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By Simon Wilkinson
Special to ESPN.com
Editor's note: Dozens of NBA players, from stars like Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker to role players like Nenad Krstic and Darko Milicic, are participating in the European Championships in Serbia-Montenegro this week. Simon Wilkinson is covering the action for The Press Association in Europe and has agreed to hook us up with daily dispatches. Here is the fifth of his reports.
BELGRADE, Serbia Montenegro -- It seems the much-awaited diamond in the rough, the future great European player soon to enter the NBA with a bang will not be found at the European Championships, at least not this year.
The general consensus among experts at the tournament seems to be that the next big European star -- yet to play in the NBA, that is -- will not be found here.
Although the European Championships might have failed to showcase the future of European NBA players, it has been able to produce some exciting competition and the numerous upsets have made it somewhat comparable to a top seed in the NCAA tournament or an NBA playoff game being upset.
France is responsible for two of these upsets, having followed their shocking win over hosts Serbia Montenegro with an equally surprising and lopsided defeat of Lithuania Thursday night to avenge their loss to the defending champions in 2003.
That result now sets up a semifinal with Greece (against whom France lost in the group games) where revenge will once again be the dish Les Bleus will try to serve.
Phoenix Suns new acquisition Boris Diaw led the way for the French, pouring in 18 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out three assists -- in front of his future head coach, Mike D'Antoni, in town to do some basketball clinics.
But Diaw insisted he wasn't trying to prove his worth to anyone.
"Obviously I'm glad I was able to play well with him in the crowd looking on, but it's not something that's on my mind while I'm out there on the court. I'm just here trying to play my role and helping our team get as far as possible," he said.
And role playing is what this tournament is all about. To a certain extent, there's a parallel between the French team and the defending NBA champions San Antonio Spurs -- and it has nothing to do with Tony Parker.
Every French player knows and understands that he has a role to play for the greater good of the team and they accept that. It's one thing to know it, but a completely different thing to do it.
To a certain extent, the host nation proved to be the opposite of this. They showed what happens when players become bigger than the team.
And in a different way, the German team knows it must play around Dallas Mavericks star forward Dirk Nowitzki and that's why it's been successful so far. Should the Germans deviate from that concept later Friday when they take on the undefeated Slovenians, they will have to prepare to play two consolation games to earn a place in next year's World Championships in Japan.
Russia deviated from their original game plan Thursday and paid a heavy price by losing to Greece for a place in the semifinals. Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko & Co. started the game strong, using a 13-0 run. They did so by playing with their inside players and not settling for 3-pointers. Some Russian foul trouble, turnovers and missed free throws -- the latter two coming in large part from Kirilenko himself -- enabled Greece to come back into the game and trail only by seven points at halftime.
But Russia still had the lead and had they kept playing the same way in the second half, they would be preparing for their first semifinal game in a Eurobasket competition since 1997. Instead, they stopped going inside and proceeded to rain a lot of 3s -- 19 attempts in the second half alone -- with no good coming from it.
Portland Trail Blazers forward Viktor Khryapa was 2-for-8 from downtown and point guard Jon Robert Holden went 0-for-8 from beyond the arc. Even Kirilenko got in on the act, going 1-for-6 outside the 3-point line.
Although Russia lost the game themselves, Greece stuck to the same game-plan -- even when it had failed in the first quarter -- and eventually got going.
What has been noticeable in the tournament is that European NBA players who try and play an NBA style in these games don't really succeed, except maybe for Nowitzki.
Some point to Khryapa's poor performance Thursday and say it is the typical display of an NBA player trying too hard to show he is playing in the best league in the world, even though that style of play is to the detriment of his team in a European competition.
However, some coaches in this tournament have shown they will not put up with European NBA players who try and showcase too much of their NBA style of play, thereby taking away from the rest of the team.
French head coach Claude Bergeaud is one of the no-nonsense coaches who's made his message clear from the start that the trio of Parker, Pietrus and Diaw understand they're not there to score 30 points a night. And Bergeaud has even been astute enough to find the best way to get the most out of the Spurs point guard who is recovering from a long promotional summer tour and carrying some injuries. He has been using Parker effectively as a sixth man.
Asked whether the three were playing well enought to stay within the French team system, Bergeaud had some interesting things to say.
"They are getting better and better as we advance in the tournament. For Boris it was easier because he played for the national team last year, so the European style of play is not that distant a memory for him," Bergeaud said.
"But for Tony Parker and Mickael Pietrus, it's taken longer because they haven't been playing for us the past two years. For Tony, he's played about 220 NBA games since his last appearance for France.
"The one thing that some people may not be able to see by just watching a game, is that it's not easy to switch between NBA style of play and European style of play just like that. It doesn't happen overnight."
And the opposite is true too, according to the critics. Some European players enter the NBA and can't get to grips with the different style -- even one that emphasizes more one-on-one play, which should please just about anyone, except players like Diaw.
"I'm not out here to make a name for myself. It's not my style of play and I want to keep it that way. I feel that when I do decide to take shots, I'm not actually forcing anything. I'm either open or I'm taking what the defense is giving me," Diaw said.
"As for all this talk of being the tournament's best player I don't really pay much attention to it. How can a guy who has shot 4-24 from the free-throw line be MVP? Let's be serious!"
And Pietrus underlines the difference between playing for the national team and in the NBA.
"When you play for your country, you can't put yourself first and set out to fulfill your individual goals. It's just not acceptable," he said. I know I could score 30 points for France if I wanted to. Other players could too. But if it's not going to give us the win, then what is the point of it?
"In the NBA, it's different. Yes, you're still playing for the fans, but more players have individual goals they chase and to a certain extent, it's more acceptable over there. But when you make the switch between playing in the NBA and playing for your country, you need to make sure you forget yourself and start thinking as a group."
Elsewhere:
Lithuania and Russia play Friday afternoon to decide which team will finish in sixth place, thereby earning the last place for next year's World Championships in Japan.
Later on, Germany takes on Slovenia in the third quarterfinal. This game will feature Nowitzki going up against San Antonio Spurs center Rasho Nesterovic, the captain of Slovenia and Primoz Brezec of the Charlotte Bobcats. Nowtizki has been unstoppable throughout this tournament, leading all players in scoring and rebounding. Nesterovic struggled early on, but produced a solid performance against France in Slovenia's last group stage that should be encouraging to him and inspiring to his teammates.
In the last quarterfinal, Croatia takes on Spain, with the Croatian NBA duo of Gordan Giricek and Zoran Planinic facing the tough task of slowing down Spain's quick and sharp shooting backcourt of Toronto Raptors rookie Jose Calderon and Juan Carlos Navarro, one of the top scorers in the tournament.
The Orlando Magic's Mario Kasun will be an intangible factor if he can give Croatia some scoring down low.
If Thursday's quarterfinals are anything to go by, the team which got the most rest -- the ones who finished top of their group and automatically qualified and subsequently got three days off -- ended up on the losing side both times (Russia and Lithuania).
For more information on the tournament, game reports, stats, results, standings and video highlights, go to www.eurobasket2005.com.
Simon Wilkinson writes for The Press Association in Europe.
