Ball in Europe, the European Basketball Blog

Kemzura: New face of Lithuanian basketball?

Is the search for Team Lithuania head coach nearly over?

Lithuanian news service LITA is today reporting that the candidates for the position vacated by Ramunas Butautas after his team’s extremely disappointing performance in Eurobasket 2009 currently number three: Lithuanian citizen and former Team Latvia coach Kestutis Kemzura, current Team Greece coach Jonas Kazlauskas, and Lietuvos Rytas head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis.

Kemzura is thought to be the leading candidate for the job. Before taking the Latvia job in 2008, the coach of teams such as Lietuvos Rytas, Benetton Treviso and Dynamo St. Petersburg, had been wooed by Polish basketball and other national programs.

Kemzura was last heard from in the news blasting several of his players from his Latvian national team, claiming several of them were too fond of drinking over practicing; Kemzura singled out team co-captain Kristaps Valters as “irresponsible” and “afraid to admit he made a mistake.”

Despite this, Kemzura claims he’s still considering a contract-extension offer from Latvia. Said offer expires on Thursday.

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Kambala, ready for tipoff

No details on the incident were provided, but wire reports have it that Kambala “reportedly elbowed [Steffen] Hamann in the face, knocking out a tooth” after the game.

Kambala is no stranger to disciplinary action, having received a whopping two-year suspension from the international body in 2006 for failing a drug test.

No report has come Germany on Hamann’s state but if the man’s still standing, he should probably consider himself lucky: The beastly 125-kilogram Kambala spent his two years off from basketball in the boxing ring, where he earned the nickname “More than Rocky Balboa.”

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Continuing BallinEurope’s encapsulated look at Eurobasket 2009 competitors, today features a brief look at six teams for your edification and amusement.

Greece
Group: A

In brief: It doesn’t matter what international basketball competition you’re playing in these days, you don’t want to see Team Greece on your list of opponents. And this Eurobasket edition of the team, essentially a “best-of” compilation of Olympiacos and Panathinaikos squads, is as daunting as any in the tournament. No wonder they’re the second-favorites behind Spain.

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Euroleague season 2008-2009 has been over for more than a month already, but who will qualify for next year’s edition of the major competition in European basketball remains unclear. The A/B/C Licensing system has been extensively discussed here at BallinEurope.com, and it looks as though Euroleague Basketball will soon come to a final decision.

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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.

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Tonight will be played the Final of the FIBA Eurocup and the second of the three pan-European titles will be decided. The FIBA Eurocup final will face off the Belgian team of Dexia Mons-Hainaut and the Latvians from Barons Riga.

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The second team from the Baltics comes Latvia, more precisely from its capital: Riga. The team of Karlis Muiznieks qualified to the Final Four phase by eliminating KK Zagreb in the round of the last eight.

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Most of the articles here are about the top teams and the top leagues. However, this time, I want to make a little exception and talk about the Baltic League Challenge Round, a kind of second division of the competitive North Eastern Europe competition.

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Considering that Dirk Nowitzki was MVP of the regular season and is European as well as Tony Parker, who was the Finals MVP it might look strange to people if they only think about the NBA, why Andrei Kirilenko wins this award. As you may have noticed – this award is from FIBA Europe – so other titles weigh in. Continue Reading…

• Nicolas Batum announces that he will be in the NBA Draft this upcoming summer.
• The first Bundesliga basketball game in the German Free-TV for three years was a blowout win by ALBA Berlin in Bamberg. However, we saw one of the nicest plays of the season so far.
• The 22nd edition of the World Junior Tournament will be held from June 18 to 22 in Douai, France. Former players that showcased in Douai are Carmelo Anthony, Tony Parker or Andrei Kirilenko
• Vote for the Adriatic League All-Stars and the German Bundesliga All-Stars
• Second player of the month award for Vladimir Stimac in the Baltic League
• Curtis Borchardt wins the MVP of the Day in the Spanish ACB
• After being waived by Prokom Trefl, Eugeniusz Kijewski is now rumored to become Polish NT headcoach
• Alpella, which is a club formed to let young players develop, beat Efes Pilsen this Saturday. Apparently, they have developed too much that they have beaten the two Euroleague competitors from Turkey. Omer As?k is putting his names higher and higher in the Mock Drafts by another monster game 25 points, 14 rebs. and 6 assists vs. Loren Woods and Andre Hudson! (Thanks for the hint, Kerem)