Finland national basketball team

Early years

Finnish national team during the EuroBasket 1939 in Lithuania.

The Finnish Basketball Association was founded in February 1939. A few months earlier the Finnish Football Federation had decided to add basketball to its own repertoire. Finland first competed at the European championship at its third installment, the EuroBasket 1939. In the round-robin, they initially struggled and lost to each of the other seven teams and finished with a 70–541 overall point differential.

1950s

Finland playing against Mexico at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Gerald Lee Jr. in 2010

Finland's next European competition was 12 years later, at the EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. Overall, they fared much better and split their four preliminary round games and finished at third place in the group at 2–2 but were eliminated from championship contention. They had success after that, winning all three of their classification round 1 games and both round 2 games to finish in 9th place of the 18 teams.

In 1952, by virtue of hosting the games in Helsinki, Finland played at the Olympic basketball competition for the first time. The team finished at the bottom of its first-round Group B with the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Mexico, losing all of its games and scoring 147-178.^[1]

Finland used this international experience when they competed again at the EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow. In the preliminary round, they finished with 1 win and 3 losses for 4th place of the 5 teams in the group. They fared significantly better in the first classification round, winning 3 and losing only 1 to finish in the middle of a three-way tie in the group. They lost both the 9–12 and 11/12 classification games, however, taking 12th place of 17 overall.

At the next event, Finland had some difficulty in the preliminary round of EuroBasket 1955. They lost all three early games in Budapest and were relegated to the classification round. Once again, not faced with the world elite opponents anymore, the Fins shone in the classification round and won all four of the pool play games. They won their classification 9–12 match as well, but lost to France in the 9/10 final to finish 10th of 18 in the tournament.

In Sofia, at the EuroBasket 1957, the Finns finished third in their preliminary group after going 1–2. They moved to the 9–16 classification pool and won five games there with only one loss. They took 11th place overall in the tournament.

Modern era

At the EuroBasket 1995 in Greece, Finland finished 13th.

Finland qualified for the EuroBasket 2011. The tournament berth was the first for Finland in 16 years. There they finished third out of six teams in EuroBasket 2011 Group C and defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 92–64 and Montenegro 71–65. This allowed them to they qualify for the EuroBasket 2011 Group F. In their first match they were easily defeated by Russia but afterwards they defeated Georgia, before losing to Slovenia in their final match of the tournament. Despite not making it to the best of 8 tournament, Finland ended up making it to their first ever FIBA World Cup as a Wild Card team alongside Greece, Turkey, and Brazil.

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2017.^[2]

The following is the squad in the EuroBasket 2017

Finland men's national basketball team – EuroBasket 2017 roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. SG 4 Koivisto, Mikko 7004110930000000000♠30 – (1987-04-18)18 April 1987 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) Salon Vilpas Vikings SF 7 Huff, Shawn (C) 7004121710000000000♠33 – (1984-05-05)5 May 1984 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Skyliners Frankfurt C 8 Lee, Gerald 7004108740000000000♠29 – (1987-11-23)23 November 1987 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Helsinki Seagulls SG 9 Salin, Sasu 7003957800000000000♠26 – (1991-06-11)11 June 1991 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) Gran Canaria F/C 10 Kotti, Tuukka 7004133150000000000♠36 – (1981-03-18)18 March 1981 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Crailsheim Merlins PG 11 Koponen, Petteri 7004107320000000000♠29 – (1988-04-13)13 April 1988 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) Barcelona SF 12 Nuutinen, Matti 7003997900000000000♠27 – (1990-05-06)6 May 1990 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) Chorale Roanne PG 15 Rannikko, Teemu 7004135050000000000♠36 – (1980-09-09)9 September 1980 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) Kataja SF 22 Lindbom, Carl 7003942600000000000♠25 – (1991-11-10)10 November 1991 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Helsinki Seagulls PF 23 Markkanen, Lauri 7003740600000000000♠20 – (1997-05-22)22 May 1997 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) Chicago Bulls PG 31 Wilson, Jamar 7004122440000000000♠33 – (1984-02-22)22 February 1984 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) Estudiantes PF 33 Murphy, Erik 7003980600000000000♠26 – (1990-10-26)26 October 1990 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Strasbourg	Head coach Henrik Dettmann Assistant coach(es) Mikko Larkas Jukka Toijala Lassi Tuovi Legend (C) Team captain Club – describes last club before the tournament Age – describes age on 31 August 2017

Depth chart

Other notable players

• PF/C - Drew Gooden (Washington Wizards): has a possibility to represent Finland due to his mother being Finnish.^[3]

Head coach position

• Henrik Dettmann – 95-96, 2004-now

Past rosters

1939 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 8 teams

Kalevi Ihalainen, Pauli Sarkkula, Erkki Lindén, Ilkka Törrönen, Erkki Saurala, Pentti Vuollekoski, Vladi Marmo, Martti Salminen, Reino Valtonen, Alo Suurna, Heinonen (Coach: Osmo Kupiainen)

1951 EuroBasket: finished 9th among 17 teams

Kalevi Heinänen, Pentti Laaksonen, Raimo Lindholm, Pertti Mutru, Tapio Pöyhönen, Timo Suviranta, Kalevi Sylander, Oiva Virtanen, Olli Arppe, Kaj Gustafsson, Arto Koivisto, Juhani Kyöstilä, Raine Nuutinen, Allan Pietarinen (Coach: Eino Ojanen)

1952 Olympic Games: finished 15th among 23 teams

Kalevi Heinänen, Pentti Laaksonen, Juhani Kyöstilä, Raimo Lindholm, Pertti Mutru, Tapio Pöyhönen, Eero Salonen, Timo Suviranta, Kalevi Sylander, Oiva Virtanen, Raine Nuutinen, Olavi Lahtinen, Tuomo Ristola, Esko Karhunen

1953 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 17 teams

Kalevi Heinänen, Pentti Laaksonen, Pertti Mutru, Allan Pietarinen, Raimo Lindholm, Timo Suviranta, Timo Lampen, Raine Nuutinen, Keijo Hynninen, Oiva Virtanen, Eero Salonen, Kaj Gustafsson (Coach: Eino Ojanen)

1955 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 18 teams

Kalevi Heinänen, Kalevi Sylander, Pertti Mutru, Oiva Virtanen, Timo Lampén, Taisto Ravantti, Seppo Kuusela, Timo Suviranta, Raine Nuutinen, Eero Salonen, Kalevi Tuominen, Asko Jokinen, Raimo Lindholm (Coach: Eino Ojanen)

1957 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 16 teams

Timo Lampén, Arto Koivisto, Pertti Mutru, Raine Nuutinen, Eero Salonen, Seppo Kuusela, Arvo Jantunen, Juhani Kala, Paavo Suhonen, Raimo Lindholm, Timo Suviranta, Kalevi Sylander (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1959 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 17 teams

Timo Lampén, Raimo Lindholm, Seppo Kuusela, Arvo Jantunen, Juhani Kala, Matti Nenonen, Raine Nuutinen, Eero Salonen, Raimo Vartia, Matti Köli, Kyösti Rousti, Pentti Palkoaho (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1961 EuroBasket: finished 14th among 19 teams

Martti Liimo, Kari Liimo, Raimo Lindholm, Timo Lampén, Raimo Vartia, Pertti Laanti, Tony Bärlund, Arvo Jantunen, Uolevi Manninen, Lauri Nurma, Seppo Kuusela, Rauno Ailus (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1963 EuroBasket: finished 14th among 16 teams

Martti Liimo, Kari Liimo, Jorma Pilkevaara, Timo Lampén, Pertti Laanti, Raimo Vartia, Uolevi Manninen, Antero Siljola, Juha Harjula, Seppo Kuusela, Rauno Ailus, Kauko Kauppinen (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1964 Olympic Games: finished 11th among 16 teams

Martti Liimo, Jorma Pilkevaara, Kari Liimo, Raimo Vartia, Pertti Laanti, Timo Lampén, Risto Kala, Kauko Kauppinen, Raimo Lindholm, Teijo Finneman, Uolevi Manninen, Juha Harjula (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1965 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 16 teams

Martti Liimo, Kari Liimo, Jorma Pilkevaara, Kari Lahti, Pertti Laanti, Timo Lampén, Uolevi Manninen, Jyrki Immonen, Hannu Paananen, Lars Karell, Kari Rönnholm, Teijo Finneman (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1967 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 16 teams

Veikko Vainio, Jorma Pilkevaara, Martti Liimo, Kari Liimo, Pertti Laanti, Kari Lahti, Uolevi Manninen, Teijo Finneman, Jyrki Immonen, Lars Karell, Olavi Ahonen, Kari Rönnholm (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1977 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 12 teams

Heikki Taponen, Tapio Sten, Jarmo Laitinen, Erkki Saaristo, Antti Zitting, Mikko Koskinen, Klaus Mahlamäki, Risto Lignell, Raimo Mäntynen, Anssi Rauramo, Kalevi Sarkalahti, Heikki Kasko (Coach: Robert Petersen)

1995 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 14 teams

Hanno Möttölä, Martti Kuisma, Kari-Pekka Klinga, Petri Niiranen, Juha Luhtanen, Jyri Lehtonen, Pekka Markkanen, Sakari Pehkonen, Markku Larkio, Mika-Matti Tahvanainen, Riku Marttinen, Jarkko Tuomala (Coach: Henrik Dettmann)

2013 Eurobasket: finished 9th among 24 teams

Mikko Koivisto, Antti Nikkilä, Kimmo Muurinen, Shawn Huff, Gerald Lee, Sasu Salin, Tuukka Kotti, Petteri Koponen, Samuel Haanpää, Hanno Möttölä, Teemu Rannikko (Coach: Henrik Dettmann)

2014 FIBA World Cup: finished 22nd among 24 teams

Mikko Koivisto, Erik Murphy, Kimmo Muurinen, Shawn Huff, Gerald Lee, Sasu Salin, Tuukka Kotti, Petteri Koponen, Matti Nuutinen, Hanno Möttölä, Antero Lehto, Teemu Rannikko (Coach: Henrik Dettmann)

2015 Eurobasket: finished 16th among 24 teams

Mikko Koivisto, Shawn Huff, Gerald Lee, Sasu Salin, Tuukka Kotti, Petteri Koponen, Matti Nuutinen, Ville Kaunisto, Joonas Cavén, Roope Ahonen, Jamar Wilson, Erik Murphy (Coach: Henrik Dettmann)

Manufacturer

2015: Li-ning ^[4]

Sponsor

2015: Microsoft ^[4]

Videos

• Finland - Tournament Highlights - 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup Youtube.com video