BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

The official CSKA Moscow YouTube account sports a surprisingly compelling two-plus minute video that gives the CSKA Moscow-Panathaikos meeting of Euroleague regular-season week nine the Koyaanisqatsi treatment, i.e. some serious time-lapse filming compressing hours into minutes.

At this speed, what particularly stands out are the number of times the ball appears stuck on the CSKA end of the floor, dramatically indicating the massive amount of half-court offense The Red Army prefers to play – and certainly exploited in this 91-75 Moscow victory. Enjoy and, whatever you do, don’t blink.

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So it’s not quite Kirilenko-to-CSKA, but it’s got BallinEurope on pins and needles. To wit, the ostensible signings of Earl Boykins, a free agent currently listed as the shorter player in the NBA ranks, and fan favorite D.J. Mbenga by Olympiacos.

For nearly a week, the story of the Reds signing the 5’5” Boykins has been getting play from American sources to Greece-based Sentragoal, but nothing doing as yet.

Akin Akingbala had reportedly been on the Olympiacos radar, but SLUC Nancy is apparently not interested in letting loose the point guard as yet. Boykins actually spent the 2008-09 season in Europe, playing for Virtus Bologna.

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Right, so here’s a dunk of the week candidate for you. Former Western Kentucky Hilltopper and current rookie Sergio Kerusch got, like, 20 feet of air while posterizing Kyle Hines badly for his Aris Thessaloniki against Olympiacos on Sunday night.

Though Kerusch’s jam gave the underdog visitors a 44-43 lead going into halftime, the Euroleague side eked out the 71-70 victory to put the Reds at 6-1 atop the EƩAKE table. With the loss, Aris is just 1½ games above last-place Maroussi BC at 1-5.

Moment of gravity-defying glory runs below.

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Tonight will see another edition of The Continent’s traditionally most insane of all derby matches in Athens as Panathinaikos hosts Olympiacos at 7pm local time (6pm CET; noon EST). European basketball fans have come to know what to expect from whichever side of fans packs the house for a Greens vs. Reds war, namely this just for starters…

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Mark another player down as, shall we say, somewhat disillusioned with the European basketball experience … and this one’s coming from the ladies’ side.

Joanna Barnes, currently playing with the PAOK Women’s team, blew off some steam in that favorite 21st-century virtual venting arena, Twitter. Tweeted Barnes this morning:

A part of me wants to say F bball, b/c of the under payment & the b/s the put you through for it. #frustrated

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In a ceremony to mark the opening of the 2011-12 professional basketball season in Greece, Olympiacos GM Christos Stavropoulos rather bit the hand that feeds him a bit in making some rather harsh allegations – okay, implications – about official favoritism given his club’s chief rivals Panathinaikos.

“These days, our country is passing through difficult times, but basketball could be an exception. We can all offer a nice show and decent product to our fans,” stated Stavropoulos, adding the proviso that such can only be accomplished “if the rules are applied to all.”

Without actually naming the target of his allegations, Stavropoulos publicly mused, “I wonder how an entire year passes [for a team] without a league drug test. I wonder how they spent an entire season without the decisions of sports bodies announced. And I hope this year is different.”

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Congratulations to Anadolu Efes for convincingly taking the inaugural Two Nations Cup two-day basketball tournament, winning the final match over Euroleague competitor Olympiacos, 87-62. Efes bested defending Euroleague champs Panathinaikos on Saturday to play for the cup. Olympiacos, meanwhile, had advanced by knocking out Fenerbahçe Ülker, which ultimately ended up in third after taking out PAO on Sunday, 71-61 – despite Fenerbahçe head coach Neven Spahija’s musings going into the tourney: “We are missing several players due to injury, it is not an easy time for us. But still being part of a tournament like this makes us happy. We will do what we can.”

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All right, so who had FYR Macedonia winning that game?

Come on! While the BallinEurope prognosticators took something of a hit in the comments section here beginning a few nanoseconds after Vlado Ilievski’s game-winner, few truly had this one pegged. Team Russia coach David Blatt kinda sorta probably wasn’t surprised, but even the mystical crustacean Lazdeika had Lithuania to win last night.

And hey, note that right here at BallinEurope it was guessed that “this game comes down to turnovers; FYR Macedonia needs to hang close throughout and exploit the three or four opportunities they get.”

(Incidentally, Macedonia won the turnover battle, 14-8.)

So BallinEurope plods forth with another two sets of official Fearless Predictions™ for tonight’s France-Greece and Serbia-Russia games. BiE’s man in the U.K. Sam Chadwick joins in on the fun in forecasting the matches again and, as yesterday, neither writer read the other’s opinion before posting.

Also provided strictly for the reader’s edification are some lines from the sportsbook, in this case Sporting Bet. As BiE previously stated, whether gambler or no, it pays for the fan to know the bookie’s stand; after all, these guys have the most to lose financially if they get it wrong. (But they cleaned up a bit last night, eh?)

And a few more YouTube clips…

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While NBA franchise owners are crying poverty (reportedly, some 20 of 30 clubs are losing money), at least the players get paid. And while speculation on which NBAers will play in Europe during a 2010-11 full-season lockout continues – Whoever thought a Sonny Weems-to-Žalgiris deal would be so compelling? – we can now assume that few of the big league’s players will be coming to Greece.

To kick off the week, the Greek players’ union PSAK formally announced what has been rumored through this season and in seasons past: Namely, that most EΣAKE clubs are delinquent in payment.

In a stark post on the union’s official website Monday, PSAK representatives showed the results of “an investigation conducted by members of our association.” The numbers are indeed staggering.

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Those Maloofs of Europe, George and Panagiotis Angelopoulos, have apparently given up their ownership of the Olympiacos franchise and they’ve done so in a big way.

In their (apparently philanthropic) run with the Reds going back to 2004, the pair have become known as running one of the freest spending operations in Europe – yet never won a Euroleague or EΣAKE title, while rival Panathinaikos amassed a combined 10 such championships during that time span. Today, the team is rumored to be in the poor financial shape currently plaguing more than a few European clubs – though in a bigger way, for sure.

In a scathing statement announcing their decision, the Angelopoulos Brothers touted their own accomplishments and the good Olympiacos had achieved by adding a whopping $50 million to government coffers. And then the positive was no longer accentuated…

The brothers went on to decry “behind-the-door mechanisms,” “unethical attacks” and, that oft-used allegation of Greek basketball, referee corruption. “Once again this year the decisions of the referees and the usual manipulations determined the champion,” stated they.

(One wonders what exactly EΣAKE officials and team owners would have to gain by rigging the championship into the same team’s favor for *nine straight seasons*. Could it be that, in the 2011 championship series, rampant whistle-blowing in game two aside, Panathinaikos generally spread the offense around better and dominated the Reds’ D in the halfcourt game?)

The official statement from Giorgios and Panagiotis Angelopoulos, courtesy Eurobasket.com, runs below.

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