Span versus Serbia turned out to be no contest. Spain got up early and cruised to a 85-63 victory. Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers led the way with 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Rudy Fernandez of the Portland Trail Blazers chipped in with 15 points. Uros Tripkovic led the way for Serbia by scoring 15 points.

Serbia can’t be too disappointed in their finish. After no one thought they’d be successful, the country was able to finish in second place. Third place went to Greece after beating Slovenia by a final score of 57-56.

Fifth place was taken by France, who beat Croatia 69-62. Russia, the defending European basketball champions, beat Turkey 89-66 to win seventh place.

Paul Gasol and Spain celebrate their European basketball championship (Image: Zuma Press)

Post from: EveryJoe

Spain Wins European Basketball Championship

He played for the Raptors in the 2006-07 and the 2007-08 seasons. Last year, he played with the Indiana Pacers. He averaged 6.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 17.3 minutes per game last season. For his career, the 33-year-old has averaged 7.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 22.8 minutes per game.

With the Raptors, Nesterovic is expected to come off the bench. Although he isn’t the fast player around, he’s a good defender who protects the rim well. On the offensive end, he has a decent jumper and an underrated post-up game.

Toronto has had a busy offseason. Their biggest moves have been the acquisitions of small forward Hedo Turkoglu and point guard Jarrett Jack. Considering that Chris Bosh becomes a free agent at the end of this upcoming season, this is a big season for the Raptors organization.

Rasho Nesterovic - Toronto Raptors (Image: Zuma Press)

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Rasho Nesterovic Signs with the Raptors

Slovenia’s Veronika Vadovicova was the first to collect a Gold Medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. She led going into the final round of the 10m air rifle standing SH1 event and never relinguished her lead. Finishing second for the Silver Medal was Germany’s Manuela Schmermund. Nilda Gomez Lopez of Puerto Rico finished third for the Bronze Medal.

^{(photo © Newscom)}

Post from: EveryJoe

Slovenia Wins First Paralympic Gold in Beijing

Federica Pellegrini of Italy took the Gold Medal in the women’s 200m freestyle event, with a world record time of 1:54.82. Pellegrini was the Silver Medalist in this event at the Athens Games.

Slovenia’s Sara Isakovic earned the Silver Medal and Jiaying Pang of China was awarded the Bronze.

Australia’s Stephanie Rice picked up her second Gold Medal of the Beijing Games with a win in the 200m women’s individual medley, clocking a world record time of 2:08.45. Just behind her was Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, followed by Natalie Couglin of the United States. Rice won Gold earlier in the week in the women’s 400m individual medley.

Michael Phelps led off the American team in the men’s 4×200m freestyle event and after that it was never a contest for the Gold. The American team, which also included Ryan Lochte, Ricky Bevens, and Peter Vanderkaay, shattered the world record with a time of 6:58.56.

The Silver Medal went to the Russian team and the Bronze Medal was awarded to the Australians.

Michael Phelps also earned Gold in the men’s 200m butterfly event, with a world record time of 1:52.03. He was followed by Laszlo Cseh of Hungary for the Silver Medal and Takeshi Matsuda of Japan for the Bronze.

Post from: EveryJoe

Scenes from the Water Cube – August 13