After the Olympics: What’s the future of Serbia?
October 2, 2008 by Christophe · 4 Comments
Well, there were no Olympic games for Serbia this time out, but with a 7-1 record in the qualification round for Eurobasket 2009, Dusan Ivkovic’s team has already shown their potential for upcoming years. Built around a core for the future with eight players born in 1985 or before (Novica Velickovic, Zoran Erceg, Uros Tripkovic, Kosta Perovic, Milenko Tepic, Milos Teodosic, Boban Marjanovic and Stefan Markovic), it looks like Serbia can be considered as a legit medal candidate for London 2012.
After all, if one of these guys does not progress as expected the whole team will not collapse: Several other very interesting players are on the bubble to join the senior national team after their dominance in the youth competitions where Serbian teams have seen the Gold Rush coming back to them. Particularly the highly successful 1987 generation around Milenko Tepic, Milos Teodosic, Dragan Labovic and Vladimir Stimac set new landmarks by winning the gold medal in every youth category: U16, U18 and U20. Additionally, all of these younger players don’t seem to have a super-promising near NBA future so that they can play the summer competitions without problems.
What is also interesting is to see that, for the moment, just one player in the roster is older than 30: Dusan Kecman. Though the shooting guard is very important for the team when it comes to spot-shooting and team effort, I have some doubts we will see him through 2012. The problem is that I don’t see anybody on the roster who possesses his quality shooting at the moment. Somebody like Mladen Jeremic could take over this role in the future eventually. The rest of the guard rotation is set for the coming years, with both Teodosic and Markovic already having important roles in their respective teams and Milos Vujanic trying to relaunch his club career.
The wing position is also nicely filled with the scoring talent of Novica Velickovic and the long-distance shooting of Luka Bogdanovic. Milenko Tepic can help out at small forward and Dusko Savanovic had some interesting minutes in the two games he played. Additionally, somebody like Tadija Dragicevic should be able to join the team as well as Marko Keselj. Both are playing for Crvena Zvezda next season and Svetislav Pesic is not considered the worst coach to make them better players.
At the inside positions, Nenad Krstic and Zoran Erceg are solid starters who still have a lot of upside. Kosta Perovic should see minutes on the floor again this season, and Boban Marjanovic is a great combination of size and power for the future. Additionally, you have the massive Miroslav Raduljica and Milan Macvan, who are trying to make the step from dominant force at the U20 level to contributor on the senior teams.
As you can see, Serbia is not lacking in firepower for their respective teams. I still have some doubts about a high-quality sniper from the three-point area, as their current top gunner Uros Tripkovic has already experienced lots of ups and downs. And you may have noticed that I did not speak at all about the Serbian “stars” playing currently in the NBA; it doesn’t look like they are in Dusan Ivkovic’s plans whatsoever. So the possible roster for London 2012 could be the following.
Guards: Teodosic, Tepic, Tripkovic, Vujanic.
Forwards: Velickovic, Keselj, Bogdanovic, Macvan, Erceg.
Centers: Krstic, Marjanovic, Perovic.
Monday’s cigarettes
September 22, 2008 by Christophe · 1 Comment
There we go: We know now all the Eurobasket 2009 participants except one, and the Euroleague tipoff is only one month away.
- So France and Italy have to go through an additional qualifying round next summer in order to qualify for Eurobasket 2009. In the tournament, they will face Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal, Finland and Belgium. Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine and Estonia will play for the relegation in Division B.
- Talking of Division B, there are still three teams that remain unbeaten and have the best chances to move up to Division A: Belarus, Montenegro and Sweden. The competition will resume in summer 2009.
- The first major European League, the German Bundesliga, started this weekend. You can still join our Fantasy League Division and if you want to get the real feeling, watch the impressive pre-season trailer from Telekom Baskets Bonn. By the way, the league will start with three new arenas and is about to reach 2nd place in our European attendance ranking.
- ACB Classico brings us the phenomenal Sarunas Jasikevicius during the 2003 Finals with FC Barcelona, where he comes up with a monumental blocked shot to decide the game.
- The French basketball press saw some changes recently, with the end of Maxi-Basket and Basketnews and their merger into two new magazines: BasketNews weekly and MaxiBasketnews monthly. Additionally, BasketNews now also has a very informative website, though only in French.
- A shocker in the Italian League, as two teams have been excluded: Capo d’Orlando and Napoli. The Sicilian team was late in their payments while Napoli faked documents in an attempt to enter the league. Both teams will not be replaced.
- The Lliga Catalana has once again been won by DKV Joventut Badalona in beating Regal FC Barcelona 95-83 behind 29 points from Demond Mallet.
Italy back on track; Great Britain close to Poland
September 16, 2008 by Christophe · 1 Comment
The Eurobasket 2009 qualifiers have started really poorly for coach Recalcati’s Team Italy. After four losses in the first five games, the situation was pretty bad but without going for incredible results, Italy is back in the race for Poland.
Luol Deng won’t play the Eurobasket
August 14, 2008 by Christophe · 2 Comments
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 by Christophe · 1 Comment
… 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 by Christophe · 5 Comments
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 by Tobias · 8 Comments
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?
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 by Christophe · 8 Comments
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 by Christophe · 1 Comment
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.
