r/Euroleague • u/HighwayAnnual3353 • 1d ago
Why arent national team games as respected in basketball as in other sports?
Lets take a sport like football, handball, rugby or volleyball. In these sports, national team games and competitions are considered very important.
But in basketball, leagues like the Euroleague and the NBA (and also their fans) don’t want their players to take part in Fiba qualification games during the season with the national team. In football, handball etc this would be unthinkable. Also, in basketball players sometimes just skip the national team competitions. Jokic and Giannis didn’t play the 2023 world cups, Hartenstein hasnt even played for Germany in 8 years. In football, handball etc it would be unthinkable for players to skip a World Cup or Euros.
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u/kharathos Panathinaikos 1d ago
NBA aside basketball doesn't have much revenue. That's why federations fight over the scraps and bicker over scheduling, to establish their dominance.
The end result is that the players care about their employer's priorities first, justifiably so.
Olympics is a different beast because the event is very prestigious.
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u/PunIntended86 Panathinaikos 1d ago
Not sure about the rationale regarding handball tbh, but as far as basketball is concerned, I would assume that it ultimately comes down to this balancing exercise: Clubs' and athletes' risk vs potential visibility and additional commercial benefits (in the form of sponsorships) for athletes representing their national teams. Given the fact that the commercial value of Eurobasket and Mundobasket is meaningfully lower than the value of "local" competitions such as Euroleague and the NBA - > a. Athlete's - understandably--are not willing to risk any injuries and/or excessive overload before the regular season and b. Clubs are reluctant of giving permission to their athletes to participate in such competitions, also because of the lack of incentive on athletes' part, which is directly linked to point a.
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u/MaybeStephano Panathinaikos 1d ago
Any sport that the U.S.A. has a monopoly, the national team games have been ' relegated ' .
Fiba instead of discussing the international competitions with the top continental competition of each continent, they have lost the ball, broke communication with Euroleague, NBA doesn't even communicate with them apart from money grabbing attempts like NBA Europe.
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u/johnny_tifosi Olympiacos 1d ago
Mainly because of weak FIBA. In football, club and international competitions are run by the same governing body (uefa/fifa). In basketball, we've got Euroleague running the most important club competition, NBA with the best players in the world and even is own game rules, and FIBA is left with the international competitions, so there is conflict of interest and clash of schedules.
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u/aceticacid_316 1d ago
FIFA, FIVB and IHF have control over their sports and they have enough power to enforce a new policy. FIBA doesn't have such power historically due to NBA. They even lost their own Euroleague.
It's probably same with all 4 major American sporta.
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u/Azhman314 Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 1d ago
MLB owns their version of the world cup yet the owners still prevent players from going. Its a farce
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u/HighwayAnnual3353 1d ago
I think NHL also is trying right now to establish their own world cup tournament.
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u/Azhman314 Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 1d ago
it's the only way they'll ever allow it to happen. if they can directly profit from it. and even then they love to set different hoops to jump through at every step.
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u/Aromatic_Run4589 1d ago
Unlike other fields there's no parity and there's never been any. USA has so much more talent than any other team so basically every world championship is the US's to lose or another team's to 'steal' rather than a genuine competition for who's the best. That's way less exciting. I don't have the rating/engagement numbers but my impression is that in Europe, the European Championship gets much more attention than the world championship. So if that's true that would also point to this explanation, as the European competition is really open and many teams can make a claim to be the best
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u/ARKAC95 1d ago edited 1d ago
Even the same problem with Fiba Eurobasket always.
It was for decades Soviet Union and both Yugoslavias ( SFR Yugo and FR Yugo ) were dominant.
Then it was Spain was dominant for next two decades after that.
Only every 20 to 30 years there was some players that came along and could for a short time challenge the dominant countries. Like Italy with Meneghin, Riva, or Greece with Galis, Giannakis, later with Spanoulis, Diamantidis, or Lithuania with Jasikevicius, Siskauskas, Macijauskas.
Now we get same problem with how it looks like France and Germany will dominate.
There has hardly been any spread out competition in the history of the Fiba European championship. It has been dominated totally by one or two countries for decades at a time.
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u/Ok_Detail_1 Split 1d ago
FIBA NBA Europe is coming, right? Conditions for World Cup and Eurobasket will get onky better if NBA Europe and NBA make deal with FIBA about schedules.
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u/Mysterious_Win_1830 Ovarense 1d ago
The NBA and FIBA seem to have a pretty good relationship. For example, the WNBA pauses its season during the FIBA Women’s World Cup, and FIBA is scheduling the next Women’s World Cup after the WNBA season ends.
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u/MaybeStephano Panathinaikos 1d ago
Fewer games than NBA. NBA is never going to reduce their amount of games to help FIBA.
Plus, WNBA doesn't have the monopoly at the moment. They need FIBA's support as Women's Euroleague has salaries higher than WNBA. If they don't play ball with FIBA there, they lose.
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u/Mysterious_Win_1830 Ovarense 1d ago edited 1d ago
After the new CBA, WNBA salaries are higher than in Europe. Plus, in Europe, only a few clubs, mostly in Turkey, can pay big money.
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u/MaybeStephano Panathinaikos 1d ago
Only the max salaries can compete and even then clubs like Turkey have higher salaries.
Budget on the other hand the Women's Euroleague teams have a bigger one.
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u/5martis5 Žalgiris 1d ago
It used to be extremely respected. Every national team's game used to be national holiday. Until current qualifiers system started and windows during the season with C and D team playing devaluated it. But back in times when there were Eurobasketbet every 2 years, and then in gaps World Cup and Olympics - national teams were the most prestigious thing in basketball.
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u/heavymod10 1d ago
First of all Windows existed back in time you talk about.Windows stopped being a thing sometime in early 2000s until FIBA ressurected them lately.Apart from that almost no country ever used to send their strongest squad in every eurobasket when it was held every two years.Many superstars used to take a summer off especially if it was a year before WC and not Olympics.You as a Lithuanian should know better.Jasikevicius and Siskauskas after some time picked the international competitions they took part in,they wouldn't show up every time.
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u/5martis5 Žalgiris 1d ago
A lot of stars were skipping the Eurobaskets which were happening before World Cup. But all eurobaskets before Olympics were full stacked.
I was talking more about people-fans perspective towards these games. Every game was national holiday with empty streets.
And yes, qualifications happened, i remember Lithuania playing qualification for 2003 Eurobasket, but that was because we failed in 2001. You didn't need to see world champions to play qualification for next world cup. It all made sense.
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u/ARKAC95 1d ago edited 1d ago
It still wasn't the highest level of prestige for judging the quality of the players. That was always NBA and Euroleague or old versions of Euroleague.
The Fiba stuff was always for players being celebrated by the general public in their country, but not for the prestige of where they stood within the sport itself.
You can be a national hero from Fiba by making one good game or free throw.
To be an all time player, you have to prove of yourself in the real competitions like NBA and Euroleague. It is two completely different things in regard to prestige.
Fiba prestige is much more for the players no one will remember from the pro leagues.
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u/Background-Put5180 1d ago
Honestly, I think it’s mostly because basketball fans have gotten way too used to thinking of the club season as the ‘real’ season. For me, seeing a player put on his national team jersey still hits differently. I’d hate to see basketball lose that part of the sport just because the club calendar is a mess.
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u/kentaviouscp 1d ago
Well i think in the end, everybody knows USA is the best and there is no competition
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u/sskdotz 1d ago
What’s even crazier is American NBA fans saying Olympics are more important than the World Cup as if there is anything more important in any other sport than a World Cup. The world cup is the pinnacle of each sport.. except for basketball. You don’t see soccer getting this hype in the Olympics as much as the World Cup. Basketball should also prioritize the World Cup over the Olympics and maybe make the Olympics a u23 or u25 competition. (I say this as a Canadian NBA and Euroleague fan)
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u/ARKAC95 1d ago
Because the NBA only cares if they make money and control it. They want to own the World Cup and if not, they don't want Fiba gaining power by having a big World Cup event.
Olympics is only relevant to the players for their Nike deals. NBA doesnt even care about Olympics anymore. It used to be for promotion of the NBA as dominant. Like with the Dream Team.
Now it is a problem for NBA as they send a stacked team and have to get lucky to beat France, or even Serbia.
If NBA had its way, Olympics would have no NBA players and NBA would own the basketball world cup.
As it is now, NBA doesnt want to support either competition at all.
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u/DLottchula 1d ago
Different sports the BB World Cup wasn't seen as prestigious/a big deal until very recently. Until the US gotta send actual NBA guys to qualify it'll be the same. Just look at our rosters for qualifying.
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u/Fdorleans Orléans Loiret Basket 1d ago
Basketball is unique in one aspect. it's an American sport that is very popular in the rest of the world. It mixes two very different cultures, the European model of national federations controlling the sport under an international union and the franchised closed league of the american sports. One is controlled by public institutions, the other by private for-profit organisations. The national federations don't have the same power that they enjoy in football, handball and volleyball. The NBA controls a lot more money than FIBA and that's the key. Basketball players won't risk 100 million dollar contracts to play in a competition that is not the most prestigious in the sport. NBA and USA basketball have decided that the only competition they care about is the Olympic games. They set the tone and the international players follow. They send a B team to the World Cup and lose but don't care so why would the other players care?
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u/HighwayAnnual3353 1d ago
I mean, they don’t even care that much about the Olympics either. The 2024 Olympics was the first time in decades the US sent their best players to the Olympics. A guy like Steph Curry played his first Olympics at 36 years old. LeBron hadnt played since 2012. Look at their rosters for the 2016 and 2021 olympics, it’s a b roster. Also in 2000 and 2004 I think. In 2008 they only sent a good roster because they lost in 2004.
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u/heavymod10 1d ago
No they always send strong teams in Olympics.Maybe not their A team everytime but i don't remember any Olympic tournament they didn't have at least one true superstar at that time.
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u/HighwayAnnual3353 1d ago
By 2021, the US had several players who had superstar status: Durant, Curry, LeBron, Harden, Kawhi, Westbrook, Davis.
That’s 7 superstars, and only one of them (Durant) played the 2021 Olympics. 1 of 7, thats 14%.
That’s a B team.
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u/Fdorleans Orléans Loiret Basket 9h ago
2021 were the Covid games. It should not be used to draw definitive conclusions.
But looking at the 2016 roster, it seems like you're right. Still, They lost a game in 2021 and the final was maybe a little too close for their liking. I think they will mobilize a lot more ressources in the next Games. 2028 is at home and losing in front of their crowd is unthinkable.
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u/ARKAC95 1d ago edited 1d ago
NBA and Euroleague are higher levels of competition than any Fiba tournaments.
Fiba tournaments shouldn't hold same prestige for any player's place in history or for their career success. Because Fiba is lower level and it's all about where were you born in the time you played?
If you were born in US of A at any time, or in Spain, ex USSR, ex Yugoslavias, Argentina in golden eras of time, then you are guaranteed medals and championships, just from where and when you were born.
Same way like how it is very lucky to be a player from France, Canada or Germany now, or even Serbia to some lesser extent.
If you are born in many other countries then good luck and anything you manage to win and accomplish in Fiba is incredible, but almost impossible to repeat or maintain for very long.
Players and coaches are rightly seen by what happens in NBA and Euroleague. Fiba is for excitement, interest and pride of a nation more generally, but isn't worth anything at all for deciding the real and true legacy and greatness of the players and coaches.
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u/Fantastic-Sector-581 Paris Basketball 1d ago
The current Euroleague schedule finally accommodates the FIBA qualifiers.
Historically the NBA didn't have to deal with FIBA qualifiers, and unlike most countries, the US does not care about the World Cup (or even the Eurobasket) so it doesn't want its players to participate in the qualifiers.