The gallery of EuroBasket champions over the last 74 years is broad and includes countries ranging from Latvia to Russia.. First on outdoor fields and later in big arenas, every two years new stars were born and the old ones said their goodbyes in games full of emotions. Let's have a look at what happened through out the history of the basketball tournament of the longest continuous tradition up to the Eurobasket 2011 .

THE EARLY YEARS

The history of the European Championship for Men (or EuroBasket) started in 1935 in Geneva,three years after Federation Internationale de Basketball Amateur (HBA) had been established. The event was meant as a test preparing everybody for the Olympic Games' debut in Berlin in 1936. There we"re no restrictions imposed and everybody could participate. In the end, 10 teams came to Switzerland. The players from Latvia won and were granted the right to organize the next tournament. In the final game, the Latvian team beat Spain 24:18: The lessons taught by the American sailors stationed in Latvian ports proved invaluable.

The 1937 tournament in Riga was held in the open air, because the Latvians were unable to organise it indoors (as was the case two years before). Lithuania, making its first appearance in the championship's history, was the best team. Again, support from overseas was of crucial importance. Frank Lubin, an American basketball player who had played an important role in the USA national team during the Olympic Games in Berlin the previous year, Was entered as Pranas Lubinas, a Kaunas-born Lithuanian. He was unstoppable undert he rim, finished as the tournament's top scorer and considerably helped the Lithuanians win the gold medal.

Two years later, playing on his home court in Kaunas, Lubinas and the Lithuanian national team again were the winners. Since itwas a round-robintournament, the final ranking was decided... during the very first match Qf the event. Lithuania beat Latvia 37:36 and eight days after wards won the gold medal.