise of the championships - Macedonia. This team made particularly painfull stab to the Lithuanian team in the quaterfinals. Lithuania finished fifth. In principle the results are fair: Spanish team now is clearly strongest team with the French team just behind them. Russian, Lithuanian and Serbian teams are approximatelly the same in the power and quality of the play but Macedonians really deserved their position for their devotion and will to win. But the report is about what's went outside the arenas. And here were many very interesting things.
Statistics says that there are only three countries in the world were basketball is the sports Nr. 1 - Lithuania, Lebanon and Phillipines :) And only Lithuania among those three countries may be assigned to the elite league in the basketball. So probably only in the Lithuania basketball championships may occupy whole towns and cities ... What was good from the organizational side - the championships were organized in 6 different towns and the big basketball festivity felt whole country.
How the center of Kaunas looked last week in example. The improvised basketball courts were built:
And those courts were used - the children played, the fans of various teams played , etc,.:
The fan of CSKA Moscow team in red shirt:
The man in gray hair in this photo - Nar Zanolin, the secretary general of FIBA:
Another interesting thing was the presence of various stars in Lithuania. Since our towns aren't big and the downtowns are rather concentrated this presence of various stars was felt particularly good. In example, last Saturday walking along the central street of Kaunas I met Spanish star Marc Gasol with girlfriend, looked further and saw how another Spanish megastar Juan Carlos Navarro goes in front of me, later met young Spanish star Ricky Rubio with girfriend and few other Spanish friends, Russian team with coach David Blatt and star Andrei Kirilenko sitting in open air caffe, former famous French tennis player (Nr 1 in the world in 1986) Yannick Noah who arrived to support his son - the center forward of French team Joaquin Noah, another French megastar, several times NBA champion Tony Parker walking with parents (it's pitty that he is divorced with his wife - Hollywood star Jennifer Lopez - since I probably missed the opportunity to drink a coffee in the same bar with Hollywood star :))) Anyway I drank coffee together with NBA star :))) And I also saw another Hollywood star - John Malkovich. (He is filming in Vilnius now and being an avid basketball fan didn't missed the opportunity to visit Eurobasket). In supermarket near Kaunas Žalgiris arena we met deputy prime minister of Russia Sergey Ivanov on a shopping - he looked for the Lithuanian chocolates :)
But I made only one photo of the participants. It's the biggest surprise of the championships - the coach of the Macedonian tema Marin Dokuzovski. The man who worked only in Macedonia and Bulgaria led his team to the 4th place and was very close to the bronze (Macedonians made close to win game also against the Spaniards in the semis):
The hotels were teams lived. Here lived Spain, France and Serbia:
And here - Macedonia, Russia, Greece and Slovenia:
Teams had the privilege to go escorted as the heads of states are usually escorted :))
I observed how one team arrived to the arena with escort:
Near the municipality - flags of the Eurobasket and FIBA at the place were normally the flags of the guest countries are placed:
The widespread sales of attributes for the fans:
What was boring - the increased security elsewhere:
Medical students used the opportunity to promote healthy way of life - even using the orchestra:
And the best seen thing - the fans from various countries. What we missed here in Kaunas is the fans from Georgia. In the first round in Klaipėda there were about 1500 Georgian fans. It was big thing for this country - their national team took part in the major European championship for the first time. And there were fewer fans from Slovenia than in the first rounds. But very successfull participatioin of Macedonian team attracted more than 1000 additional fans from Macedonia.
So the fans. Macedonian fans only begining to gather:
Slovenian fans marked bars with their signs:
Serbian fans - there were few of them but they had some very nice ladies:))
French supporters - they were special ones. Least seen in public but very eager to buy the souvenirs, etc. Not surprise may be since French team was supported mainly by older people:
Russian fans - easily recognizable since used to wear national shirts:
But the best recognizable were the Spanish fans. There were many of them and they were loudly :)) "Viva Espana" - this slogan was heard many times in the Kaunas center last week :)))
These Spanish fans were too late probably and now probably desperatly looking for the place to live here for a few days :))
Unindentified fan :)))
Slovenian and Serbian fans could be easily confussed with the Russians :)
Still two hours before the match will begin but people beginning to gather :))
Good bye championships. I am also making the break and heading for a several days to the south of France :)))
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