When the stars compete for the championship! The European Cup of Men s Basketball Team has officially begun, who can be proud of the top of Europe?

Qilu Evening News·Qilu One Point Feng Zihan

The smoke of the Asian Cup has just dissipated. On the evening of August 27, the 2025 Men's Basketball European Cup was officially launched. With stars gathering, the matchup between European giants is no less intense than that of the NBA. From the perspective of grouping, the strength distribution of each group is relatively even, which also means that every game will be full of infinite possibilities.

This European Cup is led by three super giants Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic, with a total of 23 NBA players appearing, which can be said to be the most star-flavored in European basketball history. In addition, the "brothers and brothers" drama will not be absent, adding a lot of fun to this fierce competition.

Serbia has become a hot topic

Jokic welcomes the first championship opportunity

To say that the biggest favorite to win this tournament is the Serbian team. Serbia has always been a strong team in the world basketball world. At the Paris Olympics, they suppressed the "Janduku" and the American team, which had all the elites, for three and a half minutes. If Curry had not had the last outbreak to help the US men's basketball team turn the tables, it would be hard to say who would win.

The Serbian team participating in this European Cup is led by NBA champion and three-time MVP winner Jokic. There are four NBA active players, Jovic, Bogdanovic, Topic and Tristan Vukcevic, and the lineup is luxurious.

What is the configuration and combat power of Serbia's "Galaxy Battleship"? The warm-up match has given the answer: no defeat in seven games, including defeating the World Cup champions Germany and Slovenia led by Doncic. Jovic, who has been in good shape recently, said: "The team's lineup has remained generally stable in the past three or four years, so logically it should be better every year. The current team looks better than the Olympics."

There is no doubt that the Serbian team came for the championship.

Judging from the large list they announced, there are both veterans and fresh blood, taking into account the thickness and impact of the lineup. Among them, 5 people were exactly 30 years old and were in their prime. In addition to Jokic at the age of 30, substitute center Milutinov, two point guards Aframovic and Michecic and Bogdanovic's substitute Goodridge are also 30 years old. The two attackers on the defender and the front line are Bogdanovic and Jovic, who are both experienced and energetic.

It is worth mentioning that Jokic was once a big shot in the NBA, but at the national team level, he has never scored a gold medal. In 2013, he led the Serbian U19 Men's Basketball Team to win the runner-up in the U19 Men's Basketball World Youth Championship, won the runner-up in the Rio Olympics with the team in 2016, and won the third place in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Jokic won these three medals in international competitions in his career, and did not win in the World Cup or European Cup.

Serbia has also not stood on the highest podium for a long time. After the "Saudi Arabia" withdrew from the historical stage in 2002, although they have always maintained strong competitiveness, they are always one step away from the gold medal.

This time, Serbia, which has collected the strongest list of 12 people, welcomed the best opportunity to reach the top of Europe.

There are many heroes around

Who will challenge Serbia

Like European football, European basketball has an average overall level. Although Serbia is slightly better, the challengers are not very different.

The German team is the World Cup champion, so its strength needs no further explanation. Although the French team does not have stars such as Vinbanyama and Gobert, they have this year's NBA draft No. 1 pick Rissache and No. 2 Sal; the Israel team has two NBA active players, Danny Avdia and Salav; the Polish team has Milicic and even eliminated the Slovenian team in the last European Championship; the Belgian men's basketball team once defeated Spain in the warm-up match, and they are also a dark horse.

In addition, Greece led by Antetokounmpo, Spain led by El Nagomez, and Slovenia led by Lakers' core Doncic, also have good combat power. Serbia's goal for the championship is not smooth sailing.

Letter family leads

Multiple teams staged "Brothers Company"

As the saying goes, brothers fight with tigers, father and son fight, "Greek Monster" Antetokounmpo takes his brother and brother to the European Cup together this time.

As the Greek team's biggest star and biggest killer, Antetokounmpo is undoubtedly the tactical core of this team. In the last European Championship, he averaged 29.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game, ranking first in the tournament.

Similar to Jokic, Antetokounmpo has played for the Greek men's basketball team since 2014 and has been fighting for 11 years, but has not won a medal in various competitions so far. The Greek men's basketball team won twice and won bronze medals in the European Championships in history, and has nothing to do with Antetokounmpo. This time, he and his two brothers once again launched an attack on the medal.

Judging from the previous warm-up matches, Antetokounmpo's two brothers are not "relationship households", and they can indeed play some role in the team. Costas, who once played for the Lakers, has made great progress. He showed his all-round skills in the warm-up match with Italy, and the evolution of the defensive end is a big surprise.

In this European Championship, the brothers went to fight together is not unique to Greece. The Latvian men's basketball team, one of the hosts, is not only worth paying attention to in addition to the star Porzingis, but the Bertans brothers are also included in the 12-man roster. Both of these brothers have also experienced NBA competitions, and the growth process of his younger brother Davis is inspiring. When he was a child, half of his right ring finger was sawed off due to an accident, but Davis did not give up basketball since then. Later, after continuous training, he won the title of "Nine-finger Shooting".

The German team, which is regarded as the "second favorite to win the championship", also has two brothers joining forces to compete this time. Compared with the World Cup winning lineup two years ago, the brother of the Wagner Brothers, Moritz Wagner, missed the game due to a serious injury this season, but they made up for another pair of brothers: Da Silva Brothers. The defending champion of the European Cup, Spain, is led by the twins Hernan Gomez brothers. The younger brother Juan won the Best Player (FMVP) of the last European Championship finals; the older brother Willie was elected as the MVP. Interestingly, the Spanish and Greek teams are in the same group, and fans will be able to see the good show of the "Letter Family" vs. Hernan Gomez brothers in advance. How far can Doncic, who is slimming, lead the team?

In addition to Jokic and Antetokounmpo, another NBA goal-level star Doncic will wear the Slovenian jersey to compete in this European Cup.

This is the third time that Doncic, 26, has participated in the European Cup. In 2017, he helped Slovenia win the first championship in team history as a main player and was selected for the best team in the tournament. In the last European Cup, Doncic grew into the absolute core of the team. In the group stage, Doncic led Slovenia to win four games, including scoring 47 points in a single game to lead the team to defeat France. But in the knockout stage, Slovenia's condition fluctuated. In the quarterfinals, they were out of the way by Poland and unfortunately stopped.

In order to prepare for this year's event, Doncic worked hard and successfully got rid of his fat body. It is reported that Doncic has successfully lost 30 pounds (about 13.6 kilograms) since last summer. Both body shape and competitive state have been adjusted to the best level in his career. The former "little fat man" has become a "slim man".

The changes brought by slimming are obvious: in his debut warm-up match with Germany on August 9, Doncic tried his best in 24 minutes, scoring 19 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists. Although in the warm-up match with Latvia, he fell to the ground and was pressed to his calf by his teammates and left the court due to injury, fortunately it would not affect his appearance in the main game.

Although Doncic is in a hot personal form, judging from the Slovenian lineup, he is a bit unsuccessful: both the core Qian Chal of the forward line and the naturalized center Josh Nebow missed the European Championship. In the previous six warm-up matches, Slovenia only achieved a record of 1 win and 5 losses, and the only victory was against the British men's basketball team. After losing to Serbia in the last game, Doncic seemed extremely annoyed and even scolded his teammates harshly in the locker room.

In this European Cup, Slovenia is in Group D, with opponents in the same group including France, Israel, Poland, Iceland and Belgium.