VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - It comes down to this in international basketball. You win some, you lose some.

Only the emotions are a little more intense than that. The immortal words of the late Jim McKay of ABC's Wide World of Sports say it all - "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The human drama of athletic competition."

In Rio de Janeiro, this was illustrated in the Bronze Medal Game. Spain went into celebration mode after reaching the podium for a third straight time at the Olympics. Australia went into agony mode after that painful 89-88 defeat, one that prevented the men's team from getting a medal for the first time at an Olympics or FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Australia endured heartbreak in Rio

The thrills are right now being experienced by Germany, Georgia, Great Britain, Iceland, Poland and Ukraine.

They are in the clouds after claiming the last spots on offer on Saturday night for the 24-team FIBA EuroBasket 2017.

The agony is being experienced by the Netherlands, a team that was within touching distance of a second straight EuroBasket appearance.

A second win over the Germans would have made it five in six qualifying games overall but the Orange Lions crashed to an 82-51 home setback in front of a Leiden crowd that went from raucous at the start to hushed by the end.

"It's like a huge load off our shoulders. We were already feeling the tension on the way to the arena." - Germany center Johannes Voigtmann

It's a huge disappointment for the Dutch, who only last year could have made it to the Round of 16 with a victory over Greece in their last Group Phase game, one they lost, 68-65. Now, they're going to miss out on the next tournament all together.

Arvin Slagter consoles Dutch teammate Worthy de Jong

Germany probably had an even greater disappointment to overcome last year. In front of their own fans, in what turned out to be Dirk Nowitzki's last game with Germany, the team came within a missed free-throw of tying Spain and forcing overtime. A victory in that game would have allowed Chris Fleming's team to advance.

Instead, they had to endure the disappointment of losing in Berlin in the Group Phase.

The only way that Germany could be sure of qualifying for next year's EuroBasket was to beat the Netherlands on Saturday, and they did - like a drum.

"It's like a huge load off our shoulders," said center Johannes Voigtmann, who had a team-high 15 points. "We were already feeling the tension on the way to the arena. We certainly didn't play our best basketball but still stayed together as a team and helped each other."

Iceland didn't win a game last year in their first EuroBasket experience, losing to international heavyweights Spain and Serbia, as well as Germany, Italy and Turkey.

Yet they loved taking part and made a pledge immediately after their final game, an overtime defeat to the Turks, to make it back to the EuroBasket next year.

How big a deal was their game last night at the Laugardalsholl arena in Reykjavik? In the 5,500 strong crowd was Iceland President Guoni Thorlacius Johannesson, and he watched the team hit back from a 14-point deficit in the first half to defeat previously unbeaten Belgium, 74-68.

An Iceland player whose stock has gone way up in this qualifying campaign, 22-year-old shooting guard Martin Hermannson, led the way with 18 points and 5 assists.

"We showed character and heart," he said.

Hermannson featured at last year's EuroBasket but an Icelandic youngster that did not, 22-year-old power forward Kristofer Acox, now has a chance to experience next year's tournament after helping the team qualify.

A player at Furman University in South Carolina, Acox received permission to stay with Iceland and try to help them reach the EuroBasket. He had 9 points in the win.

"This is insane," he said after the victory. "I'm speechless."

The victory cigars came out in the locker room.

If the Dutch are disappointed, they just need to know that the qualifying campaign for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 will start next November. There are going to be home games for the players and fans to get excited about again.

Just because they missed out on this one doesn't mean they'll miss out on the next. Just look at Britain. They played at the EuroBaskets in 2009, 2011 and after taking part in the 2012 London Olympics, 2013.

But the Brits missed out on EuroBasket 2015. Now they're headed back to the show, despite falling to minnows Luxembourg on Saturday. Not to take anything away from the winners, but Britain knew beforehand the game had no bearing on their campaign. They had done the hard work in a couple of wins over the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MKD).

"It's a tremendous accomplishment to qualify for EuroBasket 2017 and the players deserve all the credit," Britain coach Joe Prunty said after the Luxembourg game.

"We have become a very good team. But we have to realize every single time you step on the floor, you're being evaluated and you have to prove yourself. The loss is disappointing. But we had a goal and we accomplished it."

Jeff Taylor
FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

FIBA takes no responsibility and gives no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of the content and opinion expressed in the above article.