Luol Deng won’t play the Eurobasket
August 14, 2008
The British Basketball federation had high hopes on bringing the Chicago Bull to London in order to qualify for the next Eurobasket 2009 in Poland. Now this plan has turned out bad.
While others are arriving in Beijing…
August 5, 2008
… France and Italy, the two last Olympic Silver Medal winners, are preparing their Eurobasket 2009 qualification in Bormio and faced off for yet another test game tonight. And the least one could say is that it was bad.
Great Britain Basketball sees big; Luol Deng excited
May 26, 2008
2012 is the date for British Basketball, with the Olympic Games taking place in London, and the aim of GB Basketball is to have a competitive team before this date. That’s why the federation is bundling all their efforts in order to unite the best players that have any kind of links with the United Kingdom.
Bargnani says “NO!” to Italian national team
May 20, 2008
FIBA Europe reported, that Italian star Andrea Bargnani will not play for his country this season when the Azzurri attempt to qualify for [tag]EuroBasket 2009[/tag] in Poland. Read more
Is Chris Kaman even eligible for a German passport?
April 23, 2008
Germany is waiting for an answer, if they will get Chris Kaman, to have the last chance in a LONG time to go to the Olympics. Proably Dirk also wants to know - the German national coach even postponed his decision if he will keep working as a national team coach and last but not least even some Clippers fans want to know.
So what is going on? Does anybody have an answer for us? It looks like the German Federal Foreign Office ( Auswaertiges Amt) can give us some help, since we don’t get any information from the German Basketball Association.
The FAQ on their web site provide us with some useful information. the first question seems pretty obvious.
Can I become a German citizen even though I am not living in Germany
Yes, in principle this is possible. Mastery of the German language and proof of ties to Germany are just as important as the prognosis that the applicant for citizenship will not require state funds for maintenance if he/she moves to Germany. There are a number of other conditions.
Well I am sure that a NBA player of his caliber does not require any state funds - but does Chris speak German?
My ancestors were German nationals. Can I get a German passport?
German passports are only issued to German citizens. Having German ancestors is unfortunately not enough to attain German citizenship. Rather, your father and/or mother have to have been German citizens at the time of your birth. If you were born before 1 January 1975 and your parents were married, you only attained German citizenship if your father was German at the time of your birth or if your parents submitted a declaration by 31 December 1977 stating they wanted German citizenship for their child.
Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1982 as the child of Leroy and Pam Kaman so I assume that neither his father or mother have been German at the time of his birth. Doesn’t work then.
So is there any chance for Germany and Chris to team up? Maybe this one helps:
I think I am still a German citizen but cannot prove it. What can I do?
In such cases, you are advised to launch a procedure to establish your nationality after consultations with the competent German mission abroad. This procedure traces the nationality back as far as your grandparents (and sometimes even further). Birth certificates and/or certificate of parentage must be submitted.
This looks like what Chris and the German Basketball Association are trying to do - go through his grandparents and a bunch of certificates.
But what if that does not work? At the end of the web page you can find this:
Have you not found the answer to your question? Give us a call (hotline number +49 3018 17 2000) or send us an email. One of our help desk staff will answer your inquiry as quickly as possible.
Yes, we sent an email and called that number - haven’t heard of anybody yet at all though…
But now comes the interesting part - at least for Chris Kaman and I wonder if anybody in Germany has told him yet. As Germany accepts dual citizenship Chris can keep his US passport but also agrees to a few responsibilites and the following is one of them:
Depending on the laws in effect, level of income, source of income, etc., an American-German dual national may owe taxes in both countries. All dual nationals must report all worldwide income by filing an annual U.S. income tax return, regardless of whether they owe taxes to the U.S. or pay taxes elsewhere. For more information about taxes, please contact the
U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt
Internal Revenue Service
Giessener Str. 30
60435 Frankfurt/Main
or your local German tax office.
Maybe we will get an e-mail by tomorrow from that office. I doubt it though.
Jérome Moiso: "Just take Turiaf or Petro"
April 15, 2008
Jérome Moiso has for a long time been considered as one of the biggest Center talents in Europe. After his nice career with UCLA, he got selected in the NBA Draft with a a lottery pick. But his career never really started off until this season.
Joakim Noah: "Give me that French passport!"
April 10, 2008
Joakim Noah, the energetic rookie of the Chicago Bulls will most likely join the French National Team for the Eurobasket 2009 qualifying games in September. This is reported by the French newspaper L’Equipe today.
Ben Gordon has been selected for the British National Team
April 1, 2008
So is it now an April’s Fool or not, at least the BBC is reporting that Ben Gordon from the Chicago Bulls has been put on the 33-man list for the qualification of the 2009 Eurobasket.
Some love for the FIBA bloggers
March 12, 2008
Each of us “bloggers” would not say no if he or she would get paid for writing blog posts, right? So far only the best get some kind of reward. Not too long ago I got an email from fellow US bloggers complaining that it is hard even to get media credentials for NBA games or some acknowledgment at all.
With the European blog scene being behind the US about 2-3 years in terms of development and credibility the latest email from the FIBA head quarter to their bloggers was really a big step forward and somehow shows that at least a few do a very good job.
It all started with a questionaire where the FIBA officials wanted to know what would it make more attractive to write more articles. Yesterday we got the results.
The aim
- Officialize the FIBA blogger campaign
- Showcase basketball events from national to international level
- Insure the quality and the variety of contents offered
- Motivate and compensate blogger effort and involvement
Sounds like a good plan doesn’t it?
So FIBA invented a point system where you can finally get the chance to get free tickets and a free flight to either a FIBA Olympic qualifier, a FIBA zone event or the World Championship. Points needed for that: 12,000. Sounds like alot but it is possible to reach that goal.
Good idea.
EDIT: After Henry Abbott from TrueHoop told me that they would want to know how to score points, here you go:
- Each blogger can collect a number of points for each post published on its blog
- The number of attributed point depends of the tackled subject
National league: 50 points
Continental league: 100 points
FIBA zone events: 200 points
FIBA international events: 500 points
To make it clear - this does not count for private blogs like BallinEurope. You have to publish your articles here.
What can we expect from Great-Britain?
February 25, 2008
Great -Britain and basketball is still two different worlds for a lot of traditional basketball fans. But they can be the surprise of a very open qualifying group for the 2009 Eurobasket.
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Euroleague transfer market
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Euroleague Injury list
