Ball in Europe – European Basketball Blog

"C'mon! Don't trade me!"

With only three NBA games going last night, the most surprising story of the American evening needn’t have been too mind-blowing, but Sasha Vujacic’s performance in the Los Angeles’ Lakers surprisingly easy 101-89 win over the San Antonio Spurs was among the more remarkable at least.

Vujacic ended up with eight points on 3-of-3 shooting in the win and played 14 minutes. Sasha started the second quarter with a lineup full of showroom models just waiting to be taken away before the NBA trade deadline later this month: Along with Pau Gasol, Vujacic hit the floor with Jordan Farmar, Josh Powell and Luke Walton – all subjects of trade rumors in the past two weeks.

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Koponen: Something to talk about

Welcome to the 10s, everyone! Now, enough with the pleasantries: With an entire demarcated decade stretching out before us, Ball in Europe wonders about future headlines, about who’s coming up, about “Who’s Next” in ESPNspeak. Here’s to thinking we’ll be talking about some of the following this decade…

• Enes Kanter. It’s impossible to tell at present where the sensation (and MVP) of the 2009 FIBA U18 European Championship will be going in 2010 and beyond, unless “upward” is included as a potential location. Despite announcing his intention to play NCAA basketball at University of Washington next season, certain improprieties Kanter may or may have not been involved with at Fenerbahçe Ülker could keep him from playing at his stated destination next year; the question of whether Kanter actually played professionally with Fenerbahçe reportedly led to his departure from Las Vegas’ Findlay College Prep in September.

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What to make of Union Olimpija’s chances for 2009-10, especially in light of the Euroleague-opening demolition suffered at the hands of Maccabi Tel Aviv? Guest writer Matjaž Žbogar, chief editor at Prostimet.si, gives us reasons for optimism about the green-and-white’s chances, together with a heavy dose of, um, realism.

Slovenian powerhouse Union Olimpija was once, a long time ago, a very well known club in European basketball. But this isn’t the case anymore. Every season in recent years has been identical – the goals are to reach the Euroleague Top 16 and Adriatic League final four: Rarely have these goals been reached. In fact, since the 2003-04 season when they surprised everyone and reached the second stage in Euroleague, Olimpija has never appeared in the second round of this elite competition. And the semifinals are the biggest achievements in the ABA.

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Happy Opening Day, Euroleague devotees! Though no one has yet devised a way to read tomorrow’s newspaper, here are some talking points sure to be addressed in coverage of tonight’s Maccabi Electra-Union Olimpija opener in Tel Aviv.

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Ball in Europe contributor Francesco Cappelletti wraps Eurobasket 2009 with little surprise and a long view on the future of Europe’s premiere national basketball programs. Today, analysis on the tournament’s top four finishers.

It was simply a result that we could take for granted: Spain at the top of Europe, with silver medalist Serbia beaten by 22 points in the Eurobasket final, almost the same gap between Scariolo’s boys and other “pretenders” such as France (who lost to Spain in the quarterfinals, 86-66) and Greece (82-64 losers to Spain in the semifinals) were supposed to be.
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.

Today, with Eurobasket behind us, a look at what national teams are lacking, where they have failed, and are the scenes set for the future.

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Bad news for Team Slovenia heading into Eurobasket 2009 (and not great news for the Sacramento Kings for 2009-10, either, really): A Slovenian national press agency story of yesterday confirmed that Beno Udrih will not be able to participate in the tourney due to a knee injury.

Udrih suffered a knee injury in Wednesday’s friendly match against Team Germany in preparation for Eurobasket; though specifics were not released, the injury is definitely serious enough to keep the point guard out for the tourney.

Rest up, Beno!

Due to his Team Slovenia commitment, Udrih had informed Kings officials that he would not be participating in the team’s off-season conditioning program. Drafting Tyreke Evans at no. 4, depending on Udrih’s condition, may have been a fortuitous pick indeed.

And today you have to wonder if Slovenia national team coach Jure Zdovc now regrets not having Sasha Vujacic on the roster. You know, just a little bit…

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Welcome to another edition of “Best of the (basketball) net,” i.e. how to kill another week’s worth of office time on the internet. Please enjoy the following stories — a real international mix this week — complements of BallinEurope.com.

Huge in Turkey

Israel’s Nimrod Tishman is coming to University of Florida. In another Israel basketball-related piece, the Sacramento Bee has the story of whatever happened to the professional career of Team Israel’s Amit “Soft and Chunky” Tamir. In case you were wondering.

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With an 82-70 win over Zalgiris Kaunas this Monday, Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius has won the Lithuanian championship for the fourth time, adding the 2009 title to those of 2000, 2002 and 2006. Against a Zalgiris team that had seen  its roster reduced like ice in the sunshine during the season, the win of the team built around Chuck Eidson did not really come as a surprise. The main information for Euroleague fans, though, is that the victory opens the door for another wild card spot in the Euroleague.

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Sofoklis Schortsianitis (Olympiacos) – No shot attempts at all and only one foul in 7:42 minutes. Only once before has Schortsianitis finished a Euroleague game without a single shot attempt and that was when he played only two minutes.

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In these dark times of global financial crisis, a little fun is always nice to have. So for all those people who think that European guards are slow, uncreative or whatever, just check out what this “unknown” Brit does with Devin Harris during the NBA Europe Tour in London (found via TrueHoop):

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