Euroleague Final Four: Real player blog entry #2
April 30, 2008
Now we have arrived in Madrid as you may have seen already. Of course, we always fly by our own private jet together with our lovely cheerleaders, who are not so lovely at all, as a US-born sportswriter figured out.
Euroleague Final Four: My first time - Athens 2007
April 30, 2008
Thanks to FIBA.com, I was able to attend the Euroleague Final Four 2007 in Athens. Actually, this was probably the start for my “Euroleague career.” Four months later, I got in touch with Christophe and Julien to start BallinEurope, and now working on the website is almost like a normal job.
I guess I was lucky to be at a Final Four in Greece, where home team Panathinaikos Athens eventually won the title over CSKA Moscow. But how can I describe my experience? The best way is to share my experience with pictures, so here you go.
Euroleague Final Four: Yarone Arbel on Maccabi’s experience
April 30, 2008
Making it to the Final Four made Coach Zvi Sherf untouched in a way. His team has already collected seven losses in the Israeli league (eight including the shocking cup finals loss), but his status is stable. He is making some decisions that most people can’t easily digest, like benching Vujcic and Sharp for 40 minutes, but he hasn’t suffered any hits from media or fans. Yet.
There’s no doubt Montepaschi are coming into the game in better shape, and even when both teams in good shape it’s acceptable to say the Italians are a better team, and play better basketball but…this is Final Four, and in Final Fours there’s another factor: Experience. And it talks loud and clear.
The biggest difference in experience is on the benches. Montepaschi’s head was in two final fours as the assistant, but didn’t complete yet two seasons as a head coach. Sherf? He was an assistant when Maccabi won their second Euroleague title in 1981 and head-coached legends like Berkowitz, Aroesti, Jamchy and McGee. His first Final Four was in 1989 and he’s one of the longest-term coaches in Europe.
Experience will talk on the floor as well; that is, if Sherf has Vujcic, Sharp and Burstein, something he doesn’t seem to often have lately. The addition of Burstein to a team that made it to the Final Four without him was supposed to give Maccabi added value, but he so far hasn’t found his place in the team.
If this trio doesn’t get a lot of minutes, Maccabi has their tradition: This will be the team’s 10th Final Four, more than any other team in Euroleague history (Barcelona ranks 2nd with nine). After that…the players will talk, too.
An American education: Six must-see basketball movies
April 30, 2008
America’s primary cultural export has always been the Hollywood movie. Shortly after early cinema captured the public’s imagination, American movie studios captured motion pictures. Hollywood in turn captured the American moviemaking industry.
And then the world.
Over the course of the post-Lumiere century-plus, Hollywood has made itself ubiquitous in all corners of the globe. At times, the celluloid megamachine captures hundreds of millions of imaginations at once with a Star Wars or a Titanic; at others, film history buffs screen Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe movies. But always – always – does the constant production of Hollywood put its version of America in front of millions, creating indelible images of a fantasyland that, for money, is America.
So what happens when the country’s top cultural export meets its top sport export, namely basketball? Unfortunately all too often, it’s something like Will Ferrell’s Semi-Pro.
Euroleague Final Four: The real player blog
April 29, 2008
You may already have passed through the different Final Four Player blogs online on the Euroleague official website. I’m not the biggest fan of these literary pieces which sound more like the team’s PR officers imagining themselves as professional sportsmen instead of being written by the players themselves. That’s why I had the idea to write a player’s blog too.
Euroleague Final Four: How to place your bets
April 29, 2008
I am sure you would like to know where to place your money for the Euroleague Final Four. Should you go with CSKA to be on the safe side or do you want to take the risk by going with Siena? By the way, is it a risk to go with Siena, who is playing probably the best team basketball this year?
I’ve done a lot of betting, since people told me they really can make a lot of money with basketball bets, so I tried it. Now, BallinEurope has a partnership with sportingbet, one of the largest sports betting companies, so I am placing all of my bets with sportingbet.
First match up: Tau Ceramica vs. CSKA
Overall I think going with a winner is pretty hard to do at a final four. You still can get odds of 3.85 for a Tau Ceramica win but only 1.30 on a CSKA win. If you really want to gamble, go with a tie (19.00) which is probably much more likely than during a normal season game. At least you can be sure this time that everybody will give 100%, particulary Tau, since they don’t want to lose in the semifinals again.
But what would be a “safe bet,” where you still can make some money? Probably betting on the total score. Once again, since it is the final four, you won’t expect a high-scoring game with both teams will trying to play intense defense, but then last year’s final ended 93-91, a total of 184 points.
Taking the over on the over/under of 146.5 total points is 1.85, as is taking the under. If the game ends 73-72 you would stay under 146.5. Is that a thinkable score for a game of CSKA and Tau?
Probably. CSKA is sixth in scoring with 78.7 points per game while Tau is 2nd with 82.3 points per game. This would add up to 161 points. Now you also have to know that CSKA only allowed 66 points per game to their opponents and I am sure that will not change in the Final Four. Tau allows 75 points per game, around the number that CSKA scored the whole season. Considering now that this is the Final Four and we’ll see hard defense, I would go with a score UNDER 146.5 for CSKA-Tau.
What about Siena and Maccabi?
If I had to choose a team right away, I would go with Siena right now. They just play unbelievable team basketball, while Maccabi almost had a struggle against a very bad FC Barcelona. The odds on sportingbet are 1.625 for a Siena win and 2.45 for a Maccabi win.
Once again I have to suggest that an over/under bet promising to me. The magic number for this game is 154.5 points, which a final score of 77-76 would get a payout of 1.85 for taking UNDER 154.5.
Is that possible?
Of course, Maccabi Tel Aviv leads the Euroleague with 83.5 points per game but Siena is even lower-scoring than CSKA with 78.3. While Maccabi allows almost 80 points per game, Siena’s tough defense won’t let Maccabi score more than 70 points. So saying Siena scores 80 points and keeps Maccabi to 70, we would have to bet another UNDER.
I would love to know your thoughts, and after that I will place my bets for everybody to see how much I bet and how much I won - should be a cool story - BallinEurope’s way to be a millionaire! 
Euroleague Final Four: Maccabi Tel Aviv’s momentum and the fan factor
April 29, 2008
Since the end of the Top 16, Maccabi isn’t playing the basketball that earned them first place in the group. Against AXA, it was already a little less intense Maccabi, but still it was enough.
The real difference was seen, of all places, in the Israeli league, where Maccabi normally cruises to the title. Last night, the yellows traveled to Nahariya hoping to get back on the winning track. They took the court while Montepaschi was about to finish their close-to-illegal-tantalization over Capo D’Orlando, and ended up losing. Again.
Maccabi lost three out of their four league games, with the single win a 113-111 home win over Hapoel Jerusalem in overtime after Hapoel led by double-digit margins for most of the game up to and including the closing minutes. Sherf’s boys made a huge comeback, like in the good old days, to win the game; but if you think that was Maccabi’s winning spirit, well, think again.
All of those last four games were decided by a single basket or less: 78-79, 113-111, 101-99, 88-87. Maccabi lost three: Not a good sign for a team marching into what could be a game that will go down to the last minute.
The fan factor
We’ve gotten used to seeing mayors asking to host the Euroleague Final Four and eventually having to survive a yellow-and-blue attack taking over the city for three days, but seems like things will be different this time.
In previous Final Fours, Maccabi was escorted by at least 6,000 fans (In Paris 2001, there were about 10,000; well, it’s still Paris), but the prices of the trip packages (starting at 1,500 euros…) made a difference and as it seems right now, after around six-seven flights were canceled, Maccabi will have “only” 3,000 followers. After Maccabi had more fans in Moscow 2005 than CSKA itself, and had gotten used to “taking over” the Final Four arena, this case will be different, although against Montepaschi and “hopefully” CSKA (just in case…) Maccabi is still expected to enjoy an advantage there.
–Yarone Arbel
Euro Day in the NBA
April 28, 2008
Today, the NBA announced its unofficial Euro Day. Honoring a European player for the Most Improved player award was somehow predictable, but the announcement of a Filipino-Dutch-Irish-American head coach for the Miami Heat was more like the magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat.
Euroleague Final Four: Top 10 EL.TV bloopers
April 28, 2008
Everybody knows about the NBA Bloopers Top 10s. While I’m waiting for the Euroleague Bloopers of the season, I collected the Euroleague TV commentator Top 10. And this comes pretty close to the NBA blooper series.
Euroleague Final Four: Maccabi Tel Aviv’s history lesson
April 28, 2008
Once again thanks to Yarone Arbel for this great series of articles about “his” team Maccabi Tel Aviv.
History-wise … Maccabi couldn’t hope for a better opponent in the semi-finals than Montepaschi. In eight encounters so far, all in recent years, Maccabi has beat the Italian bank eight times.
In fact, most of these games have been tattooed in the memories of Maccabi fans. There was the first buzzer-beater made by Saras in a Maccabi uniform. Another came a year later when the same Saras on the same court against the same team made his first three pointer of the night, after eight misses prior, exactly in the last seconds to put Maccabi on top.
Yet another: Down in Siena, the game was decided after Anthony Parker hit a three pointer plus a free throw shot (a rare scene by itself) in the last seconds.
One more was in the 2002-03 season, when Maccabi came to Siena after a steak of three losses in four days (Back then, they played the Adriatic League between Euroleague and Israeli league games); coach David Blatt was about to get a one-way ticket, but the win in Siena put the team back on track.
Last, and funniest of all, was in 2004-05 when Vrbica Stefanov got the ball under the basket, WIDE OPEN, for a simple layup with his team down by three and less than 20 seconds to play, but he managed to miss it like a five-year-old girl and Maccabi won again.
The players who were active then and are still around today are Bootsy and Eze for Montepaschi, while Maccabi has Vujcic, Burstein (rarely used), Sharp (ditto) and Halperin (he was hardly used back then).
Tomorrow, the next article by Yarone: Maccabi Tel Aviv’s momentum.
