The 1995 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1995, was the 29th FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as Europe qualifier for the 1996 Summer Olympics, 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 hosted the tournament. Serbia and Montenegro (then under the name of FR Yugoslavia) won its first FIBA European title, by defeating Lithuania by the score of 96–90 in the final. Lithuania's Šarūnas Marčiulionis was voted the tournament's MVP. 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" by Finnish band Stratovarius.

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

O.A.C.A. Olympic Indoor HallCapacity: 18,500Opened in 1995

Qualification

Competition Date Vacancies Qualified Host nation – 1 Champions from EuroBasket 1993 22 June – 4 July 1993 1 Qualified through Qualifying Round 21 June 1993 – 16 November 1994 10 Qualified through Additional Qualifying Round 31 May – 4 June 1995 2

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 (UTC+3). Qualified for the quarterfinals

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage Championship bracket

Quarterfinals Winners qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Semifinals

Third place

Final

From the start, the two teams matched up evenly, as Lithuania's Šarūnas Marčiulionis and Arvydas Sabonis and Yugoslavia's Aleksandar Đorđević and Predrag Danilović 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, Aleksandar Đorđević, 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 Arvydas Sabonis and Rimas Kurtinaitis 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 in an unprecedented display of bad sportsmanship, due to the civil war in former Yugoslavia.

5th to 8th place

Statistical leaders Individual Tournament Highs

Points at FIBA.com Pos. Name PPG 1 Šarūnas Marčiulionis 23.7 2 Arvydas Sabonis 22.0 3 Yann Bonato 21.7 4 Michael Koch 21.6 4 Arijan Komazec 20.3 6 Teoman Alibegović 20.2 7 Sergei Bazarevich 18.4 8 Alberto Herreros 18.3 9 Artūras Karnišovas 17.9 10 Predrag Danilović 17.4

Rebounds at FIBA.com Pos. Name RPG 1 Arvydas Sabonis 15.3 2 Andrei Fetisov 9.7 3 Stojko Vranković 9.1 4 Panagiotis Fasoulas 8.6 4 Mike Smith 8.6 6 Hansi Gnad 8.0 7 Jim Bilba 7.7 8 Toni Kukoč 7.6 9 Mirsad Türkcan 7.5 10 Slavko Kotnik 7.3

AssistsAPG Leaders at FIBA.com Pos. Name APG 1 Toni Kukoč 5.3 2 Henrik Rödl 5.0 3 Šarūnas Marčiulionis 4.1 4 Pablo Laso 3.7 4 Guy Goodes 3.7 6 Frédéric Forte 3.4 7 Aleksandar Đorđević 3.3 7 Panagiotis Giannakis 3.3 7 Doron Sheffer 3.3 7 Jure Zdovc 3.3

Steals at FIBA.com Pos. Name SPG 1 Nadav Henefeld 2.7 2 Giorgos Sigalas 2.2 2 Doron Sheffer 2.2 3 Jim Bilba 1.9 3 Arijan Komazec 1.9 5 Mordechai Daniel 1.8 5 Jure Zdovc 1.8 7 Fanis Christodoulou 1.7 7 Riccardo Pittis 1.7 10 Frédéric Forte 1.6

Minutes at FIBA.com Pos. Name MPG 1 Michael Koch 34.8 2 Šarūnas Marčiulionis 34.3 3 Nadav Henefeld 34.2 4 Artūras Karnišovas 34.0 4 Arvydas Sabonis 34.0 6 Henrik Rödl 33.4 7 Toni Kukoč 33.3 7 Slavko Kotnik 33.3 9 Jure Zdovc 32.8 10 Arijan Komazec 32.6

Individual Game Highs Department Name Total OpponentPoints Aleksandar Đorđević 41 Rebounds Arvydas Sabonis 23 Assists Toni Kukoč 11 Steals Panagiotis Fasoulas 6 Turnovers Šarūnas Marčiulionis Stéphane Ostrowski Stojko Vranković 7

Team Tournament Highs

Offensive PPGTeam Leaders – PPG Pos. Name PPG 1 91.8 2 86.1 3 84.2 3 84.2 5 83.3

Rebounds Pos. Name RPG 1 34.8 2 34.6 2 34.4 4 33.4 5 31.9

AssistsTeam Leaders – APG Pos. Name APG 1 15.4 2 15.0 3 14.9 4 14.3 5 14.0

Steals Pos. Name SPG 1 11.5 2 9.0 3 8.9 4 8.6 5 7.3

Team Game highs Department Name Total OpponentPoints 126 Rebounds 54 Assists 23 Steals 15 Field goal percentage 66.7% (34/51) 3-point field goal percentage 68.8% (11/16) Free throw percentage 100% (7/7) Turnovers 26

Awards

1995 FIBA EuroBasket MVP: Šarūnas Marčiulionis ( Lithuania)

All-Tournament Team Šarūnas Marčiulionis (MVP) Toni Kukoč Fanis Christodoulou Vlade Divac Arvydas Sabonis

Final standings

Qualified for the 1996 Olympic Tournament Rank Team Record 9–0 7–2 8–1 4 5–4 5 5–4 6 5–4 7 5–4 8 4–5 9 2–4 10 2–4 11 1–5 12 1–5 13 0–6 14 0–6

4th Dejan Bodiroga Predrag Danilović Saša Obradović Zoran Sretenović Žarko Paspalj Miroslav Berić Aleksandar Đorđević Željko Rebrača Vlade Divac Zoran Savić Dejan Tomašević Dejan Koturović Valdemaras Chomičius Mindaugas Timinskas Saulius Štombergas Arūnas Visockas Darius Lukminas Gintaras Krapikas Rimas Kurtinaitis Arvydas Sabonis Artūras Karnišovas Šarūnas Marčiulionis Gintaras Einikis Gvidonas Markevičius Josip Vranković Velimir Perasović Arijan Komazec Toni Kukoč Vladan Alanović Ivica Marić Ivica Žurić Stojko Vranković Alan Gregov Veljko Mršić Dino Rađa Davor Pejčinović Efthimis Bakatsias Kostas Patavoukas Panagiotis Giannakis Tzanis Stavrakopoulos Giorgos Sigalas Lefteris Kakiousis Fragiskos Alvertis Nikos Oikonomou Dinos Angelidis Panagiotis Fasoulas Efthimios Rentzias Fanis Christodoulou

References

External links 1995 European Championship for Men archive.FIBA.com