VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - Au revoir 2014.

Adios.

Good-bye.

You've given those of us in Europe who live and breathe basketball plenty of big moments.

Some were good, some were bad and some were downright ugly.

The blunder of the year belongs to CSKA Moscow's Viktor Khryapa, a veteran who has made plenty of big plays in his career, just as he did for 99 percent of his 28 minutes and 45 seconds on the court against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 2014 Euroleague Semi-Final.

The 2.03m forward, one of the guys who led Russia to glory over hosts Spain at EuroBasket 2007, had nine points, 10 rebounds and three assists and a steal that afternoon in his team's game in Milan against Maccabi.

But the one statistic that he'll be remembered for is a turnover.

CSKA led by a point and had the ball with 12 seconds left when Khryapa fumbled away a bounce pass.

The ball ended up in the hands of Maccabi's David Blu, and he passed ahead to teammate Tyrese Rice, who made a tough, go-ahead lay-up with 5.5 seconds remaining. 

Maccabi won, 68-67.

The Israeli giants then surprised Real Madrid in the Final, winning 98-86 after overtime.

If Khryapa's mistake was a blunder, what Spain did a few months later at the FIBA Basketball World Cup can be described as nothing else but a failure.

On the 10th of September, France smacked the tournament hosts, 65-52, to knock them out of medal contention.

For Spanish fans, it was as if a giant vampire had descended upon Madrid and sucked the life out of the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

As sweet as the feeling must have been for France to capture the EuroBasket title in Slovenia last year, which included a Semi-Final triumph over Spain, this year's Quarter-Final upset in Madrid over the Spaniards was just as special.

It was probably even better for Thomas Heurtel, the French point guard who hardly played in 2013.

In 2014, Heurtel was France's floor general, the man who made a series of big plays down the stretch against Spain to get France across the finish line.

These are some of the plays that he’ll show his grandchildren one day.

If Spain, who are No. 2 in the FIBA bwin World Ranking Men, had a nightmare, Europe nevertheless had a good World Cup because three of its teams made it to the Semi-Finals.

Serbia surprised Brazil to make it to the Last Eight, and Lithuania saw off the dogged challenge of Turkey to reach the Semi-Finals.

While France ended up beating Lithuania in the battle for third, Serbia crashed to a heavy defeat against the USA in the title game.

Even so, Serbia coach Sasha Djordjevic said: "We need those duels.

"We need this more often because we need to understand what we have to put up and bring up, our level of defense, our level of passing, whatever. 

"Being quicker, jumping higher, whatever, to achieve maybe the level that these players have.

"So this was a great, great night for us. A great game. We can learn a lot from this game."

In one sense, 2014 told us that nothing is ever a sure thing.

Maccabi were the underdogs of the Euroleague Final Four but won it all.

Then again, 2014 told us there is a sure thing and it's called the USA.

They are top dogs and they're going to remain so for a while.

Six European teams were among the nine scalps they claimed.

The finests sides on the old continent like Djordjevic's Serbia are willing to embrace the challenge but it's difficult to see a team overcoming the Americans any time soon.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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