The bitter history of France vs. Spain, international basketball’s best rivalry

It’s no surprise that France and Spain share a basketball rivalry. They’ve been the powerhouses of European basketball for more than a decade, and both countries have a long pipeline of talent that they’ve funneled into the NBA. The two sides face off again in the quarterfinals in Rio on Sunday, but that’s just the newest match you can add to their combined history.

The stakes are higher than ever. Whichever team survives automatically becomes the top threat to dethrone the United States for the 2016 gold medal. Team USA looks more vulnerable than ever, so those aren’t just empty words. There’s a strong case to be made that France and Spain are the two best teams in this Olympic basketball tournament behind the U.S.

At the same time, because this meeting is happening far earlier than expected, the loser will drop out of medal contention. That means this game is incredibly significant.

With so many NBA players suiting up for either side, this is enjoyable for us, too. We all know Pau Gasol, Ricky Rubio and Jose Calderon. We’ve seen Nikola Mirotic, Rudy Fernandez and even Sergio Rodriguez in the NBA. France counters with Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Gobert and Boris Diaw. Past players for both sides include Marc Gasol, Michael Pietrus, Serge Ibaka and Joakim Noah.

Let’s look back at France and Spain’s colorful history. No, not all the way back to the Franco-Spanish War that began in 1635. We can skip Napoleon, too. Instead, we’ll start with someone just a bit taller: Pau Gasol.

Spain 86, France 66

Spain and France didn’t meet the previous two years. This was the start of the rivalry, although neither team knew it yet. Thanks to the Gasol brothers, Spain had quickly risen to the top in Europe. France had Parker and Diaw, but they were missing some pieces to really rise to the top. The biggest piece was Batum, who came off the bench in 2009 before developing into the power player he is for France now.

Spain 98, France 85

Noah only played for France once throughout his career, and it was in the 2011 Eurobasket. Both teams lost just once in the preliminary stage and convincingly marched to the finals, where Spain — featuring both Gasol brothers and Ibaka — won with Juan Carlos Navarro scoring 27 points. Parker led the tournament in scoring, but Spain took the title.

Spain 66, France 59

France led 57-56 with 5:36 left in the fourth quarter of this crucial quarterfinal (sound familiar?), but they scored just two more points the rest of the game. That allowed Spain to rally and win, and they ultimately took the silver medal. France, despite cementing itself as a medal contender with a strong preliminary round, went home with nothing.

But that’s not why we remember this game. No, it’s remembered for Batum’s infamous shot to Navarro’s groin.

“I wanted to give him a good reason to flop,” Batum said afterwards.

Batum was also angry because he believed that Spain intentionally lost a game in the preliminary round against Brazil to get on the opposite side of the bracket from the U.S. In doing so, Spain caused these two medal contenders to meet sooner in the tournament than expected. Batum’s implication was that France could have actually won a medal if not for Spain’s tanking against Brazil.

With all of this, the friendly competition that started three years prior suddenly turned into a full-fledged rivalry. Batum’s play was made out of frustration in the waning seconds of the loss, but that was no excuse for Spain, especially not from one of France’s best players.

Batum later tweeted an apology: “I want to apologize for my stupid act at the end, I showed a bad image of France and myself, Congrats to team Spain.”

A year later, France got its revenge. Parker’s 32-point performance on 11-of-19 shooting is exactly what France needed to edge past Spain in the 2013 Eurobasket semifinals. The entire overtime period is on YouTube, although it’s mostly free throw shooting. It ends with 10 great seconds of defense from France, forcing Marc Gasol to hurl a wild three-pointer at the rim as time expired that wasn’t even close.

Spain committed 18 turnovers in that game, which is bad for a 48-minute NBA game, much less a 40-minute FIBA one. France went on to win Eurobasket.

This is France’s most impressive victory against their rival by far. Spain was fully loaded for the 2014 FIBA World Championships, running out their best starting five of Rubio, Fernandez, Navarro, Pau Gasol and Marc Gasol, with Ibaka and Calderon coming off the bench. Spain was also playing on its home soil and was seen as a co-favorite along with the U.S. to win the tournament. France, on the other hand, wasn’t expected to compete for a title because it was missing Parker.

But in this quarterfinal, France turned the tables. They got a 15-point game from Diaw and played enough defense to knock Spain off.

This was Gobert’s coming out party. He smothered Spain, grabbing 13 rebounds and dominating the paint. This set the stage for his breakout sophomore campaign with the Utah Jazz the following year.

Nobody predicted France topping Spain, especially in Parker’s absence. France’s victory ruined the expected gold medal match against the United States, which was generally seen as Spain’s best shot to knock off the Americans since the U.S. sent a weaker roster than their 2012 Olympics team. Instead, France fell in the semifinals (finishing third), while the United States crushed Serbia to win the title.

The tables were turned in these two teams’ next matchup. This time, France was the favorite playing at home and Spain was the team that brought a less talented roster. Naturally, it was Spain that pulled the upset in the best game between the two countries.

This Eurobasket semifinal will forever be remembered as the Pau Gasol Game. Gasol scored 40 points to lead Spain to the overtime win.

It was an ageless masterpiece that Gasol created, summarizing all the things in his career that made him beloved. The final, game-sealing two-handed dunk in overtime worked as well as anything, with Gasol screaming into the yonder like only he can.

Spain easily won the gold medal in the ensuing championship game, blowing out Lithuania. France was forced to settle for the bronze.

***

That’s one decade, plus a little more, of Spain vs. France. Both teams developed as you know them now in the mid-2000s, adding a few pieces as they went along, but generally keeping the same cores. On Wednesday, we’ll get those two countries going at it again.

This probably isn’t the end for either team, as both have added younger players who can hopefully sustain their success moving forwards. However, teams like Lithuania, Serbia and Croatia have been trying to jump the two Western Europe countries for years now. It looks like they’ll soon have a window to do so, with Parker and the Gasols nearing retirement.

Until then, Spain and France have been wonderful rivals for us to enjoy watching for more than 10 years. If we’re lucky, we’ll get one final overtime or 40-point game out of these two nations, as well as some sore feelings along the way.