Dragić is not an alien from outer space to decide the match on his own. It's a crime that Lorbek didn't get the ball at the end. Utter bollocks that Slovenia needs to take the court again today.

After the French shattered Slovenia's dream of winning a medal at the European basketball championship at home, we had a chat with former Slovenian basketball players Goran Jagodnik and Peter Vilfan as well as the commentator of TV Koper Sergio Tavčar.

Goran Jagodnik: We’ve never been in this position of having to chase the result at this championship, and we didn’t know how to respond when we fell behind. We all expected miracles from Goran Dragić. He can’t take everyone on his own. One against five, this is impossible. We should have played the last quarter with a greater collective spirit. Everyone’s eyes were on “Gogi” (TN: Goran Dragić) only. He’s not an alien from outer space to decide the match on his own. Tony Parker did score 28 points, but he had help, especially from Batum, who kept destroying Dragić in defense. They scored in the last quarter, and we didn’t. Experience was also a decisive factor, as the French team has played many more of such important matches than we have.

Peter Vilfan: The biggest mistake was giving such attention to the duel between Dragić and Parker. Parker proved that he’s probably the best point guard in the world. He played for himself and was the best individual player of the match, but he also actively engaged the entire team and won. Goran fell for that and used the entire game to prove that he’s equal to Parker. He engaged himself but forgot about the team. I’m not trying to be a harsh critic, this can simply happen to a player. The ones in charge of leading and preparing the team should prevent this from happening. I was surprised that Goran Dragić guarded Parker from the start. I expected Joksimović to be assigned to chase Parker, at least in the beginning, and that Dragić would perhaps have taken over later on. But this only intensified their competition.

It’s terrible that Slovenia needs to take the court again tomorrow. Utter bollocks. I don’t know, was the schedule made by someone at Fiba who got run over by time? They have no idea what regeneration is, what preparing for the match is. In the quarterfinals, every team gives its very best, and then a new important match the very next day? The Serbs lost their quarterfinal match five minutes into the game, and will have an easier time psychologically speaking. But this disappointment has to be transformed and motivation renewed for a new match.

Sergio Tavčar: The centers scored two points. They let the French catch 10 balls under the Slovenian basket. The 3-point shooting statistics of outer players in the first half was 1/14. It’s hard to win having such stats, even with good defense. And at the end, Goran Dragić plays on his own. The team was behind by seven points and there were three minutes of the game left – and all action goes through Dragić. Domen Lorbek played fantastically, he was alone in offense for 15 seconds, the closest French player was 10 meters away, but no one passed the ball to him. To me, this is a crime in sports.

In my view – although Jaka Lakovič doesn’t think so –, Slovenia “blew it” in the first half. If we had scored more in the beginning, we would have made a difference of 10 or 12 points, and this would have been a completely different game. But as it happened, the French had room to breathe and in the second half, the Slovenian team had a hard time keeping up with them. And Tony Parker, of course. For the first time at this championship, he played for real and proved his worth.