Strange days indeed in Turkey … just three days after Galatasaray and Anadolu Efes were bounced from Euroleague play, the TBL standings have become nearly unrecognizable; for the first time in probably forever, clubs named “Efes” or “Fenerbahçe Ülker” do not appear in the top two on the Turkish league table after Galatasaray’s 74-65 win at their former Euroleague mates – while dumping Ilias Zouros to an overall 0-2 mark as head coach of Efes.
Mar
0
Topsy-turvy Turkey as Galatasaray pushes Anadolu Efes down the TBL table
Feb
3
National Cups: Real Madrid ends 19 years of futility; Beşiktaş, Chalon take first-ever titles; Montepaschi Siena continues dominance
Congratulations go out from BallinEurope today to a quartet of national Cup holders in Real Madrid, Beşiktaş Milangaz, Chalon-sur-Saone and Montepaschi Siena. The former three victories are set to be particularly noted in club annals: Real ended a 19-year drought while Beşiktaş and Chalon both bagged their first-ever championships in their respective national cup tournaments after each were runners-up in 2011. Below run game wraps and highlight clips.
In Spain, Madrid won their first Spanish Cup since Arvydas Sabonis was on the team with a convincing 92-74 victory over FC Barcelona on the Blaugrana home court. Twenty-three was the magic number for Los Blancos, as Madrid took its 23rd such title behind 23 points from tournament MVP Sergio Llull. An extrapolation from the Liga Endesa’s official site goes something like the following.
Feb
2
Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Beşiktaş vs. Banvit today in Turkish Cup final
Today sees the culmination of the Turkish Cup with a stunning finals matchup between Beşiktaş Milangaz – who took out Euroleague Top 16 side Galatasaray on Thursday – and the TBL’s fourth-place Banvit.
Key to the former’s success in reaching the Cup match was BallinEurope fave Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who contributed an insane double-double in the semifinals of 18 points and 19 rebounds – and so on the occasion of another gold star on Pops’ CV, below runs the FIBA official website’s recent piece profiling Team Britain’s glue guy as the 2012 Olympics approach.
And for no real reason other than sheer awesomeness, directly below is Pops throwing down a few jams – talk about your rim-rockers…
Feb
1
TBL roundup: Bandirma Kirmizi stuns Fenerbahce Ulker; Morrison, Pops star for Besiktas; Galatasaray holds on to third place
The Turkish Basketball League, rapidly becoming the most competitive European basketball league, saw a number of key games go down this weekend to tighten things up some at the top of the table. While TBL teams gained much international attention for signing big-name NBAers, e.g. Deron Williams, Sasha Vujacic, Ersan Ilyasova, Mehmet Okur, etc., during the NBA lockout period, BallinEurope reckons they should be more recognized for the excellent parity ruling over Turkish basketball. Might the reign of the twin Euroleague powers Anadolu Efes and Fenerbahçe Ülker be waning?
After the weekend’s action, the top five on the TBL table stayed put, but a stunning upset handed to Fenerbahçe by last-place Bandirma Kirmizi locks the defending league champions in the fifth spot for at least a couple more weeks. Read on for brief writeups on key games, video clips and a look at the standings – just be sure to keep those scorecards at the ready as the league heads into the homestretch; you’ll need ‘em…
Feb
4
Basketball diplomacy: Obama plagiarizes self in praise of Danilo Gallinari, Marco Belinelli
Hosting dignitaries and politicos from Italy this week, U.S. president/basketball devotee Barack Obama recently gave an interview to the visiting media as well, naturally taking time to praise Italia’s representatives in the NBA. As self-proclaimed scholar of basketball diplomacy – perhaps the only one on the planet – Enrico Cellini has noticed that Obama’s effusive acclaim for Danilo Gallinari and Marco Belinelli is in fact quite similar to the prez’s gushy quotes on Hedo Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur back in 2009…
In a rare interview between an American president and an Italian newspaper, Barack Obama went through a wide variety of topics ranging from the state of the current Euro Crisis, through the turmoil in Syria to the importance of Italian-Americans in US society: “Italy can be proud that its sons and daughters continue to make invaluable contributions to the success of the United States and to our bilateral partnership”.
Of course, Obama didn’t miss the chance to deploy his trademark basketball diplomacy and dropped the following grand finale for the interview: “Of course, I have to add that guys like Danillo Gallinari and Marco Belinelli bring some pretty good game to the NBA, too.”
Jan
2
TBL All-Star Game: Sasha Vujacic named MVP, Dogus Balbay takes dunk contest
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.
Jan
1
Unics Kazan 76, Fenerbahçe Ülker 71: Impressions, highlights
Right, now we’re into it! BallinEurope was naturally pleased to see his dark horse elite-eight candidate Unics Kazan defend home court against Fenerbahçe Ülker on opening night of the 2011-12 Euroleague Top 16 round, 76-71 – though it sure wasn’t easy for Unics after they generously spotted the Turkish side a 17-point lead at halftime. A few talking points for you, then … and BiE’ll go ahead and do this bullet-point style.
• This game was quite the textbook example of the 13th man’s value to Kazan, as the second half was all Unics riding the home support after a disastrous second quarter.
• What was the deal with the Unics bench? Is coach Evgeny Pashutin simply unwilling to go seven deep with this side? Pashutin looked to be running his preferred quintet into the ground as Nathan Jawai, in for about 11 minutes, proved the only viable substitute for the Russian team last night. Terrell Lyday, Vladimir Veremeenko, Petr Samoylenko, Henry Domercant, and Mike Wilkinson all went for 28 minutes or more to score 68 of the team’s 76 points. Yes, Jawai had the other eight.
Jan
1
Besiktas’ future so bright, Pops has to wear shades
Check out the fashion Team Britain’s Pops Mensah-Bonsu sported in a Eurochallenge game for Beşiktaş Milangaz against BK Pardubice. Perhaps Pops forgot his Abdul-Jabbar goggles or there was a problem with the lighting … in any case, the Eagles won the game, 78-70, for its seventh consecutive victory in the competition.
As a tweet from Mensah-Bonsu’s former club CSKA Moscow rhetorically asks, “How does he score?”
Jan
1
Adam Morrison debuts for Beşiktaş; Eagles win, 85-75; Seattle still pining
First Allen Iverson, then Deron Williams, now Adam Morrison. The former Zag first suited up for Beşiktaş Milangaz yesterday after landing that club’s seemingly mandatory reserved roster spot for an NBA name player. Morrison only saw less than 10 minutes of action in his new side’s 85-75 victory at Antalya, going for two points and two rebounds in that span.
Morrison began his 2011-12 season with Red Star Belgrade (a.k.a. Crvena Zvezda Beograd), with whom he notably achieved a 15.5 ppg average on just under 48% overall shooting in Adriatic League play – highlighted by his 30-point explosion against Union Olimpija – while winning over Red Star fans’ hearts.
No video appears readily available for post at the present moment, but below runs a recent upload from YouTube user CosmicEgg88 reminding us that Seattle is still pining for Morrison – and professional basketball for that matter…
Jan
2
Omer Asik and Kyle Korver’s “epic double flop” for Chicago Bulls
Asik: Making Divac look like an understudy
Namely, the following. Below the break, check out Kyle Korver and Team Turkey’s Omer Asik making Vlade Divac look like a second-division Nemzeti Bajnokság II player with utterly unconvincing collapses that – to the referees’ credit – were not whistled for offensive fouls.
The Windy City, indeed. Or as France-based BasketUSA put it, “A Chicago, on tombe comme des mouches” (“In Chicago, they’re dropping like flies”).
