Feb
2

Ricky Rubio to Kobe Bryant: “You know you’re getting the silver medal, right?”

Scene from 2008

Perhaps the most unfairly overlooked aspect in discussions of the difficulties European players face when attempting to adapt to NBA ball is the question of language. Sure, English is the international language of basketball. Sure, there are nearly three times as many English-language students than native speakers. Sure, a great fraction of Europeans grow up bi- or multilingually.

Nevertheless, just as certain is the fact that entering the American media environment is the communication equivalent of diving into a tub of alligators. A common fear is of speaking in public? Imagine doing it in another language. Spontaneously. Scrutinized, analyzed and tittered about by tens of millions of rabid fans milliseconds after a tough loss. And all of it done under the glare of those tens of millions’ high expectations – which, essentially, every European basketballer in the NBA faces.

(Yes, BallinEurope knows that some readers must do this kinda stuff all the time – particularly those first two bits. But still. It does boggle this expatriate American’s mind, even after 15 years on The Continent.)

So guess what: The Human YouTube Highlight Clip has produced another moment for the virtual archives, showing good game in the intensely difficult off-court field of trash-talking – against no less an opponent than Kobe Bryant, a pretty fair verbal wrangler himself.

While Kobe has peppered swipes regarding a Team USA-Team Spain showdown in the 2012 Olympic Games to his teammate Pau Gasol, he was recently able to conversate with Rubio briefly when the two teams met last Sunday. Things went down as follows.

Continue Reading…

Jan
33

Sam vs. the Future: Basketball predictions for 2012

It’s always a good time for some predictions, eh? Sam Chadwick, Ball in Europe’s man in the UK, today dusts off the Official BallinEurope Crystal Ball in looking forward to another year of top-quality basketball in the world’s top competitions. Who does Sammy like in the NBA, Euroleague, college ball and the Olympics? Read on to find out (and see plenty of highlight clips).

This year sees the London Olympic games, a shortened NBA season, another year of Euroleague basketball and the NCAA Final Four – what more could we possibly ask for? Happy new year…

Continue Reading…

Mar
2

FIBA grants Team Great Britain its Olympic bid for 2012 Games

Congratulations from BallinEurope go out tonight to Luol Deng, Pops Mensah-Bonsu and the boys of Team Britain tonight; the message came across to BiE via Facebook and read simply: “FIBA Central Board has GRANTED Team GB an automatic host place at the 2012 London Olympics.”

We’ll see you in London, guys!

Continue Reading…

Sep
0

Interview: Baumann on British basketball

A few days ago, BallinEurope noted some of FIBA secretary-general/International Olympic Committee member Patrick Baumann’s new demands for British Basketball vis-à-vis getting the team into the 2012 Olympic games to be held in London. The folks at Britball Media gave BiE the heads-up yesterday on an interview conducted by MVP, the “UK home for basketball” and publishers of the eponymous new magazine, with Baumann on the subject.

Baumann touches on the latest prerequisites for British basketball to win a bid in the Olympics, including the crucial merger of English, Scottish and Welsh organizations to take the place of what FIBA calls the “shadow organization” which builds a British team for international competition.

Video runs below the break.

Continue Reading…

Sep
11

Baumann of FIBA/IOC levies more demands on British basketball

Oh boy, does Britain need Ben in 2011

Despite the fact that Team Britain has managed to qualify for 2010 Eurobasket tournaments on both men’s and women’s sides, FIBA secretary-general/International Olympic Committee member Patrick Baumann has placed yet another condition to be met in exchange for bids at the 2012 Olympic Games.

According to today’s Scotsman newspaper via a letter sent from Baumann to Basketball Scotland vice-chairman Bill McInnes, Baumann now demands as prerequisite to Olympic entry “that a single governing body in Britain is established for basketball” uniting programs from England, Scotland and Wales.

Continue Reading…

Aug
2

Interview: The Man Who Would Save British Basketball

While much of international basketball fandom is anticipating the 2010 World Championship and the powerful teams’ backers dream of glory, one national team is fighting for its very survival against what some feel is an unfair burden placed upon them by FIBA and the IOC: Great Britain.

Great Britain held on for their fifth consecutive victory in Division A of the Eurobasket Qualifying Rounds last night, though nearly snatching the proverbial “defeat from the jaws of victory” against the frankly &^(&%#%-ing disappointing Hungary, official home team of BallinEurope.com headquarters. With the 66-64 win, Team Great Britain improved their record to 5-0 in the tournament and brightened their hopes of appearing in the 2012 Olympic Games.

The problem – and the extra onus on the British national team – is that the International Olympic Committee has made a special exception to a longstanding rule, namely the host nation receives automatic entry into the basketball tournament at the ‘Games. However, at the time Olympic-hosting privileges were granted to Great Britain, it was one of the few European nations *without a national team whatsoever.*

Continue Reading…

Aug
0

Dream Team vs. Redeem Team: Who wins?

From the Shameless Cross-Promotional Plug Department: BallinEurope’s sister site BuckBokai.com, with the assistance of the most-excellent sports simulation website WhatIfSports.com, considered part of the speculative statement made here upon the Dream Team’s admission to the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday, namely:

…the only two teams … who *might* possibly give the Dream Team a series [were] Dream Team III, with much of Dream Team I plus Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal, who probably should have been on the roster in lieu of the more politically-correctly chosen Christian Laettner in ‘92; and the Redeem Team of 2008, Generation Y’s own Dream Team.

So through the magic of number-crunching, we can kinda sorta know who wins in a battle of 1992 Team USA vs. 2008 Team USA. Who wins in a best-of-seven series? Click here to find out.

(Truth is, you can probably guess as to the final result, but BiE was a bit surprised at the specifics.)

Continue Reading…

Aug
4

Remembering the other two Dream Teams of 1992

On this day of 1992 Team USA’s well-deserved induction into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame, BallinEurope again takes the opportunity to remember those other two squads competing in the Barcelona Games whose impact on an international level was almost as great and whose impact at home was inestimable.

What the Dream Team gave to the international game, aside from the showcasing of quite simply the best side ever assembled by a long shot,* was a new measuring stick for talent, a definition of what national basketball pictures should aspire to produce. In Croatia and Lithuania, however, the national teams in some senses had already won before the Olympic torch was lit.

Continue Reading…

Jul
3

The Greatest Basketball YouTube Ever (or, YouTube as a force for online democracy)

(Please excuse BallinEurope’s more personal tone today; trust me, i have as healthy a loathing for usage of the first-person in sports blogging as you no doubt do. On the other hand, it is called *You*Tube.)

When i was coming of age in the Cold War 1980s, there wasn’t one basketball universe but rather two developing in parallel. While we were thrilling to the likes of Bird ‘n’ Magic and Pat Riley’s coaching, Eastern European hoops were witness to studs such as Valdis Valters, the immortal Arvydas Sabonis and mighty mastermind Alexander Gomelsky.

Continue Reading…

May
0

“Playoff” pre-production: Danny Huston cast as Father of Israeli Basketball

Richard the Lion-Hearted has been recast as Ralph the bravehearted: comes the casting news that Danny Huston, currently co-starring in Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood,” (you may also remember him from such films as “Clash of the Titans” and “Children of Men”) From the Cannes Film Festivalhas won the lead role in “Playoff.”

Playoff tells the story of Ralph Klein, a.k.a. the commonly-held “Father of Israeli Basketball.” Though as a child Klein was spared from life in a concentration camp, his father died at Auschwitz. In his youth, Klein played pro basketball in Hungary and for Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Continue Reading…