There is a lot of controversy as to whether the suspicious performance of the Spanish basketball team against Brazil was deliberately low to avoid meeting the superpowerful US in the semifinal.

The match was mostly placid for Scariolo's team, maintaining an advantatge of around 10 points. But in the last quarter Spain received 31 points and scored only 16.

The French team claims the Spanish cheated as they left its most important players in the bench for most of the game but they forget they did exactly the same in the last European Championship in Lithuania, when they played the last game of the first stage without its best players to avoid Spain in the quarter finals.