Here is everything you need to know for the start of EuroBasket 2022.
Brian Martin, for NBA.com
September 1, 2022 12:44 PM
Nikola Jokic representing Serbia and Luka Doncic representing his native Slovenia.
Back-to-back reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and three-time All-NBA First Team guard Luka Doncic headline the NBA players participating in EuroBasket 2022 — the tournament to determine the basketball champion of Europe.
The 24-nation tournament tips off on Thursday and runs through Sept. 18 with games being playing in four host countries — Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy and Germany. Originally slated to take place in 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic forced postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games until 2021, which forced EuroBasket to push back to 2022.
Slovenia is the defending champion, winning their first EuroBasket in 2017 behind the play of Tournament MVP Goran Dragic and then 18-year-old wunderkind Doncic — a year before he joined the Dallas Mavericks as the third pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and went on to become one of the league’s brightest young stars.
Tournament Format
The tournament begins with the group stage, which features four groups of six teams, and runs from Sept. 1-8. Each group will play a round-robin style tournament with each team playing the other five teams in the group. The top four teams in each group will then move on to the knockout stage of the tournament.
During the knockout stage, which will be held from Sept. 10-18 with all games played at the EuroBasket Arena in Berlin, the 16 teams will be slotted in a bracket based on their qualifying position from the group stage. They will then play single-elimination games, culminating in the championship game on Sept. 18.
Groups and NBA Players
Not only will this tournament feature the winners of the past four NBA MVP awards (Antetokounmpo in 2018-19 and 2019-20; Jokic in 2020-21 and 2021-22) and four of the past five Defensive Player of the Year awards (Gobert in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21; Antetokounmpo in 2019-20), it will also feature more than 30 NBA players representing their home countries. France, the 2020 Olympic silver medalist, has the most NBA representation with five players on its roster.
Rudy Gobert playing for France in 2023 World Cup Qualifiers.
Group A
Belgium: no NBA players
Bulgaria: no NBA players
Georgia^: Goga Bitadze (Indiana)
Montenegro*: no NBA players
Spain: Juancho Hernangomez (Toronto); Willy Hernangomez (New Orleans)
Turkey: Cedi Osman (Cleveland); Alperen Sengun (Houston); Furkan Korkmaz (Philadelphia)
Group B
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Jusuf Nurkic (Portland)
France: Evan Fournier (New York); Rudy Gobert (Minnesota); Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (free agent); Theo Maledon (Oklahoma City); Frank Ntilikina (Dallas)
Germany^: Dennis Schroder (free agent); Daniel Theis (Indiana); Franz Wagner (Orlando)
Hungary: no NBA players
Lithuania: Domantas Sabonis (Sacramento); Jonas Valanciunas (New Orleans)
Slovenia: Luka Doncic (Dallas); Goran Dragic (Chicago); Vlatko Cancar (Denver)
Group C
Croatia: Bojan Bogdanovic (Utah); Dario Saric (Phoenix); Ivica Zubac (LA Clippers); Mario Hezonja (free agent)
Estonia: no NBA players
Great Britain: no NBA players
Greece: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee); Thanasis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee); Tyler Dorsey (Dallas)
Italy^: no NBA players
Ukraine: Sviatoslav Mikhailiuk (free agent)
Giannis Antetoukounmpo representing Greece.
Group D
Czech Republic^: Tomas Satoransky (free agent)
Finland: Lauri Markkanen (Cleveland)
Israel: Deni Avdija (Washington)
Netherlands: no NBA players
Poland: no NBA players
Serbia: Nikola Jokic (Denver); Nikola Jovic (Miami); Aleksej Pokusevski (Oklahoma City)
Notes
^Host country for the group stage
*Montenegro replaces Russia, which was disqualified from the tournament by FIBA following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Tournament Schedule
Check back throughout the tournament as this schedule will be updated with the latest results and knockout stage matchups once they are determined.
GROUP STAGE
DATE
MATCHUP
TIME (ET)
GROUP
LOCATION
Sept. 1
Spain vs. Bulgaria
7:20 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 1
Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. Hungary
8:20 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 1
Turkey vs. Montenegro
10:05 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 1
Slovenia vs. Lithuania
11:05 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 1
Belgium vs. Georgia
12:50 p.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 1
France vs. Germany
2:20 p.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 2
Israel vs. Finland
7:50 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 2
Ukraine vs. Great Britain
8:05 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 2
Croatia vs. Greece
10:50 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 2
Poland vs. Czech Republic
11:20 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 2
Italy vs. Estonia
2:50 p.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 2
Serbia vs. Netherlands
2:50 p.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 3
Montenegro vs. Belgium
7:20 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 3
Finland vs. Poland
7:50 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 3
Great Britain vs. Croatia
8:05 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 3
Germany vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina
8:20 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 3
Bulgaria vs. Turkey
10:05 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 3
Estonia vs. Ukraine
10:50 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 3
Czech Republic vs. Serbia
11:20 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 3
Lithuania vs. France
11:35 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 3
Georgia vs. Spain
12:50 p.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 3
Hungary vs. Slovenia
2:20 p.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 3
Greece vs. Italy
2:50 p.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 3
Netherlands vs. Israel
2:50 p.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 4
Bulgaria vs. Montenegro
7:20 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 4
Lithuania vs. Germany
8:20 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 4
Spain vs. Belgium
10:05 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 4
Slovenia vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina
11:35 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 4
Turkey vs. Georgia
12:50 p.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 4
France vs. Hungary
2:20 p.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 5
Poland vs. Israel
7:50 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 5
Croatia vs. Estonia
8:05 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 5
Great Britain vs. Greece
10:50 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 5
Czech Republic vs. Netherlands
11:20 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 5
Ukraine vs. Italy
2:50 p.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 5
Serbia vs. Finland
2:50 p.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 6
Belgium vs. Turkey
7:20 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 6
Netherlands vs. Poland
7:50 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 6
Estonia vs. Great Britain
8:05 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 6
Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. France
8:20 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 6
Montenegro vs. Spain
10:05 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 6
Greece vs. Ukraine
10:50 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 6
Hungary vs. Lithuania
11:05 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 6
Finland vs. Czech Republic
11:20 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 6
Georgia vs. Bulgaria
12:50 p.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 6
Germany vs. Slovenia
2:20 p.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 6
Italy vs. Croatia
2:50 p.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 6
Israel vs. Serbia
2:50 p.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 7
Turkey vs. Spain
7:20 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 7
Lithuania vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina
8:20 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 7
Bulgaria vs. Belgium
10:05 a.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 7
France vs. Slovenia
11:05 a.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 7
Georgia vs. Montenegro
12:50 p.m.
A
Tbilisi, Georgia
Sept. 7
Hungary vs. Germany
2:20 p.m.
B
Cologne, Germany
Sept. 8
Finland vs. Netherlands
7:50 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 8
Croatia vs. Ukraine
8:05 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 8
Estonia vs. Greece
10:50 a.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 8
Czech Republic vs. Israel
11:20 a.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 8
Great Britain vs. Italy
2:50 p.m.
C
Milan, Italy
Sept. 8
Serbia vs. Poland
2:50 p.m.
D
Prague, Czech Republic
KNOCKOUT STAGE
DATE
MATCHUP
TIME
LOCATION
Sept. 10
Round of 16: Game 1
7:50 a.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 10
Round of 16: Game 2
10:35 a.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 10
Round of 16: Game 3
1:50 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 10
Round of 16: Game 4
4:35 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 11
Round of 16: Game 5
7:50 a.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 11
Round of 16: Game 6
10:35 a.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 11
Round of 16: Game 7
1:50 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 11
Round of 16: Game 8
4:35 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 13
Quarterfinals: Game 1
1:05 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 13
Quarterfinals: Game 2
4:20 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 14
Quarterfinals: Game 3
1:05 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 14
Quarterfinals: Game 4
4:20 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 16
Semifinals: Game 1
1:05 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 16
Semifinals: Game 2
4:20 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 18
Third Place Game
1:05 p.m.
Berlin, Germany
Sept. 18
Championship Game
4:20 p.m.
Berlin, Germany