BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

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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Sasha Vujacic will be sitting out a few days – “indefinitely” in leaguespeak – thanks to a concussion suffered during Thursday night’s team practice.

According to the Los Angeles Lakers official blog:

“Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic suffered a concussion after being inadvertently struck in the face, just below the left eye, by an errant elbow from Lamar Odom in Thursday’s practice.

“Vujacic will be monitored closely and reevaluated on Friday, but for now is considered out indefinitely from basketball activity.”

And for no good reason whatsoever, BiE presents another of Laker-Fan’s awesome Machine Videos from last season below the break. As Agent Smith says, “Never send a man to do a machine’s job.” Even if it’s seeing stars, apparently…

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Dragons slain?

FIBA has slapped Union Olimpija with a €100,000 fine and has prohibited the club from signing any further players, due to non-payment of players Vlado Ilievski, Sašo Ožbolt and certain staff members. The penalty could even get worse, as further €100,000 fines could be assessed, FIBA warned, and at the extreme end the club could be banned from international competition.

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BallinEurope’s official YouTube of the week? Not even close: It’s easily this video paean to the immortal Sasha “The Machine” Vujacic from the mad geniuses over at Lakers-Fan.com.

Who says Laker fans hate Sasha?

Everyone know Machine is king of Slovenia!

(Click continue reading to witness 48 seconds of poetry and, um, highlights.)

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From the always-busy Whoda Thunk It Department comes a real mind-boggler of a statement regarding tonight’s Western Conference Championship game six: The matchup of Sasha “The Machine” Vujacic on Goran “The Dragon” Dragic matters.

After the Phoenix Suns’ bench absolutely immolated the Los Angeles Lakers in game four of the series – The Dragon Was Unleashed as Vujacic and Luke Walton sat pitiably watching – outscoring the L.A. subs 54-20, Phil Jackson again did the clever thing for game five and set The Machine to work most efficiently. After all, what other player in the NBA would have such extensive on-the-fly knowledge of Dragic (not to mention Slovenian)?

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Lalić to the rescue!

Ball in Europe doesn’t know if the smoke is clearing for beleaguered Union Olimpija, but at least yesterday’s announcement of the Jure Lalić signing provides some seed for optimism. The 24-year-old Croatian had been playing for EuroCup team Spirou Charleroi.

Much more than a single youth player, proverbial tremendous upside or no, will be required to pull this plunging club out of the tailspin, though. Off the court, the distractions are plentiful, with European and American players quitting the team while alleging non-payment by the club. Essentially, all of Olimpija’s remaining name players – Sašo Ožbolt, Vlado Ilievski, Edin Bavčić, Gašper Vidmar and Nemanja Aleksandrov – charged exactly the same thing last week, holding a player strike. When finally coerced back into action, these five were among seven players who saw action in Sunday’s 85-59 thumping of Cibona Zagreb.

(Now if that ain’t a message to management, BiE doesn’t know what is. What was it that M.J. said? “I didn’t see organizations playing with the flu in Utah“?)

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"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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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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