The Basketball World Cup will give us a Canada - United States, but for the third and fourth place. That's how unpredictable national team tournaments are. This Friday, Serbia and Germany created the two great surprises of the competition: 17 years later, two European teams will once again play for the throne of basketball. They will remember what happened in 2006 in Saitama, with Spain touching the sky against Greece. Now they will be Serbs and Germans, displacing the all-powerful North America and NBA stars from the world fight and putting FIBA Europe at the center of the map.

In the morning, the Serbia of Svetislav Pesic unhinged the imposing Canada, which had just eliminated Spain in the group stage and Latvia in the quarterfinals, coached by the Spanish Jordi Fernández under the command of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, member of the best NBA quintet of the last year. Next to him, RJ Barrett of the Knicks or Dillon Brooks of the Rockets. It didn't matter. The Balkans made the Canadians fall again and again into the same trap. Shai accumulated fouls too soon and when they wanted to react it was too late. Bogdan Bogdanovic, in MVP mode (23 points), pulled the offensive bandwagon of Serbia while his teammates culminated one of the best defensive performances of the tournament. In the end, 95-86 and prize for a selection that has been left at home to Nikola Jokic, double MVP of the NBA, and that will try to get rid of the thorn of the final lost in 2014.

A while later, world basketball returned to take its hands to the head with the triumph of Germany over the eternal Dream Team of the United States. The Germans, invited in the competition, took the step that history has denied them for years. It will be his first time in the final of a World Cup, something that not even Nowitzki could achieve (third in 2002). Led by Franz Wagner (22) and with the success of Schroder (17) and Obst (23) in the last minutes, they subdued a young American team and especially soft in defense for much of the game. USA, with Steve Kerr on the bench, received 60 points at halftime and 113 at the end of the match, a figure that made their victory unattainable despite the final attack of Austin Reaves.

The guard of the Lakers, helm of the team with Anthony Edwards, approached his team to a point with a minute and a half to go when the disadvantage became more than ten. It seemed that the Germans felt the vertigo on their skin, but greater was the fear of losing of the Americans. A three-pointer by Obst pulled Germany within four points, 107-111, Bonga blocked Bridges and Schroder scored two to push the gap to six, 107-113. It was done, and not even Reaves' impetus managed to turn it around. Edwards, the best of the USA during the tournament, failed in the direction of the last two attacks and the United States returned to say goodbye to gold, which has eluded him since the 2014 World Cup in Spain. In China 2019 they did not touch metal and this year they will have to resign themselves to fighting for bronze. Little baggage for him to defend himself as the best basketball in the world.

  • Basketball World Cup