RIGA (Latvia) - What a time for basketball fans in Portugal as the men's team punched their ticket to FIBA EuroBasket 2025 to end a 14-year drought since their last appearance.
And the magical moment came less than two weeks after the country reached the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 - qualifying for the women's continental showcase for the first time in history.
Now, if that's not an inspirational 12 days, nothing is.
"We started at the bottom of Europe and now we're in EuroBasket."
"It is special," said Portugal guard Rafael Lisboa, who has been with the national team since 2020. "Everybody should be proud of both teams. We did an amazing job. We qualified and now we are going to work to try and do our best in the summer."
The teams' 31-year-old veteran Diogo Ventura has been waiting for the moment for quite a bit longer.
"It's huge. There are not many words to say. We are really, really proud of both teams. For such a small country and a low ranking in the world, it's really good to have both teams qualified for EuroBasket," he said.
This will be the fourth time Portugal men's national team plays on the continental stage following appearances in 1951, 2007 and 2011.
Coach Mario Gomes' team is the lowest ranked European team in the FIBA World Ranking Presented by NIKE - Men to qualify for the EuroBasket at 28th in Europe and 55th in the world.
Only co-hosts Cyprus, qualified automatically, are lower ranked at 38th and 84th, respectively.
Portugal actually knew they were EuroBasket-bound before their game in Riga against Israel.
Slovenia had beaten Ukraine earlier in the day to eliminate Ukraine and send the Portuguese into elation.
"This was a historic day for all of us. This was a completely different game than any other in our careers. For the first time, all of us have qualified for EuroBasket. It happened before our game so it was quite difficult to maintain the focus. That is probably why we had a bad first half in the game," said Ventura of Portugal's 84-78 loss to Israel.
"Maybe my face doesn't show it, but I am very happy about the qualification," coach Gomes said in the post-game press conference. "We have been fighting for this for a long time and I think we deserve this. Most of all, this group of players deserve it. I am very happy. That was our main goal and we did it."
This feeling was a long time coming for the Gomes' men.
The start of this journey came in February 2020 with the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 European Pre-Qualifiers. Portugal advanced through two rounds to reach the World Cup European Qualifiers, where they lost all six games in the First Round. That sent Portugal into the Second Round of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers starting in August 2022 - just before the start of EuroBasket 2022.
Portugal won their 2025 Pre-Qualifiers group to reach the main Qualifiers. Still, the chances of the Lynxes actually reaching EuroBasket seemed highly unlikely.
Their 79-77 victory over Ukraine on Gameday 2 was Portugal's first EuroBasket Qualifiers win in over seven years. The victory came 2,717 days after Portugal defeated Belarus in the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers on September 17, 2016.
Portugal further laid the groundwork for history in the November 2024 window, when they shocked the 2017 continental champions Slovenia 82-74 at home. And in the end, the two victories were enough to qualify - though Portugal still have a final game at home on Monday against Ukraine in Matosinhos.
"We started in 2020 and passed through so many stages. We started at the bottom of Europe and now we are in EuroBasket," a relieved Ventura said.
The Sporting Lisbon guard Ventura will actually get to experience EuroBasket for a second time.
"In 2007, my father and I drove to Seville to watch Portugal’s entire group phase. I was there, was only 13 years old, and I remember each and every game, I remember all the scores perfectly."
The first encounter came in 2007 when he was just 13 years old and he saw the national team play in neighboring Spain.
"In 2007, my father and I drove to Seville to watch Portugal’s entire group phase. I was there, was only 13 years old, and I remember each and every game, I remember all the scores perfectly," Ventura said after the game.
"Since then it has been a big dream for me and now it came true."
Ventura isn't the only player with a connection to the 2007 EuroBasket. Anthony da Silva's father Felipe da Silva played at both the 2007 and 2011 continental tournaments.
"I can't wait to share this with him because he is one of the reasons I am here," said the younger da Silva. "It’s something historic. We did it all together. It was a long road. But we did it. And now we are so proud of ourselves because we are a small country and this kind of story gives us a lot of pride and joy."
Nobody on the Portugal team has gone through as much as Miguel Queiroz.
The team captain has played for the senior national team since 2013, when he was just 22 years old.
He played in one qualifying tournament after the next pre-qualifying competition and so forth. The now 34-year-old also played in five youth EuroBasket tournaments between 2007 and 2011 - getting the chance to play in U16 EuroBasket Division A in 2007, with the rest of the appearances coming in Division B.
"It's an honor to be on this team," the FC Porto big man said. "I have been with the national team for 12 years. I have been fighting for this goal so f**king hard, and we finally did it. It's important for us, it's important for Portugal basketball," Queiroz said.
It's not only important - it's inspirational.
FIBA