Step down for Turks

KUSADASI, Turkey – After carting away the silver medal at the World Basketball Championships in Istanbul last year, it was hardly expected that Turkey wouldn’t enter the quarterfinals of the 24-nation FIBA Europe joust now in the final stages in Lithuania.

But Turkey, bannered by three NBA cagers, bombed out of contention like a popped balloon, losing three in a row in the second round of eliminations. Not even Hedo Turkoglu of the Orlando Magic, Enes Kanter of the Utah Jazz and Omer Asik of the Chicago Bulls could prevent the disaster as the Turks were eliminated just like Germany despite the presence of Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Kaman.

There was a glimmer of hope for Turkey at the end of the first round of eliminations when it trounced 2006 world champion Spain, 65-57. Then came three straight setbacks, all heartbreakers that broke Turkey’s back. First, the Turks bowed to Tony Parker and France, 68-64, next to Germany, 73-67 and finally, to Serbia, 68-67. The defeat to Serbia was particularly painful as it crushed Turkey’s hopes of advancing.

Last year, Turkey nipped Serbia, 83-82, to arrange a finals showdown with the US at the World Championships before a wildly cheering home crowd. The game was a nail-biter from start to finish. Turkey took a one-point lead with 4.3 seconds left on Kerem Tunceri’s layup and preserved the win on center Semi Erden’s block of a potential Serbian basket. Serbia has now avenged the setback with a similar one-point victory in Lithuania.

The knockout quarterfinals of the European championships begin today with Spain facing Slovenia, Macedonia taking on Lithuania, France meeting Greece and Russia battling Serbia. Aside from Turkey and Germany, struck out of contention were Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Israel, Georgia, Poland, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Great Britain, Italy, Ukraine, Latvia, Portugal, Finland and Belgium.

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Macedonia has been the surprise of the European competition. It used to be part of Yugoslavia like Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Slovenia and Montenegro. But in 1991, Yugoslavia’s former states declared their independence as separate republics.

In Lithuania, Macedonia got off on the wrong foot and lost to Montenegro, 70-65, in overtime. Then, coach Marin Dokuzoveki regrouped his charges to win six in a row, including four in the first round of eliminations, defeating Croatia, 78-76, Greece, 72-58, Finland, 72-70, Bosnia-Herzogovina, 75-63, Georgia, 65-63 and Slovenia, 68-59. Macedonia ended the two rounds of eliminations with a 63-61 loss to Andrei Kirilenko and Russia.

Leading the way for Macedonia is naturalized player Bo McCalebb who took out Macedonian citizenship last year. McCalebb, a New Orleans native, has never played in Macedonia but drew raves from European scouts while playing for Partizan Belgrade in Serbia and Montepaschi Siena in Italy.

“Before the tournament, no one expected us to do anything so we tried to take advantage of that,” said McCalebb quoted in the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman. “Everybody was talking about the other teams. And nobody mentioned us.” McCalebb hit the game-winning layup with his left hand, time down to two seconds, to lift Macedonia to a 65-63 victory over Georgia to celebrate the country’s 20th independence anniversary.

The top two finishers in the European championships earn automatic tickets to the London Olympics. The next four will be invited to join a world qualifying tournament with three Olympic wildcard slots up for grabs.

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The Lithuania tournament started last Aug. 31 and ends Sunday. It has been a rich gold mine for dramatic stories. First was Macedonia’s emergence as a basketball power. Second was the abundance of NBA players representing different countries, like Pau and Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez and Nenad Krstic. Third was the incompetence of next year’s Olympic host Great Britain, an automatic qualifier for basketball. The English showed up with Chicago Bulls star Luol Deng but still couldn’t make waves. In a 90-61 loss to Turkey, Deng tried to singlehandedly keep the UK afloat but to no avail, getting only help from Joel Freeland. And finally, there was Russia’s emotional display of sympathy in the wake of the death of 36 players, coaches and staff of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team that went down in a private plane crash in western Russia.

The Russians wore black tags on their uniforms to dedicate their 79-60 win over Finland. A minute of silence was observed before the games last week. “We played the game in memory of the hockey team from Yaroslavl,” said Russia’s American coach David Blatt. “As sportsmen, they are our brothers and sisters. We played the game with passion and with a way of working hard, demonstrating the qualities of sportsmen that honor their memory. That was what the game was more about than anything else.”

Russian power forward Semen Antonov, quoted in Today’s Zaman, said, “We were crying with the whole world, rest in peace ... we dedicate the victory to the victims of the plane crash.”