Fighting for a rebound, Aday Mara accidentally elbowed Thanasis Antetokounmpo. Albeit, with the latter selling the contact. The unsportsmanlike foul was costly for the 7-foot-3 giant's home country, but fist-bump-worthy for his NBA fanbase. Ala, your parents being proud of you for standing up against the school bully.
Spain's comeback attempt fell short in a 108-106 overtime loss to Greece. This was part of the 2027 FIBA World Cup qualifier. Spain is now 5-3 with 13 points in Group I play — keeping them in first place for now. Mara finished with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting, 13 rebounds, one assist and one block. He shot 5-of-7 on free throws. He logged 25 minutes off the bench.
I guess all Mara needed was some motivation. Since he joined the
Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2026 NBA draft, this was easily his best rebounding game of the summer. Over these last two games, he's played a physical and energetic style that was notably absent in the 2026 NBA Summer League.
Sometimes struggling to do so, Mara kept reminding folks that he's 7-foot-3 and dwarfs your average professional basketball player. Scoreless for the first handful of minutes, Spain's energy changed as soon as he checked in. He was active on the boards and was always a constant scoring threat.
It didn't take long for Spain's ball-handlers to feed Mara. A couple of pick-and-roll alley-oops showed how easy it was to throw the ball up to him. He barely needs pinpoint accuracy to catch the ball mid-air and throw it down. At one point, he showed off his catch radius with a reverse alley-oop jam.
On other scoring possessions, Mara didn't need any help. He backed down his defender in the low-post. A couple of dribbles later, he swiftly spun around for the banked-in layup. One-upping himself, he went to work on the baseline. With two Greek defenders stuck on him, he hit another spin move to go with the highly-difficult floater that resulted in an and-one. All while being off-balance and slightly behind the backboard, too. Talk about impeccable footwork and unreal feel. It's not all brute force.
Two games into his Spanish tenure, Mara has easily been one of the nation's top players. He's made fellow NBA player Hugo Gonzalez an afterthought — the same guy the Boston Celtics famously refused to part ways with this summer for Giannis Antetokounmpo, by the way.
Alas, Mara's double-double wasn't enough to get the much-needed win. Even though it was a close game throughout, Spain never really had the upper hand. It was behind by eight points from the jump. The rest of the first quarter was spent catching up. Eventually, Spain held a 20-19 lead over Greece.
Neither team built up a serious lead. Spain had 22 points in the second frame. It entered halftime in a 43-42 hole to Greece. As awesome as Mara was, the rest of his teammates' miscues hurt them in the end. Coming out of the break, one team finally took firm control of the game's flow.
Held to just 16 points in the third quarter, Spain looked on the verge of losing control of the game. Greece had built up a 67-58 advantage. In this setting, a nine-point lead might as well be 19. As the country's next hopeful face of the program, Mara had to play a key role in any comeback ambitions in the final 10 minutes of regulation.
That's what eventually happened. Down 72-60 with seven minutes to go, Spain slowly chipped away. It went on a game-changing 13-3 run over the next three minutes. Joel Parra and Mario Saint-Supery tag-teamed to do most of the work as Greece's lead was suddenly down to a very-gettable 75-73 with three-and-a-half minutes left. We now had a game on our hands after it looked over at various points in the second half.
Trailing 86-83 with 18 seconds left, Spain needed somebody to step up. That turned out to be Juancho Hernangomez. As the final seconds ticked away, the former NBA player played the hero. He swished in a wild pull-up 3-pointer to tie things up at 86 points apiece. Fueled by a 28-point final frame, Spain somehow forced overtime as the Greek crowd was shocked.
In a five-minute overtime, the scoring happened at NASCAR-level speed. Both teams exchanged buckets at a rapid rate. Spain missed Mara's rim protection — as he left the game after being hit with an unsportsmanlike foul. Eventually, Greece created some cushion with a mini 6-1 run.
Playing the free-throw and stoppage game in the final minutes, Spain caught Greece asleep. Somehow, it made it a 107-105 game with 22 seconds left. That turned out to be the peak of the drama. A critical missed 3-pointer in the final seconds officially popped the balloon of a comeback. The scramble play disheartened Spanish fans across the globe.
A combination of Spain's insane shot-making and Greece's avoidable mistakes made this a one-possession game until the very end. Sadly, a video-game-esque 20-point overtime period by Spain wasn't enough. Not when you're giving up more points on the other end.
Even though Mara remains winless in a Spanish senior uniform, he had a productive two games. At the very least, the 21-year-old soothed any concerns Thunder fans had about his low-energy output in Summer League. With real stakes on the line, he proved to be a gamer. That's all you can really ask for in this setting.
PARRA PARA MARA 💥🇪🇸#FIBAWC x @BaloncestoESP pic.twitter.com/eEgx1BKe06
— FIBA Basketball World Cup 🏆 (@FIBAWC) August 31, 2026
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: 2027 FIBA World Cup qualifier: Aday Mara, Spain fall to Greece in 108-106 OT loss
