Can Antetokounmpo Lead Greece to Glory at EuroBasket 2022?

Greece’s National Team is gearing up for its first game at EuroBasket 2022 against Croatia on Friday, as the much-awaited competition begins on Thursday.

Giannis Antetokounmpo wasted no time in capturing headlines ahead of EuroBasket 2022, with forty points in Greece’s FIBA Basketball World Cup European Qualifiers against Jokic and Serbia.

Even though his efforts resulted in a loss, Antetokounmpo became the first player in the history of European Qualifiers to cross the forty-point threshold, providing a taste of what to expect when EuroBasket gets underway.

Greece is the third favorite to get the Gold at EuroBasket 2022

According to a vote of the International Basketball Federation, Greece is considered the third favorite to win the gold medal behind France and Slovenia. Greece garnered 15.2 percent of the votes while France and Slovenia are tied for first place with 30.4 percent. Serbia was fourth with 12.7 percent in the pre-game polls.

Six games are on the Day 1 schedule across the cities of Tbilisi, Georgia and Cologne, Germany with some highly anticipated matchups to look forward to. The opening day sees both the defending champions and the reigning FIBA Basketball World Cup champions in action.

All eyes will be on Luka Doncic and Slovenia as they look to back up their title triumph from five years ago. They start against an in-form Lithuania side in a repeat of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2020 Final in Kaunas of last year. World champions Spain start their campaign against Bulgaria in the Group A opener in Tbilisi.

There are twenty-four nations participating in EuroBasket, and they are split into four groups—Group A, Group B, Group C, and Group D. Each of those groups will feature six teams. The games will be played in four different cities for the length of group play.

Group A will play all of their games in Tbilisi, Georgia and will feature Belgium, Bulgaria, Georgia, Montenegro, Spain, and Turkey.

Group B will play all of their games in Cologne, Germany and will feature Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovenia.

Group C will play all of their games in Milan, Italy and will feature Croatia, Estonia, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, and Ukraine.

Group D will play all of their games in Prague, Czech Republic and will feature the Czech Republic, Finland, Israel, Netherlands, Poland, and Serbia.

Of the twenty-four teams who enter group play, only sixteen will move onto the tournament portion of EuroBasket which means two teams from each group will be eliminated. Once group play concludes, the remaining sixteen teams will head to Berlin, Germany for the EuroBasket Tournament where they will remain until a team emerges as the victor.

There are thirty-five NBA players taking part in EuroBasket spread throughout seventeen of the twenty-four participating teams. With the NBA becoming more global by the year, the number of NBA players participating in international tournaments continues to grow.

Greece’s roster for EuroBasket 2022

Greece’s roster for EuroBasket 2022 includes three Antetokounmpo brothers.

Dimitris Agravanis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kostas Antetokounmpo, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Lefteris Bochoridis, Nick Calathes, Tyler Dorsey, Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, Leonidas Kaselakis, Ioannis Kouzeloglou, Giannoulis Larentzakis, Michalis Lountzis, Georgios Papagiannis, Kostas Papanikolaou, Ioannis Papapetrou, Kostas Sloukas.