Enrico Cellini has gathered a few choice quotes from la Gazzetta’s interview with Nowitzki, including the German’s thoughts on his favorite Italian player, meeting Angela Merkel and topping Arvydas Sabonis.

On January 27, Dirk Nowitzki did not play for the Mavericks against the Minnesota Timberwolves but still brought home two interesting souvenirs from American Air Center. As you are reading BallinEurope, you don’t probably care too much about the diamond-encrusted $40K NBA championship ring (courtesy of Mark Cuban) that Dirk received in a touching ceremony (courtesy of Rick Carlisle), do you? Instead, what’s worth reporting about that night is the fact that Wunder Dirk also received the Europlayer 2011 award, an acknowledgement assigned by Italian Gazzetta dello Sport to the best European basketball player of the season.

You may see the ceremony here.

All right, so it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the ring ceremony but still …

Gazzetta dello Sport later published in its printed version an interview with Nowitzki, in which Würzburg’s finest touched on several topics.

Said Dirk on the loss in the 2005-06 NBA Finals to the Miami Heat: “That experience actually helped me – it made me improve: Now I handle the fourth quarter with more intelligence.”

However, Nowitzki then add that, for last year’s finals, he left his parents and his sister home because of that 2006 series: “They came in 2006 and it went badly: Too many distractions around. This time I wanted to stay focused. They really got mad at me. And now I regret such a choice!”

Asked which Italian NBA player he would like to have in his team, Nowitzki said, “Tough choice. Perhaps [Danilo] Gallinari, as he can play both small and power forward. He’s got a nice shot and the ability to draw fouls. But I like [Andrea] Bargnani, too – he’s improved a lot. He used to play only from the perimeter, and now he steps up.”

On his meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel: “She’s nice, I spent half an hour with her, she asked me a lot of questions – even though she doesn’t know a lot about basketball!”

On his future, Dirk said that “I’ll play for at least two more years. Afterward, I’d like to stay in the basketball world. I see myself as a teacher to the kids, but I still don’t know if I’ll do it here in Texas or in Germany.”

Finally, he has no doubts on the next challenge: “This is my sixth Europlayer award, I want to get one more, beat [Arvydas] Sabonis and be no. 1 in [Gazetta della Sport’s all-time] rankings.”

Ricky Rubio, Los Gasoles, Gallinari and Bargnani: You have been warned.

Enrico Cellini is lifelong basketball fanatic and a long-time sportswriter with a focus on Italy and Spain. He was born among European hoops, was raised watching the NBA, and thinks choosing between American and European basketball is like choosing between one’s mother and father. You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Italian-language blog Hoop Addicted.

Good news for Danielian today then, as his signing with German club SG MTV/BG 93 Wolfenbüttel (or “Wolfenbüttel” for “short”) was announced. Congratulations go out to Mike from BallinEurope!

Official press release (and video) follows.

Mike Danielian will soon begin his professional basketball career with the Wolfenbuettel basketball team of Wolfenbuettel, Germany. Danielian will play both the shooting and point guard positions for Wolfenbuettel, which is officially known as SG MTV/BG 93 Wolfenbuettel.

Danielian rose to prominence under Coach Howard Levine at Grant High School in Van Nuys, California. Under Levine, Danielian was twice named to the Los Angeles All-City team. As a senior, Danielian averaged 30.3 points per game to lead all of southern California in scoring. He also scored 58 points in one game, which broke the Grant High School single-game scoring record, which was then held by current NBA player Gilbert Arenas.

Danielian was a member of Azusa Pacific University’s 2010 NAIA finalists. Danielian made over 200 three-point shots in his time at Azusa Pacific, and he remains the no. 2 all-time three-point scorer in school history.

In August, Danielian was named most valuable player of the Fifth Pan Armenian Games in Yerevan, Armenia. Danielian led Los Angeles to a gold medal with a 49 point performance in the championship game against Sochi, Russia, with Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan in attendance.

Carl Bardakian, Los Angeles men’s basketball head coach and U.S. representative to the Basketball Federation of Armenia, stated “Danielian’s deep three-point shooting range, competitive drive and outstanding work ethic impressed the Wolfenbuettel coaches and scouts. I anticipate Danielian making an immediate impact for Wolfenbuettel.” Basketball Federation of Armenia president Hrachya Rostomyan expressed his congratulations to Danielian on behalf of the federation. Rostomyan stated, “We are very proud of Mike and look forward to him having great success with Wolfenbuettel. Mike has the full support and encouragement of the Basketball Federation of Armenia.”

[Update: Talk Basket is running a list of all players with point totals of 36 or more in a Eurochallenge game since the league was formed in 2003. As it turns out, the all-time high to this point was 39, a mark shared by Fernando San Emeterio, then of CB Girona, and Svendborg Rabbits' Johnell Smith. Williams has, no matter how the NBA lockout turns out, left a mark on European basketball that will remain for quite some time, it seems.]

Göttingen simply had no answers for the New Jersey Net, allowing him to go 17-of-23 from the floor, including a 7-of-10 performance on three-pointers; stated the German side’s coach Stefan Mienack in the post-game: “We played against one of the elite teams of Europe. They’re absolute contenders for the title and they have great players. It’s so hard to win agaınst a team in which Deron Wıllıams plays for.”

Check out the video below for a highlight clip stuff with Williams’ relentless attacking; the Violets’ backcourt of Dale Lewis, Kyle Bailey, Paris Horne et al will certainly be suffering nightmares for months. Official FIBA writeup follows the clip.

(FIBA Europe) – Deron Williams exploded for 50 points on Tuesday in Istanbul and Besiktas Milangaz needed every one of them in a 105-94 EuroChallenge victory over BG Göttingen.

The point guard, one of the first NBA players to move to Europe during the NBA lockout, made 17 of his 23 shots from the floor. Included in that were seven of 10 makes from three-point range.

Göttingen, who have been struggling this season, trailed 91-90 after their 23-year-old point guard Louis Dale buried a shot from the arc with 2:14 to go.

Williams went to the other end, though, and with the 24-shot clock winding down answered with a three-pointer. Then with Besiktas on top 95-90 and 1:10 remaining, Williams struck again from the arc before going in for a layup on his team’s next possession for a 100-90 lead.

The USA Olympic gold medal winner reached the 50-point plateau with a layup on a fast break just 13 seconds from the end.

The most points ever scored by Williams in the NBA came in a 2010 when he played for the Utah Jazz against the Oklahoma City Thunder and poured in 42.

David Hawkins finished with 23 points for Besiktas, who improved to 3-0 in Eurochallenge Group B.
Raymond Sykes led the Violets with 25 points and Kyle Bailey had 19. The German club fell to 0-3 with the defeat.

The story notes that Maccabi Tel Aviv (who reportedly is gunning for just about every locked-out NBA player these days) and Valencia Basket were also in the running for the Oklahoma City Thunderer’s services and a bizarre arrangement may be in the cards for the three clubs: With Bayreuth potentially having worked out a sponsorship deal that would pay Durant’s salary for three weeks, Die Welt imagines that a deal in which K.D. “played in November in Valencia, during the first half of December in Tel Aviv and after Christmas in Bayreuth” is not out of the question.

Wow, Kevin Durant: The European Tour, eh?

• Deron Williams is sending personal word from Turkey these days; in his latest Blogging from Abroad entry, entitled “Breaking Down Beşiktaş and ‘Breaking Bad’,” Williams provides notes on an entire range of teammates running from David “The Incredible Hulk” Hawkins and Semih Erden (a.k.a. Ersin Dagli) to Mehmet Ali “Turkish Pistol Pete” Yatagan (who D-Will thinks is 18) and 16-year-old Kartal Ozmizrak.

Williams most recently led Beşiktaş Milangaz to a 98-82 victory over Mersin Bşb last night; D-Will was good for a game-high 28 on crazy 12-of-21 overall shooting (Would you believe he took not a single trip to the free-throw line?) to go with five assists and three steals. Earlier in the week, Beşiktaş took an opening-day win in the FIBA Eurochallenge, crushing ZZ Lieden in the Netherlands, 86-58; Williams contributed 20 in that win.

• In his second game with FIATC Joventut, locked out Cleveland Cavalier Christian Eyenga went for 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting in 19½ minutes of court time as his team took an ugly 86-67 loss to Blancos de Rueda Valladolid yesterday. At 2-5, Joventut is in 16th place in the ACB and hovering over the relegation zone.

• Stephen Dennis, a former NCAA Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East player of the year with Division II Kutztown University, is this season playing for New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig of Germany’s Bundesliga after a turn in the NBA D-League and in training camp with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Contributing a profile on Dennis for the Lehigh Valley (Pennsylvania) Morning Call is David Hein of Germany-based heinnews. Hein notes that, while Dennis is performing respectably with 10.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 2.2 turnovers per game thus far, “The 6-foot-6 playmaker is still struggling with his jump shot — his sore spot his entire career.”

• There’s a long interview/profile on former University of Montana Grizzly/Big Sky Conference all-time leading shot blocker Brian Qvale over at the Missoulan. Qvale is with Aliaga Petkim in Turkey, where he’s averaging just under nine points and 3.0 rebounds per game in TBL play; his career game this season came against Anadolu Efes, when he went for a 19 and 12 line. And he and his fiancée love it in Turkey.

• Finally, another U.S. player has announced his European transplant, but this one’s on the prep school level. Houston native Khadeem Lattin announced his transfer to Canarias Basketball Academy; Lattin is currently a freshman student who was at Second Baptist High School, playing well enough to earn a spot in ESPN’s “Terrific 25” rankings of top high-school basketballers.

The academy’s official website claims that Lattin “is the first top 25 high school basketball player from the United States in history to emigrate to a foreign country to develop his talents.”

And according to Spain-based basketball website TuBasket.com, this marks the second time Valencia club officials have put forth an offer to Durant. “Weeks ago” the club reportedly began the bargaining process with the Thunderer, first putting forth an offer of €200,000 (about $275,000) per month, which was subsequently upped to €475,000 ($650,000). Durant’s asking price was €675,000 ($928,000).

Tu Basket notes that Nike was to be involved in the deal, allowing the sports footwear giant to provide marketing campaigns (let’s say “media blitz”) for Durant’s appearances in ACB games; BiE assumes that such an arrangement will be involved in the next pitch to the Nike pitchman.

Durant told Yahoo! Sports from Dallas last night local time that he was “right on the fence with playing overseas and I’m about to jump over,” while simultaneously opining that the latest offer from NBA owners is “not a good one. It’s not the one that we want. …If it’s not a good deal, I don’t see why we should take it, especially this late.”

A decision from Durant could come as early as next week; the latest round of talks between NBA owners and players is scheduled for Monday.

After comparing the top league’s play to “big time wrestling,” Peat goes on to opine that “It’s not really real basketball in terms of how it should be played. They play a lot of different defenses that aren’t exactly pure basketball. I think European basketball is more pure basketball. It’s more entertainment basketball for the spectators where they can accentuate the players’ athleticism…”

Gee, if the NBA lockout weren’t on right now, those might be fighting words.

That’s right: BiE’s talking about Adam Morrison, the former NBA washout Gonzaga Bulldogs star currently plying his trade with Red Star Belgrade. Thursday night saw the Stars taking on Eurocup side Bayern München in Belgrade in a “friendly” match.

Morrison, actually looking quite a bit buffer than he ever has, apparently took offense at Bayern big guy Bogdan Radosavljevic brushing him aside to grab an easy rebound on a Red Star fast break. Morrison got in the face, and that was all she wrote for the Zag: Morrison was ejected immediately, sent to the locker room with a game-high 17 points, and got a standing ovation … they love him in Serbia already! See for yourself below the break.

Incidentally, the Serbian side ended up torching the Germans, 80-55.

As a bonus, below runs a pair of other YouTubes for your perusal: Local news covers his European move in the first, while a glimpse of the atmosphere in good old Hala Pionir may be seen in the second – an atmosphere the Bayern official website described as “at boiling point” even before the match began.

http://www.fcb-basketball.de/de/aktuell/news/35571.php

Though in an interview with the network, Nowitzki stated that “he wanted to ‘see what the future brings,’” Sport1.de went on to opine that “after the [second] round at the European Championship in Lithuania … everything points to farewell.”

Said Dirk: “It was 13 great years. It was a great time with big success, which I will always look back on with mixed emotions.” (And yes, he was using the past tense: “Es waren 13 tolle Jahre. Es war eine Riesenzeit mit großen Erfolgen, auf die ich immer mit einem lachenden Auge zurückschauen werde,” runs the original.)

It’s the first day of second stage in Eurobasket 2011 in Lithuania, and the round’s opening game featuring Germany versus Spain was a crucial match for both teams, as four teams in Group E, including Spain, entered the phase tied at 1-1, while Germans started in last place at 0-2.

Fears that Pau Gasol might not be able to play in this game due to an ankle injury did not materialize, as he joined the Spanish stars in the starting five.

Germany started off with great defense, and the Spaniards couldn’t slice through the tough D easily: Team Spain couldn’t hit anything, only netting eight points in eight minutes as the Germans took a four-point lead.

The Spaniards got ahead with a late free throw to finish the quarter, starting to take care of business with a 10-2 run in the second, but Germany bounced back and tied the game at 29-29. This shouldn’t have even been close at this stage … was Spain still playing its fourth quarter against Turkey? The sleepy favourites were up 36-33 at halftime.

The Gasols started the third with a strong touch, scoring 10 of 12 of Spain’s first points to create an eight-point edge, but the Germans stayed close to hold Spain to a one-point lead going into the fourth.

Dirk Nowitzki brought a one-point lead with a fadeaway jumpshot against Serge Ibaka to start the final 10 minutes. Slowly but surely, the Spaniards managed to get a 68-63 lead with three minutes to go, and the defending champions finalized the game with a little run for a 77-68 win and a second point in the group.

The winners’ Ricky Rubio said afterward that Germany gave them a hard game: “They played aggressively. We couldn’t run, which we like to do.” Sergio Scariolo of Spain meanwhile praised the German team for never giving up and playing his team a physical and a tough match.