BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

With relations between Western powers and Iran currently shaky at best, you’d figure few Europeans willing to take employment in the Moslem country – but don’t count Memi Becirovic, former coach of Slovenia youth teams, Team Slovenia’s 2010 FIBA World Championship entry and Unicaja Malaga, among ‘em. Becirovic will head up the Middle East country’s squad beginning in April; Team Iran experienced a bit of a backslide in 2011, when the side could not threepeat its run of biennial FIBA Asia Championships.

Official story from FIBA follows.

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Sasha Vujacic an all-star game MVP? BiE knows it sounds crazy, but that’s what went down this weekend in Turkey during the TBL season break. In a game that pitted foreigners against Turks, the former NBA champion went for 24 points and dished five assists in a 140-139 barnburner settled by Besiktas’ Carlos Arroyo’s last-second three.

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Serbia-based news sources are today reporting quite a coup in the country’s basketball league, as Partizan Belgrade has apparently signed Davis Bertans, mostly recently of Union Olimpija, to a 3.5-year deal.

Though still technically contracted to Olimpija, alleged lack of payment caused Bertans to look for a better offer in Europe. (BiE believes the Latvian couldn’t have been too happy about a relative lack of playing time early in 2011-12, either.) According to Partizan officials, Bertans could suit up in black and white as early as Saturday, when the Grobari host Zagreb CO in Adriatic League play.

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Now things are getting interesting. Eight teams remain in EuroBasket 2011, and tonight two will be eliminated from contention for the European championship. These teams will join with the losing teams of Thursday play in a playoff round to determine the all-important no. 5 and no. 6 finishers; this two sides will join nos. 3 and 4 in a qualification round for the 2012 Olympic Games.

And BallinEurope will perhaps make things a bit more contentious with not just one, but two sets of official Fearless Predictions™ as BiE’s U.K. compadre Sam Chadwick gets in on the fun in forecasting tonight’s games. 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 argues, 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. (Sheesh, talk about your fearless predictions…)

Plus, YouTube clips!

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Congratulations from BallinEurope go out this morning to Krka Novo Mesto, who topped Lokomotiv Kuban 83-77 to take the 2011 FIBA EuroChallenge title in Belgium; in the third-place game, hosts Oostende snuck past Spartak St. Petersburg, 94-92, in overtime.

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Congratulations go out from BallinEurope this morning to Partizan Belgrade, whose dynasty (or, as the NLB official site would have it, “dominancy”) in Adriatic League basketball rolled on last night when the Black-and-Whites won their fifth consecutive championship.

So let’s go right to the official writeup on the game:

(AdriaticBasket) – Partizan is the 10th NLB League champion! In a thrilling final, played in Ljubljana, Slovenia on Thursday, the team from Belgrade defeated Union Olimpija and won its fifth consecutive trophy in the regional league 77:74…

Really, that’s it. At least it was as of 7.30am CET.

And while one YouTube is typically worth a few thousand words, that site too is sadly bereft of stuff on the game. The boxscore implies that sixth man Curtis Jerrells was the hero for Partizan, with a huge 20 points in 29 minutes. For Olimpija, four players scored in double figures – including Samo Udrih off the bench – and Goran Jagodnik contributed a 12-point, seven-rebound effort before fouling out.

While BiE is well-known as a stat monkey, even yours truly admits that the numbers are inadequate here. What’s up with the lack of coverage, NLB folks…?

But hey, here’s a picture of some Partizan fans at the game…

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Say what you want about sending two lottery-level NBA clubs on a cross-Atlantic trip to play a pair of ultimately meaningless games, but not one of the 18,500-plus in attendance for the Toronto Raptors-New Jersey Nets game last night can fairly complain about not getting his/her money’s worth.

Those attending the O2 Arena for the Saturday night festivities got a whole lot of action, as the teams went into triple overtime before the Nets finally overcame by a huge final score of 137-136 while wowing thousands and naturally breeding the blogosphere and YouTube. News ‘n’ notes from the game follow.

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"Ladies, ladies, I don't mean to brag, but ... I'm the greatest."

“I know I can score 20 or 30 points anytime I want,” Vujacic said, as reported by the Newark Star-Ledger. “But I’m not that kind of a guy. I want to win. I want to play the right way. Some games I’m going to get 10 shots, some games 15 shots; sometimes, especially coming off the bench, you’re going to feel cold, and you need time to get in the rhythm. But right now, what I care the most is for us to become a better team. And we are really capable of doing that.”

The occasion for the media attention given Sasha and his subsequent verbosity was a glorious 103-101 overtime win for the New Jersey Nets over the New Orleans Hornets last Wednesday. Vujacic went for a career-high 40 points 35 points 25 points.

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Myers learned about Eurostep, pubs, chicken sandwiches with Sheffield

Good morning! So without further ado, here’s a roundup of some recent stories relating the Europe, basketball, and European basketball.

• What is the Euro Step? It’s The Continent’s contribution to NBA basketball! Here’s a great story on how a European technique – Sarunas Marciulionis is credited with its introduction to American hoops – has been adopted by the likes of Dwyane Wade, Rajon Rondo and John Wall.

• As though the prospect of an NBA lockout in 2011 weren’t bad enough, is the 2013 Eurobasket tournament itself now in danger as well? According to the Associated Press:

“The cash-strapped Slovenian government has delayed a decision on whether to support the country’s bid to host the 2013 European basketball championship.

“The government is expected to pay governing body FIBA €6.5 million for the hosting rights.

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Congratulations, BallinEurope supposes, should go out to the Slovenian Basketball Federation, which seemingly has won the bid to host the 2013 Eurobasket tournament. This slightly bizarre news was run via Slovenian news service this morning:

Slovenia is the only candidate to host the 2013 European Basketball Championship. The European basketball championships will expand to 24 teams starting in 2013…

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