Look out, upcoming Olympiacos opponents: Big Sofo is just starting to heat up. After a marginal season in Euroleague play up in the early going (BiE is blaming it on that H1N1 the big man contracted in the autumn), Sofoklis Schortsanitis turned in his peak Euroleague performance of 2009-10 a week and a half ago, going for 19 points in just 18 minutes of playing time (read: “time spent dominating the paint”) against helpless Baskonia.
This weekend, the Red chased up his humdrum 2-of-6 showing in the BC Khimki game by taking the ESAKE All-Star Game MVP award with statistics insane even for such an exhibition: Would you believe 42 points of 19-of-21 shooting, including 3-of-5 on threes and a perfect 16-of-16 from within the arc?
While not interested in passing definitive judgment, we think it would be useful and fair to take a look at the European basketball panorama. There will be no ratings or rankings here, just a snapshot of what the most important ballin’ countries offer us.
Though apparently nothing official is in place, Marcus Haislip appears to be heading for Panathinaikos just days after getting waived by the San Antonio Spurs.
Perhaps not such a merry Christmas for Greece, then: Due to continuing conflict between ESAKE and the Greek players union (PSAK), play in the country’s top league may be stopped as of January 1.
It’s Monday morning and that means news! A handful of news briefs, columns and video to tip off your own week this week. Enjoy!
Trying to give more oomph and interesting themes to a league dominated by Panathinaikos and Olympiacos ever since 1992, the Greek Federation opened the doors to a third non-European player per team in a move aimed to achieve a better balance between those teams whose goals are merely to challenge by only attempting toapproach the Greens and Reds’ dominion.
The plot thickens … as marvelous underdog Maroussi continues its dark-horse run into the Euroleague’s field of 24, the pressure would all appear to be on Alba Berlin, last year’s sensation. A nice microcosm of two differing basketball programs is provided by the game as well, although Bundesliga’s propensity for welcoming non-German players is well-known.
It was a Eurobasket in some ways boring, featuring little advancement from the tactical perspective, with many teams focused on the abused pick-and-roll play, few squads able to run, and one team (Spain, who else?) very, very distanced from the other national teams, even just in terms of a talent base that is embarrassing to compare.