After the Olympics: What’s the future of Germany?
September 14, 2008 by Christophe · 4 Comments
The oldest European team in Beijing showed during the tournament that it has come to the end of a cycle. Several German players will end their career in the national team after this tournament, and coach Dirk Bauermann has now four years to rebuild a team to remain competitive.
After the Olympics: What’s the future of Spain?
September 8, 2008 by Christophe · 15 Comments
The Spanish national team is the most successful European team of recent years. The silver medal at the Olympics only confirmed this trend. Besides the coaching question that reigns at the moment, I will today look at the future in terms of player material.
After the Olympics: What’s the future of Croatia?
September 1, 2008 by Christophe · 2 Comments
Today, I am going to talk about the youngest European participant in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Croatian national team featured nine players born in 1982 or younger, something that no other team could offer. Let’s check how the next tournaments could look like for Jasmin Repesa’s guys.
After the Olympics: What’s the future of Lithuania?
August 29, 2008 by Christophe · 7 Comments
After having talked about the future of the Greek National team, today we’re going to analyze the current situation in the Lithuanian national team.
After the Olympics: What’s the future of Greece?
August 28, 2008 by Christophe · 6 Comments
The Olympic Games 2008 are history but the next basketball events for the national teams are just around the corner: Eurobasket 2009, World Championships 2010 and of course London 2012. BallinEurope.com takes a look at the current situation of Europe’s Olympic participants and gives an outlook into their future. To start, we are analyzing the situation in Greece.
Comparing European and NBA travel calls
August 26, 2008 by Tobias · 35 Comments
For some reason, many Europeans - especially Spanish players - complained a lot about the referees not calling the U.S. traveling.
In some way, I really do understand both sides. Traveling in the NBA and the United States is not called the same way as it is called in the Euroleague and Europe. It looks like both sides just do not know better and do not understand why the other is so upset. To defend the US continent, NCAA and FIBA rules are almost the same, while the NBA just has a few minor changes.
During my trip to the U.S. this past summer (yes, summer is almost over!), I followed the US team’s pre-Olympic games as well as the Olympics. Before every game, the commentators talked about the differences between FIBA and NBA rules, such as the size of the court and even the size of the ball, but they never explained the important thing: TRAVELING.
Time to bring some light into the darkness of those made/missing travel calls! (Watch out where you click to start the video - the middle button is advertising. To start the video, click the left corner)
Here are the essentials of FIBA and NBA rules for traveling:
The NBA/WNBA rule is a little more liberal than the current NCAA and FIBA rules when a player is coming to a stop. The NBA/WNBA rule is identical to the pre-1994 FIBA rule; in essence, once you have come to a legal stop, you always have a foot to pivot with. NCAA and current FIBA rules can leave a player without a pivot foot. As well, if you land with a staggered stop (i.e. one foot, then the other, with one foot clearly in front of the other), the back foot is the pivot foot in NBA/WNBA. In NCAA/FIBA, the first foot to touch is the pivot.
Sounds easy right?
Here comes the problem: Why did the referees not make these calls in Beijing? It is obvious that at the Olympics, the teams have to play with FIBA rules, and that TEAM USA HAD to travel just because they are used to different rules. When you play basketball every day, you are not thinking about your steps - you just know them - so Team USA really had to travel, just because they do it - according to FIBA rules, of course - every single day in NBA games.
In case you don’t believe me - just watch this video where we have proof of travel:
We know now, that Team USA did travel at least 5-10 times a game, but the referees did not call it, but would that have changed the outcome of the Olympics? I don’t think so.
Still, why did the referees not make those calls? Any referee in a 5th division team in Europe would have made the calls that you saw in the video. I just hope there wasn’t any “higher” influence.
Monday’s cigarettes
August 25, 2008 by Christophe · 1 Comment
The Olympics are over and the preseason is now officially launched. Here, the first Monday’s cigarettes of the season.
Thanks to Spain and USA for a great basketball game
August 24, 2008 by Christophe · 20 Comments
So the Redeem Team won the gold medal in Beijing. What in the end looked like no surprise must actually be considered a deserved win by the best team of the tournament: Nothing more and nothing less. The final game showed that the gap between the USA and the rest of the world is not widening again, but that USA needs to prepare and bring their best players in order to beat a Spanish team by only 11 points.
Olympics Live: Argentina vs. Lithuania, USA vs. Spain
August 23, 2008 by Christophe · 7 Comments
If Manu Ginobili is out (because of his ankle injury against Team USA), Lithuania is the favorite in this game and will once again go home with the bronze medal from the Olympics. (Broadcast starts with the 2nd half!)
The Gold Medal game will feature the current World Champion Spain and the Gasol brothers against the USA Redeem Team that wants to get back the Gold Medal they lost in 2004 against Argentina. Read more
Olympics Live (Women): USA - Australia
August 23, 2008 by Christophe · Leave a Comment
Today, we will have a premiere, with the first BallinEurope Live Blog of Women Basketball. We will cover the Final of the Olympic games between Team USA and Australia. Read more
