Fan violence extreme enough to result in injuries to players and law enforcement officers, FIBA sanctions and fines, Prime Ministerial denouncements, official apologies, and now high-level hacking in the name of basketball: Who knew Eurochallenge ball could get so controversial?
This is an excellent idea indeed in BallinEurope’s opinion, for, as Talk Basket points out, most of the domestic leagues in the above-listed nations are dominated year in and year out by a select team or two. We’re talking perennial championship teams like Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Efes Pilsen, Fenerbahçe Ülker, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Partizan Belgrade, Montepaschi Siena and Apoel Nicosia: Franchises which would appear to have evolved beyond fair competition in their leagues.
Good morning, basketball world! BallinEurope presents its morning briefing with five items for your perusal, including trouble in Cyprus, Noah sailing in for a jam, and the state of Britain’s wheelchair basketball team. Enjoy and, like they say in the ‘States, thank the gods, it’s Friday!
• FIBA and Eurobasket.com in international incident? As attempts to unify the island of Cyprus continue, the politics of basketball may be interfering. A Turkish news outlet known as “Today’s Zaman” reports that:
“…a decision by popular European basketball portal www.eurobasket.com to include the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ (KKTC) basketball league in its reviews have been another source of uneasiness for the Greek Cypriot government. Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou has appealed to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), asking for their intervention to withdraw the reviews referring to the league in the KKTC, which is not internationally recognized. However, editors of the Web site refused to back down and said they would continue publishing similar reviews.”
• Noah’s stock rising. After Brandon Jennings, Joakim Noah has received much love from the NBA hype machine this season and why not? Check out the dynamism on full display here with the one-handed jam against the Utah Jazz.
• Upset! (And other good games, too.) Arguably the best day of Euroleague action since the opener, Week 5 Day 2 featured the Partizan upset of Olympiacos and that nice Baskonia-CSKA Moscow match. Slickly produced official video here.
• Changes coming to British wheelchair squad. Britain continues to take pride in its wheelchair basketball team which took third place at the 2009 European championship in Poland. Simon Munn, 41-year-old team captain, discusses his future plans and impending retirement.
• Finally, just because, here’s something called the Endorphin Basketball Association. You gotta love YouTube, eh?
Yesterday, the XIII Games of the Small European States in Cyprus began with the first competitions. This week-long event that is organized every two years can be compared to the Olympic Games but at a way smaller scale. Only European countries with fewer than 1 million inhabitants is allowed to participate. The event also features a basketball tournament which sees the following nations compete for the gold: Iceland, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Luxembourg, and the hosts of Cyprus.
As the European competitions come to an end, BallinEurope goes over the various leagues to see which teams attracted the most fans into their arenas. We begin with the FIBA EuroChallenge, the third level of European competition.
BallinEurope has established a list of all National Champions in the various European leagues as they are known so far. If you have results to add or know who was named Final MVPs in a European league, feel free to add this in the comments so that we can update the list.
While the qualification of Barons Riga can be considered as legitimate and awaited, the fact that the hometown team of Limassol did not qualify may be a slight surprise. We spoke quickly with Chris Finch and he gave us his thoughts about the Final Four.
The hosts from Cyprus can be considered as favorites of their own Final Four. Not only that they have the advantage to play at home, but they also have an impressive roster for a team from such a small country.
Fan violence extreme enough to result in injuries to players and law enforcement officers, FIBA sanctions and fines, Prime Ministerial denouncements, official apologies, and now high-level hacking in the name of basketball: Who knew Eurochallenge ball could get so controversial?
