Ball in Europe – European Basketball Blog

An intriguing, albeit unsubstantiated, rumor hit the English-language bit of the internet today. Apparently, ESPN’s much-touted “30 for 30” series, in which independent directors create from start to finish a short documentary on a sports subject, will be taking on a film entitled “Jednom braća” (“Once Brothers”).

“Once Brothers” is a documentary film about the Team Yugoslavia squads of 1988-1991, dream teams that include a roster filled with names like Vlade Divac, Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja, Žarko Paspalj, Predrag Danilović, Stojan Vranković, Jure Zdovc, Zoran Čutura, Zdravko Radulović, Zoran Radović, Zoran Savić and Aleksandar Đorđević.

Focus of the story, like the best of the “30 for 30” series thus far, is a human element: When the former Yugoslavia fell into chaos thanks to a bloody civil war, the team’s cornerstones, namely Divac and Petrovic, “stopped talking [...]and the nationalistic rhetorics in both countries must have influenced them, just like many other friends and colleagues at the time, even family members.”

Continue Reading…

This story is just in and so congratulations are just going out from Ball in Europe to Alba Torrens, who has taken the first of FIBA’s four annual “player of the year” awards, taking the 2009 Young Women’s Player of the Year. Finishing behind Torrens in the voting were, in order, Louice Halvarrson, Jelena Milovanovic and Gintare Petronyte.

Official FIBA press release follows the break.

Continue Reading…

The waffling is over! After a couple of weeks of mulling over the field of 50 candidates for ten spots on the Euroleague All-Decade Team, the final decision has been made (and whoo, was that painful) and the ballot submitted. The following, then, is how the official BallinEurope ballot for the 2010s all-stars, along with some of the thought process a la Euroleague Fantasy Boss Javier Gancedo, ended up.

Four choices were obvious:

• Sarunas Jasikevicius,

• Juan Carlos Navarro,

• Dejan Bodiroga, and

• Theo Papaloukas. BiE reckons that membership on Dream Team Europe (first inclusion or no) and/or the official BallinEurope All-Decade All-European Team gets you onto the Euroleague All-Decade squad.

Continue Reading…

Last night across the Atlantic, most sports fans in the ‘States were tuned into that little game of American football known as the Super Bowl (presumably after watching the EuroRaptors and Orlando Magic take care of business in the afternoon, that is). For years, mucho hype has surrounded the mystique of the commercials shown during this, the most expensive air time of the year in US TV land: Companies spend tens of millions to launch new concepts, new slogans (anyone remember “Pepsi: Gotta Have It”?), new celebrity spokespeople, etc.

“Unfortunately,” the great majority of folks in Europe remain blissfully unaware of this bombardment of commercials … until now, that is.

During this year’s game, basketball fans were treated to a couple of ads starring some legends from their sport. First up is the LeBron James-Dwight Howard spot for McDonald’s, with a well recognizable script for anyone who was around during the Dream Team days … enjoy the ridiculous dunks and the punchline, which is truly laugh-out-loud funny.

Continue Reading…

FIBA Europe will be naming its Young Women’s Player of the year tomorrow in the first of four such awards given annually by the Continental organization. And the nominees are … Elina Babkina, Katerina Elhotova, Dürdane Gümüsay, Louice Halvarsson, Olesia Malashenko, Jelena Milovanovic, Sabine Niedola, Gintare Petronyte, Sonja Petrovic, Melanie Plust, Alba Torrens, and Marta Xargay. (Brief official FIBA bios run below the break.)

Ball in Europe is sticking by its December endorsement of Alba Torrens of Team Spain/Perfumerias Avenida (Salamanca) for this award. Torrens was most recently in the news for her placement on the “Europe” side for the Euroleague women all-star game alongside Continental notables such as Marta Fernandez, Becky Hammon and Anna Vajda. The World team includes DeLisha Milton-Jones and the always-linkable Erin Phillips. Torrens is the youngest player named to either roster.

Following the Young Women’s Player of the Year announcement, FIBA Europe will go on to name its Young Men’s Player of the Year on February 10, Women’s Player of the Year on February 12, and Men’s Player of the Year of February 15. Last year’s winners were Gintare Petronyte, Ricky Rubio, Maria Stepanov and Pau Gasol.

Continue Reading…

In case you haven’t heard, Partizan Belgrade pulled off a wicked 67-66 upset of FC Barcelona this week to end another notable winning streak while creating an instant classic. In other news, the NBA All-Star Game is bearing down full steam ahead and the hype machine appears to be set for full blast come Monday. So guess what this week’s “Best of the (Basketball) Net” is about? Read on!

Continue Reading…

It’s time for the look back at the wacky Euroleague week that was with Francesco Cappelletti. This week, BallinEurope’s man in Italy examines messing with rotations in Olympiacos and Unicaja; praises Partizan for the potential blueprint win over FC Barcelona; and chides the narcissistic defending champions for their shameful general laziness.

No instant replay, Partizan wins
The rule says that, when the buzzer sounds, the ball is no longer playable. This was the reason for the theatrical scene in Belgrade, wherein instant replay helped coaches and referees solve a risky situation. Pete Mickeal went with the hook shot over Slavko Vranes at the end of the overtime, and Lawrence Roberts swept the ball away from the rim. If the ball was over the rim, referees must make a goaltending call and Regal FC Barcelona credit for the (unmade) basket and the away win. But the ball was considered not fully over the rim, so Roberts’ action was legal.

Luckily, Partizan won. They deserved it. One week after having beaten Panathinaikos in Athens, the Serbian boys stopped the best team in Europe and made them play like no other had before. Dule Vujosevic can really aspire to stand on the podium of European coaches alongside Ettore Messina and Zelimir Obradovic, not only for his ability to develop young prospects in a hurry but also for his tactical knowledge: This week’s game was an example of how a coach can influence a game closed in the forecasts.

Continue Reading…

After a night of upsets in Euroleague play last night, can any would-be punter feel safe betting on any of tonight’s games? To wit, which of tonight’s three matches looks rife for an upset finish and/or acknowledgement of seriousness, i.e. the BC Khimki demolition of Unicaja (are we witnessing the rise of a new Russian power)?

The marquee matchup is clearly Maccabi Tel Aviv-Real Madrid, with the Sporting Bet pointspread set at a puny minus-1 for the homers – essentially a “pick ‘em” line. And as unbeatable as Partizan is once again proving to be in their home confines with the win over Barcelona, Maccabi is currently at 9-1 in Tel Aviv in 2009-10.

Continue Reading…

Whilst watching the Efes Pilsen-Montepaschi Siena game with horror fascination last night – probably somewhere around the Ferdinando Minucci ejection – BiE couldn’t help but wonder what Francesco Cappelletti, this website’s man in Italy, thought of it all.

Seriously. Montepaschi came into the game having looked strong in Euroleague competition this season thus far; with a good-enough win over Maccabi Tel Aviv to open the Euroleague Final 16 round and coming off a near-100 point win over Napoli in Serie A play, the visiting Italians entered the game a 3.5-point favorite.

So, to put it in a nutshell, what happened? Whither the outclassed play? And what does this say about Serie A ball, over which the suddenly visibly flawed MPS currently rules at 16-0. Managing to corner the busy Cappelletti for five minutes on chat, BiE asked a few simple questions.

BallinEurope: Okay, so basically, the question is this: What the fuck happened to MPS last night? i.e. What were the keys to their defeat, especially after that huge win the other day?

Francesco Cappelletti: So many reasons.

Continue Reading…

Hello everybody, this is once again Javier Gancedo, as always from Euroleague Basketball. Well, it was not a bad fantasy week for my team, Meet The Boss. I scored 166.2 points, moved up into the Top 600 overall, was the best team this week in the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge private league and now rank fifth in the global standings. Things could be worse, after all.

This will be an outstanding Top 16 week. First of all, we have Maccabi hosting Madrid, which is a hell of a game by all means; this marks the 40th showdown between both teams in European club competitions (all in the Euroleague, unless I’m mistaken). Then we have Zalgiris-CSKA and Partizan-Regal FCB with strong basketball atmospheres: Big games all over the continent! In other words, if you are a Euroleague fan, it’s time to sit back and enjoy an outstanding basketball week. Of course, if you are a diehard fan of any of the 16 teams alive in the competition, you won’t sit back and relax. It’s all part of what’s known around here as DEVOTION.

Continue Reading…