BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Here’s a bizarre image from Zagreb, where a mystery person or persons made a slight temporary addition to the statue outside the Drazen Petrovic Memorial Museum. Big deal; BallinEurope bets he still made the shot.

(Tip of the hat to Eurostep for uploading the pic.)

Update: Savas Birdal over at Eurostep reveals that the handiwork was perpetuated by Cibona Zagreb fan or fans, who also left a note at the scene reading ”Kapetane, ne gledaj ovo” (or “Captain, don’t watch this”) in reference to the last season and a half of dismal play from Petrovic’s former club. Cibona Zagreb is 7-6 in Adriatic League play thus far in 2011-12 and did not advance to the Top 16 round of Eurocup play after going 0-6 in the first round.

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From the Quickly Dashed Off Department: BallinEurope’s got some highlight videos for you from a couple of Euroleague games, kinda sorta starring Andrei Kirilenko and Paulius Jankunas.

BiE said he’d post CSKA Moscow vs. Unicaja Malaga highlights in order to inspect Kirilenko’s statistically odd game a bit more thoroughly, but free throws make a terrible clip…

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Funny … after the 2011 NBA Draft, was BallinEurope completely alone in guessing the New Jersey Nets got a steal of a pick by landing via trade with the Miami Heat the no. 31 overall selection Bojan Bogdanovic? BiE’d like to think not. After all, contributions to Cibona Zagreb last season in the Adriatic League, the Croatian A-1 League and 10 games of Euroleague play were impressive, even if he seemingly had no one to pass to.

So, how do the prospects look for Bogdanovic after a handful of games with Fenerbahçe Ülker in Euroleague and TBL play? BallinEurope’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick, assesses the Croat’s performance thus far … and Nets backers are certain to be disappointed.

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Another rumor regarding a high-profile NBA player to Europe has been quashed, and this one comes with an admonishment to the gossipmongers from the club in question.

Though defending Croatian champions/current Euroleague team KK Zagreb was reportedly interested in bringing over Derrick Rose (at least until the player lockout is concluded), some “misinformation” was rapidly disseminated through the blogosphere to the effect that a deal had been completed and Rose’s arrival was imminent.

The reports were based on comments made to Croatia-based outlet Vecernji List by Zagreb sports director Hrvoje Ciketić who possibly misstated his case, let his enthusiasm run away with him, and/or was the victim of some bad translation and/or misquotes. Reportage of Zagreb’s ostensible move stated the club “refused to sign last-year’s NBA regular season MVP Derrick Rose after they reached an agreement on money amount” and that, since Rose “could not play first three Euroleague games due to his advertising obligations[, KK Zagreb] refused him.”

In any case, KK Zagreb officials (specifically club media director Damir Klekar) wish to make three things clear: Rose will not be suiting up for the team, the team did not reject Rose’s wishes to play in Croatia, and that certain people should be ashamed.

Official press release runs below.

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The posterization of last weekend? Well, would you believe it involved Yi Jianlian on the offensive side? Truth is, Team China didn’t have much to celebrate vis-à-vis their participation in the London Invitational Tournament – even losing to theretofore winless Britain – but at least Yi made the highlight reel in his team’s 30-point blowout loss to Croatia on Sunday; see below the break for the clip. By the way, that’s mostly Stanko Barac on the receiving end.

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An entire generation has entered basketball since his untimely passing and while ever-growing numbers of NBA and European stars who have never seen him play emerge, all owe a debt to Dražen Petrović.

It was on this day in 1993 that the only man who realistically could have held claim to the sobriquet of “the European Michael Jordan” was killed in a car accident in Germany. As detailed most recently in the excellent ESPN “30 for 30” documentary “Once Brothers,” Petrović was a fearless, proud player with Team Yugoslavia and later Team Croatia in international play; was on the verge of entering the prime of a Hall of Fame-level career with the New Jersey Nets.

For those of you who never saw Petrović play, do yourselves a favor and take some time to watch below. For those of us fortunate enough to remember this European pioneer blazing trails all over the world, it’s a welcome (if slightly meandering) trip down memory lane. We still miss you, Dražen.

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Super Mario!

• First and foremost, there’s Dario Saric. You don’t need BiE to tell you to believe the hype on this dude billed as the next Toni Kukoc after he notched a triple-double of 15/12/10 in this game, but whoa was Saric head and shoulders above the field today.

Saric displayed an incredible all-around game featuring rebounding, leading the fast break, beating his man off the dribble and gorgeous no-look passes – and all this came on the first two Zagreb possessions. Even when his shooting touch was off early (he went for just 3-of-12 shooting in the first half), Saric still established himself as a serious presence in the middle that forced the ball into Žalgiris’ undersized guards’ hands. And the Lithuanian side managed just a woeful 2-of-18 outside the paint in the first half as a result.

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Stojko Vranković is no stranger to championship-level basketball: In 1996, he and Dominique Wilkins led Panathinaikos to its first-ever Euroleague title, played in two EL Final Fours with Aris Thessaloniki, and won Olympic silver medals with Team Yugoslavia and Team Croatia. The former Boston Celtic gave an interview to Sport.gr on the eve of the 2011 Euroleague Final Four in which he reminisces about past glories and makes his own fearless prediction for this year’s tournament (go ahead, guess who he’s got to win it all); an abridged and translated version runs below.

Who do you think will win this year’s cup?
Surely this is a very strong Final Four, but I think that Panathinaikos is the top team. I hope they win [the Euroleague title] for the sixth time and continue the good tradition.

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The tweet from Draft Express rang out at 4.30am CET and posed quite the complex question. To wit: “What does Curtis Stinson – a guy no team in the NBA or Europe has any interest in – winning MVP of the D-League, say about the D-League?”

Such consternation clearly comes from one with an encyclopedic memory, because even for hoops diehards outside of Iowa, the man’s name will mostly elicit an answer of “huh?”

After writing his name throughout the Iowa State Cyclones record book, Stinson went undrafted in 2006 and could not stick with the Golden State Warriors after playing summer league ball with them. And so Stinson took a route familiar to many such players post-NCAA: He sought a job in Europe.

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Talk about your February Madness. In the Krešimir Ćosić Cup, a.k.a. the Croatian Cup, semifinals last night, unheralded KK Zadar (10-19 overall in 2010-11) stunned Eurocup Top 16 team Cedevita Zagreb (16-13), 83-82, on the favorites’ home court.

What’s that you say? Not so crazy? Upsets happen all the time? Okay, consider that KK Zadar fielded five players *for the entire 40 minutes.* That’s right, no substitutions were made.

Starting to get bizarre? Okay, now factor in that, of those five Zadar players, four were younger than 23 years old.

The icing on the straitjacket? Cedevita head coach Aleksandar Petrovic apparently reacted in the only way he saw fit, i.e. to resign his position in embarrassment, effective immediately.

But please, enjoy a little of the madness for yourself below the break, with Marko Car, Paul Marčinković, Sime Olivari, Mario Dundovic and an unlikely hero in buzzer-beating 19-year-old Ivan Batur. Happy February, Europe!

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