Spain won the 2011 Eurobasket today, and unlike the U19 FIBA World Championships, this time I was keeping up with the games. Consequently, I have the Estimated Wins Produced stats from all 90 games ready to go, only hours after the final whistle!
Who should have won the MVP?
Following his 27 points in the final, Juan Carlos Navarro was named the MVP of the tournament. Did he deserve it? Here is the list of the top 15 players in the Eurobasket tournament, as ranked by Estimated Wins Produced:
Table 1: Eurobasket Players ranked by Estimated Wins
Player | Country | EWP40 | EW |
Pau Gasol | Spain | 0.519 | 3.4 |
Antonis Fotsis | Greece | 0.343 | 2.55 |
Bo McCalebb | Macedonia | 0.261 | 2.48 |
Andrei Kirilenko | Russia | 0.285 | 2.32 |
Nicolas Batum | France | 0.236 | 2.04 |
Simas Jasaitis | Lithuania | 0.264 | 1.98 |
Tony Parker | France | 0.216 | 1.89 |
Mirza Begic | Slovenia | 0.345 | 1.88 |
Juan Carlos Navarro | Spain | 0.239 | 1.78 |
Vitaliy Fridzon | Russia | 0.306 | 1.78 |
Viktor Sanikidze | Georgia | 0.261 | 1.68 |
Vojdan Stojanovski | Macedonia | 0.216 | 1.59 |
Dirk Nowitzki | Germany | 0.265 | 1.58 |
Chris Kaman | Germany | 0.27 | 1.51 |
Zoran Dragic | Slovenia | 0.222 | 1.48 |
- Note: players in bold were named to the all-tournament team
Navarro’s teammate Pau Gasol was clearly the best player in the tournament. In addition to being tops in terms of total wins, Gasol was also the most efficient player (as measured by EWP/40) in the entire tournament. The fact that Gasol lost out to his teammate is a travesty. But overall, the all-tournament team did pretty well. Of the five selections, the only one I have an issue with is Navarro. Which isn’t too bad – it’s not like he won the MVP or anything.
What would cause someone to put Navarro on the all-tournament team? If we rank all players by total points scored, we may find out:
Table 2: Eurobasket Players ranked by total points.
Player | Country | EW | Points |
Bo McCalebb | Macedonia | 2.48 | 235 |
Tony Parker | France | 1.89 | 221 |
Juan Carlos Navarro | Spain | 1.78 | 206 |
Pau Gasol | Spain | 3.4 | 201 |
Andrei Kirilenko | Russia | 2.32 | 164 |
Dirk Nowitzki | Germany | 1.58 | 156 |
Nenad Krstic | Serbia | 0.43 | 155 |
Nicolas Batum | France | 2.04 | 152 |
Dusko Savanovic | Serbia | 0.66 | 147 |
Marc Gasol | Spain | 1.3 | 146 |
Antonis Fotsis | Greece | 2.55 | 130 |
Goran Dragic | Slovenia | 1.01 | 129 |
Pero Antic | Macedonia | 1.1 | 128 |
Ioannis Bourousis | Greece | 1.06 | 128 |
Chris Kaman | Germany | 1.51 | 124 |
- Note: players in bold were named to the all-tournament team
Wow, that code was pretty easy to crack. In order to be named to the all-tournament team, all you had to do was score the most total points. The MVP was going to come from someone who played on the winning team – which was Spain – so McCalebb and Parker were out of the running (had France won the final, you’d better believe that Parker would’ve won the MVP). The reason that Navarro got the nod over Gasol seems to be that Navarro scored a gargantuan five more points! Rather incredible, isn’t it?
WoW All-tournament team
Given that I disagree with Navarro’s MVP and all-tournament team selection, a new all-tournament team is in order. In order to determine the WoW all-tournament team, all I did was choose the top players (in terms of Estimated Wins) at each position. That gives us the following list:
Table 3: Devin’s All-Tournament Team
Player | Country | Position | EWP40 | Estimated Wins |
Pau Gasol | Spain | F/C | 0.519 | 3.4 |
Antonis Fotsis | Greece | F | 0.343 | 2.55 |
Andrei Kirilenko | Russia | F/C | 0.285 | 2.32 |
Bo McCalebb | Macedonia | G | 0.264 | 2.48 |
Nicolas Batum | France | G/F | 0.236 | 2.04 |
Mirza Begic | Slovenia | C | 0.345 | 1.88 |
Simas Jasaitis | Lithuania | F | 0.264 | 1.98 |
Tony Parker | France | G | 0.216 | 1.89 |
- Note: players in bold were named to the all-tournament team
As usual, I’ve cheated and added three backups. But even with the three backups, Navarro still doesn’t make the team, let alone win the MVP.
– Devin

brgulker
September 19, 2011
* Kobe fanboi bait * :)
I get the feeling Pau is probably used to this.
Devin Dignam
September 26, 2011
Hah, that’s a good point there Ben!