Eurobasket 2022 couldn’t have been going more smoothly for the Greek National Team as they rolled into the quarterfinals as the only unbeaten team still remaining. But in the quarterfinal match-up with host Germany, the Greeks — although favored in the contest — had a problem. The three-pointer. Shooting it and defending it. As I stated in my last column, Greece’s lack of a consistent three-point threat on offense cost them dearly as the Germans set up their defense to slow down Giannis Antetokounmpo, basically daring the Greeks to shoot it from three. Defensively, Greece had its own problems slowing down the red-hot Germans, who lit them up to start the second half.

Here are the highlights from the game, and while Greece took a four-point lead at halftime, Germany boat-raced the Greeks in the third quarter to the tune of a 20-1 run. With Greece basically playing catch up the rest of the way, you’ll see in the video that Giannis was ejected with a few minutes left in the game after receiving his second flagrant foul. 

Greece rolled through the group stage of the tournament without a loss, setting them up for the round of sixteen, in which records don’t matter. It’s called “the knockout stage” for a reason: one and done. In their round of sixteen match-up with the Czech Republic, Greece held on for dear life to get the win, despite the Czechs showing the rest of the world that Greece was beatable. Germany certainly took notice, and while Giannis had another big game in the quarterfinals before his ejection, it still wasn’t enough. Giannis did become the first Greek, though, to score more than twenty-five points per game in the entire tournament since Greece’s 1987 championship team, in which Niko Galis famously scored more than thirty points per game. Giannis led the entire tournament in scoring and, despite the loss, it was still a solid showing for Hellas that came up just short.

As for the rest of the tournament, Germany knocked off Poland in the consolation game to secure third place for the Germans. In the championship, it was Spain concluding their improbable run to the finals and snatching the trophy with an 88-76 win over France.

GIANNIS EJECTED IN PAINFUL GREEK LOSS AT EUROBASKET 2022

SPAIN WINS TITLE

Willy Hernangómez, who plays for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, took home the MVP of the tournament.   

NEUVILLE TAKES ECO ACROPOLIS RALLY GREECE

Thierry Neuville of Belgium finally broke through and took his first championship after five previous runner-up finishes. The World Rally Championship held its event in Athens for the second straight year after a seven-year hiatus, and Neuville overcame all challenges on the twisty gravel mountain roads combined with high temperatures to secure the title. Here's a pretty cool highlight reel of the drama. 

STONIE’S SPORTS HANDICAPPING 

If you have not been following my selections in my podcast/vlog, you’ve been missing out. I’m off to a red-hot start to football season and, after last week’s ridiculous 14-4 NCAA football picks, I backed it up with a 10-6 weekend on NFL picks, bringing my win percentage for the season to over 73%. In last Friday's video, I broke down the weekend that just ended. Remember that you can always subscribe to my video channel and you will be notified of every new video that I post, which typically happens at approximately 10PM Eastern Time on Fridays. 

IF YOU WANNA WIN BIG, YOU GOTTA BET BIG.

SCARED MONEY DON’T MAKE MONEY.

TO ME, THE ACTION IS THE JUICE.

THERE’S MONEY ON THE STREETS THAT CAN’T BE IGNORED.

GOODLUCK2YA!

-Stonie