The 1995 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1995, was the 29th

FIBA EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

regional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as Europe qualifier for the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, giving a berth to each of the top four teams in the final standings. It was held in Greece between 21 June and 2 July 1995. Fourteen national teams entered the event under the auspices of FIBA Europe, the sport's regional governing body. The city of

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

hosted the tournament.

FR Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yug ...

won its first FIBA European title, by defeating Lithuania by the score of 96–90 in the final. Lithuania's

Šarūnas Marčiulionis Raimondas Šarūnas Marčiulionis () (born June 13, 1964) is a Lithuanian retired professional basketball player. Widely considered one of the greatest international players, he was one of the first Europeans to become a regular in the Nationa ...

was voted the tournament's

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

. This edition of the FIBA EuroBasket tournament saw the successful return of the Lithuania national team to the competition, since its last triumph in 1939.
The tournament's official anthem was "

Wings of Tomorrow ''Wings of Tomorrow'' is the second studio album by the Swedish heavy metal band Europe. It was released on 24 February 1984, by Hot Records. ''Wings of Tomorrow'' is the last album to feature drummer Tony Reno. The song "Scream of Anger" w ...

" by Finnish band

Stratovarius Stratovarius is a Finnish power metal band that formed in 1985. Since their formation, they have released sixteen studio albums, five DVDs and six live albums. In its history, the band has gone through many chaotic lineup changes, and after fo ...

Venues

All games were played at the O.A.C.A. Olympic Indoor Hall in

Qualification

Format

*The teams were split in two groups of seven teams each. The top four teams from each group advance to the knockout quarterfinals. *The winners in the semifinals compete for the European Championship, while the losers from the semifinals play a consolation game for the third place. *The losers in the quarterfinals compete in a separate bracket to define 5th through 8th place in the final standings.

Squads

Preliminary round

:''Times given below are in

Eastern European Summer Time Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes ...

(

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...

).''

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage

Championship bracket

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Third place

Final

One of the most intense matches in Eurobasket history, the finals match-up between Yugoslavia and Lithuania on Sunday, 2 July 1995 almost ended in scandal. Played in the boiling atmosphere of the Athens' OAKA, more than 20,000 people filled up the arena, most of them local Greeks vociferously cheering for Lithuania, or more specifically cheering against Yugoslavia because it eliminated Greece in the semifinals. From the start, the two teams matched up evenly, as Lithuania's

and

Arvydas Sabonis Arvydas Romas Sabonis (; born December 19, 1964) is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player and businessman. Recognized as one of the best European players of all time, he won the Euroscar six times and the Mr. Europa Award twice. He p ...

and Yugoslavia's

Aleksandar Đorđević Aleksandar "Saša" Đorđević or Sale Đorđević (Anglicized: Sasha Djordjevic; sr-Cyrl, Александар Саша Ђорђевић, ; born 26 August 1967) is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former player. He currently serve ...

and

Predrag Danilović Predrag "Saša" Danilović ( sr-cyr, Предраг "Саша" Даниловић, ; born February 26, 1970), usually referred to in English as Sasha Danilović, is a Serbian professional basketball executive and former player, considered one of ...

exchanged points. At halftime, the Lithuanians were ahead by a point, 49–48. Vlade Divac got a technical foul early in first half. In second half, an American referee George Toliver signaled Lithuanian center Arvydas Sabonis for a technical foul, which led to Lithuanian protestations. After a few more fouls signaled by the referee, one offensive and one technical against Lithuania, the Lithuanian team refused to return to the court after timeout. After a few minutes,

, who was the leading scorer with 41 points (made 9 three-pointers out of 12 attempted), tried to convince Marčiulionis to continue playing. The persuasions were successful, and five Lithuanians returned to the court. Yugoslavia was leading 93–89 with 2 minutes remaining in the game. Players

and

Rimas Kurtinaitis Rimas Kurtinaitis (born May 15, 1960) is a Lithuanian professional basketball coach, and a retired professional basketball player, who was a member of the senior Soviet and Lithuanian national basketball teams during his playing career. He won ...

could not return to the court, as they fouled out before the Lithuanian refusal to play. And although the Lithuanian team tried their hardest to catch up with the Yugoslavian team, they eventually lost 96–90. After the Yugoslavs' victory, the Greek crowd that cheered against Yugoslavia throughout the final further showed their displeasure during the winners ceremony by chanting "Lithuania is the champion!". Furthermore, there was controversy during the medal ceremony as right before the winning Yugoslav team were about to receive their gold medals, the third-placed Croatian team, in an unprecedented move, stepped down from the medal podium and walked off the court due to the ongoing war between the two countries.

5th to 8th place

Statistical leaders

Individual Tournament Highs

Points Rebounds Assists Steals Minutes

Individual Game Highs

Team Tournament Highs

Offensive PPG Rebounds Assists StealsTeam Leaders – SPG
/ref>

Team Game highs

Awards

Final standings

References

External links

archive.FIBA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Eurobasket

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

1994–95 in Greek basketball 1994–95 in European basketball Sports competitions in Athens

June 1995 sports events in Europe July 1995 sports events in Europe 1990s in Athens