The history of FIBA EuroBasket is full of Cinderella stories and surprises of all kinds, but perhaps the most memorable was with Slovenia in 2017.
The Slovenian national team has never missed a final round of the FIBA EuroBasket since independence in 1991, and has been a regular in the knockout phase since 2005. Many of their losses in the quarterfinals and in the semifinals were heartbreaking, but the story came to a happy end in 2017.
While the rest of the continent focuses on Spain, Serbia, Greece, Lithuania, France and hosts Turkey as the main medalists in the last edition, Slovenia, seen as underdogs, took the world by storm with their first FIBA EuroBasket title.
They beat Ukraine, Latvia, Spain and Serbia in the finals in Istanbul on their way to the first gold medal in the history of the country. In fact, gold in the FIBA 2017 EuroBasket remains the only podium for Slovenia in all major events.
Goran Dragic is now retiring from the national team, but the team is in good hands. Luka Doncic will lead a whole new generation of Junaki.
.
