Spain won the title for the second consecutive tournament after defeating France 98–85 in the final.
Venues
The group matches are set to be played in four arenas, namely Alytus Arena, Šiauliai Arena, Cido Arena in Panevėžys and an arena in Klaipėda. The qualifying matches are to be played at the Siemens Arena in the capital Vilnius and the playoffs at the new Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas.
All tickets were sold for matches where Lithuania plays in a matter of several hours after the start of sale. Other tickets were also sold out in advance for all venues except for Alytus. However the FIBA policy of selling tickets for 3 games at once meant that in some cases the sold-out arenas were not full as some fans would choose to go only to a part of the games their ticket entitled them to. This FIBA policy was altered in Panevėžys where there were separate tickets for the games Lithuania played.
Location Picture City Arena Capacity Status Round
Eurobasket 2011 participants.
It was first decided that 16 teams will participate in Eurobasket 2011, however FIBA Europe decided on September 5, 2010, in a meeting in Istanbul, that there would be 24 teams in the tournament, after the Qualifying Round was concluded.
Lithuania automatically received a place as the hosts, nine other countries that competed in the 2010 FIBA world championship also received a place, 12 Countries were determined through qualifying matches played on August 2010 (five have initially qualified, and seven were added after the decision to expand the tournament to 24 teams), and two more qualifiers have been decided in an additional qualifying tournament that took place in August 2011. All but one of the 15 countries that participated in the Qualifying Round have qualified for the final tournament.
EuroBasket 2011 qualification
Qualified teams
Competition Date Vacancies Qualified
Host Nation – 1 Lithuania
Participant of 2010 FIBA World Championship 28 August – 12 September 2010 9 Croatia
France
Germany
Greece
Russia
Serbia
Slovenia
Spain
Turkey
Qualified through Qualifying Round 2 August 2010 – 29 August 2010 5 Belgium
Great Britain
Israel
Macedonia
Montenegro
Qualified through FIBA Europe decision September 5, 2010 7 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Georgia
Italy
Latvia
Poland
Ukraine
Qualified through Additional Qualifying Round 9 August 2011 – 24 August 2011 2 Finland
Portugal
EuroBasket 2011 squads
Each team consists of 12 players. Only 1 among the 12 may be a naturalised foreign player, while others must have been representing the same nation since childhood. Some of the teams had players that traced their ancestry to the teams they represent and were allowed to play for that team, such as Germany (US-born Chris Kaman) and Israel (US-born David Blu, who as a Jew was entitled to Israeli citizenship from birth). Other teams naturalised players participating in their country's league system, among them Spain (Congolese-born Serge Ibaka), Croatia (US-born Dontaye Draper), Bulgaria (US-born E. J. Rowland), Belgium (US-born Marcus Faison), and Poland (US-born Thomas Kelati, who qualified for Polish citizenship through marriage to a Pole). Montenegro and Macedonia each naturalised US-born players who never played in their league system, but had played in neighbouring Serbia, respectively Omar Cook and Bo McCalebb. Other naturalised players moved to their current countries in their youth, with a notable example being Great Britain's Luol Deng, who fled the Sudanese Civil War with his family as a child.
Lithuania, Serbia and Portugal (Cape Verde was a portuguese colony) are notable exceptions, with all of their players having been born in Lithuania, Portugal and Serbia, respectively. Another exception is Latvia playing without foreign players. Turkey is made up entirely of natural-born citizens, although Enes Kanter was born to Turkish parents in Switzerland.
Some of the Eastern European national teams, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, are composed mainly or entirely from players playing abroad. This is primarily true for countries that have good basketball players but no powerful clubs or leagues to match that.
On the other hand, for countries with strong leagues, such as Italy, the National teams were primarilly composed of players playing in the local league. The same is true for countries weak in basketball (i.e. with both weak national team and local league) as their players are unable to get into strong foreign leagues. Portugal can be an example here.
Many NBA players represented their national teams, with Spanish team having 6 NBA stars, French team having 5, Turkish team having 4, and so on.
All about: EuroBasket 2011
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