As a tweet from Mensah-Bonsu’s former club CSKA Moscow rhetorically asks, “How does he score?”

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…

At 11-4, Beşiktaş is currently in a statistical tie with Banvit BK in second place on the TBL table, ahead of Euroleague teams Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe Ülker. Morrison and the Eagles next play in Russia against BC Nizhny Novgorod in a FIBA Eurochallenge game on Tuesday, followed by a trip to Spain to take on Fuenlabrada, and finally the former Bobcat will make his new home debut against Türk Telekom Ankara after the TBL all-star break on Saturday, January 28.

Okay, so BallinEurope wouldn’t go that far; after all, we’re talking about a player of retired-jersey status here. Regardless, Beşiktaş Milangaz began the post-Deron Williams Era with a 77-75 win at Armia in FIBA Eurochallenge play, thanks to a David Hawkins jumper in the waning seconds…

Official FIBA writeup follows.

(FIBA Europe) – Beşiktaş Milangaz completed a two-game sweep of Armia on Tuesday to clinch first place in EuroChallenge Group B, as David Hawkins hit a jump shot one second before the end to lift Beşiktaş to a 77-75 win in Tbilisi.

Armia were able to get the ball to recent signing Matthew Freije before time expired but his three-pointer was off target.

Jeremy Richardson nearly lifted Armia to victory. After Hawkins’ two free throws with 1:16 remaining, Richardson caught a pass from new Armia guard Ben Woodside and drilled a jump shot to knot the game at 73-73.

Hawkins dunked with 40 seconds to go to put the visitors back in front, only for Richardson, after an Armia timeout, to reply with a jumper. Beşiktaş ran the clock down to 10 seconds and then called a timeout. When play resumed, Hawkins got the ball in his hands and hit the game-winning shot.

Beşiktaş outscored Armia 27-19 in the last quarter.

The EuroChallenge Player of the Week in the last round, Erwin Dudley (a.k.a. Ersin Dagli), will contend for that honor again as he had 18 points and 13 rebounds for Beşiktaş. Hawkins finished with 17 points and Serhat Cetin contributed 16.

Zoran Erceg also had a strong game with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists for Beşiktaş; his biggest shot came with 1:45 to go, a three-ball that tied the contest at 71-71.

Joakim Kjellbom scored 17 points and corralled 13 rebounds for Armia, and Will Thomas had 15 points and eight boards. Richardson also had 15 points and Woodside 13, along with seven assists.

With the win, the Turkish club improved to 5-0 and Armia fell to 3-2. Should ZZ Leiden prevail in their game against BG Göttingen Wednesday, the Dutch side will host a decisive clash with Armia next week to determine the second-place team in Group B. Armia won their encounter on November 22, 74-71, so Leiden would be aiming for a win of four points or more to claim the second spot.

• Big shot of the night, NBA-related or no, was certainly Mehmet Okur’s three-point dagger to give Turk Telekom the 83-81 win over Pinar Karsiyaka. Reports FIBA Europe in part: “With Turkish basketball still talking about the 50-point explosion by Okur’s former Utah Jazz teammate Deron Williams for Beşiktaş last week, Okur capped another solid performance with a long-range shot that gave the Ankara team an 83-81 triumph on Tuesday.

“Utah Jazz big man Okur, like New Jersey Nets guard Williams, is to soon head back to the United States following Saturday’s announcement that the lockout is set to end this week.

“Okur had 14 points and 10 rebounds in Izmir against Karsiyaka. … His free throw had given Turk Telekom an 80-79 advantage with 31 seconds to go, but Karsiyaka went back out in front when Alper Saruhan landed a jumper.

“After a timeout by the visitors, Okur caught a pass by Muratcan Güler and hit the shot from the arc with nine seconds to play for a two-point lead. Mire Chatman of Karsiyaka had an opportunity to put the home side back in front but his three-pointer was off target.”

• The Jerusalem Post informs that “Maccabi Tel Aviv fans got their last look at Jordan Farmar at Nokia Arena on Saturday night when the yellow-and-blue improved to 8-0 in the Adriatic League with a 96-89 victory over Cedevita Zagreb.”

Right. So let’s have a look, then.

And check out this nice work from Israel-based Haaretz on the remainder of the EL/NLB contender’s 2011-12, i.e. “With Farmar’s departure for the U.S., Maccabi’s second season begins.”

• For Valencia BC, Tiago Splitter in his second departure from European pro ball went for nine points on just 4-of-12 shooting to go with 12 rebounds in under 30 minutes of playing time. Valencia ended up winning at Lukoil Academic, 72-64, as former University of Maine/Estudiantes Madrid forward Nik Caner-Medley put in a ridiculous 27 points.

Splitter ended with stint with the Spanish side having played two games each in the Eurocup competition and the Liga Endesa, with a cumulative average of 12.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

• Asvel did not play with Tony Parker or Ronny Turiaf but won 70-53 at Oostende anyway, and Beşiktaş was without Deron Williams – though the New Jersey Net “looked on as a supporter” and watched before the game as *his freaking jersey number was retired.* In D-Will’s stead, Erwin Dudley (a.k.a. Ersin Dagli) had 20 points and 14 rebounds in Beşiktaş’ Eurochallenge victory against ZZ Lieden, 76-69.

• Coming soon (maybe): Euroleague games featuring final turns by Thabo Sefolosha with Fenerbahçe Ülker, Ty Lawson with Žalgiris Kaunas, and Nikola Pekovic with Partizan Belgrade, among others.

One interesting consequence of the NBA lockout – and possibly a precedent-setter – are the cases of Ersan Ilyasova, who has long stated that he ultimately prefers playing with Anadolu Efes rather than the Milwaukee Bucks, and of frequently disgruntled Rudy Fernandez, whom Real Madrid would like to keep around.

In fact, France-based Basket News yesterday reported that “Ersan Ilyasova, encore lié à Milwaukee pour un an, souhaiterait négocier avec les Bucks pour rester à l’Anadolu Efes.”

Second season, indeed…

In riding the wave of sentimentality to the shore, BiE today presents the virtual scrapbook of 10 favorite individual performances from locked-out NBA players. (Not included are those NBA guys who were off-season free agents; therefore no appearances by, say, Nenad Krstic, or, sadly, Adam Morrison are forthcoming.)

• Deron Williams: Leaving his mark in Europe
An obvious choice to lead off, D-Will was dubbed by BallinEurope way back at the beginning of the nothingness as already among the most influential American players in European basketball history. Perhaps that was a tad presumptuous (BiE was one of the cynics who figured the entire 2011-12 NBA season would be cancelled), but the truth is that Williams may ultimately be the sole locked-out player to leave a tangible mark on Continental hoops history in emphatically dropping 50 on BG Göttingen for the FIBA Eurochallenge record.

Said Göttingen coach Stefan Mienack in the post-game: “It’s so hard to win against a team in which Deron Wıllıams plays for.” Hear that, New Jersey Nets fans?

(Also awesome: Williams’ 24-point, 10-rebound show against Pinar Karşiyaka in TBL play.)

• Euroleague Player of the Week Andrei Kirilenko: Parts 1 and 2
The best locked-out NBA player in Europe? AK-47, and it’s not even close. CSKA Moscow’s prime addition in a busy offseason just about got off an airplane, suited up for the Red Army and bagged the Euroleague’s first Player of the Week trophy with a dominant 17-point, 15-rebound performance in the Russian side’s 87-74 victory over Žalgiris Kaunas.

The Euroleague brain trust was apparently so geeked by Kirilenko’s show at season’s tipoff that he was also credited with the dunk of opening night…

…the block of opening night…

…and the assist of opening night.

Five weeks later (and just days before suffering a concussion in the PBL game at Krasnye Krylya Samara), Kirilenko turned in perhaps the most fascinating stat lines of Euroleague play this season against Unicaja Malaga in an outstanding display of his unique skills: minutes played, 34:59; points scored, 17; 2-pt FG shooting, 1-of-2; 3-pt FG shooting, 1-of-1; FT shooting, 12-of-13; offensive rebounds, 2; defensive rebounds, 7; total rebounds, 9; assists, 2; steals, 6; turnovers, 1; blocks, 3; performance index rating, 39.

• Brian Scalabrine: Fan favorite on two continents
One of us! One of us!

• Serge Ibaka: The Shot Blocka returns against Zaragoza
In his likely final game for Real Madrid, the Oklahoma City Thunderer led his team to an easy 84-67 win over CAI Zaragoza in Liga Endesa play with 15 points (on 7-of-8 shooting, including five dunks), nine boards, six blocks (five in the first half) and a performance index rating of 29 in 25 minutes of court time – This after averaging about 12 minutes per game in Spain to that point.

As BallinEurope’s Enrico Cellini put it: “But stats can’t convey how much Ibaka dominated. His overwhelming athleticism under the boards discouraged any penetration and deterred any other shots from inside the paint. Simply all over the place.”

• Ty Lawson: A Day in the (Twitter) Life
October 25 could go down in the sports pages as a day in Twitter history – you know, if we had stuff like Twitter history. Or sports pages, for that matter. For two hours, Lawson had European basketball fans (and probably about half the population of Lithuania) spellbound with his laid-out feelings on playing for Žalgiris. And NBA 2K12.

• Nicolas Batum: Brilliantly besting Baskonia
Sayeth the league’s official writeup, in part: “SLUC Nancy forward Nicolas Batum was at his best against on Thursday with a brilliant all-around performance to lead the French champs to a 90-85 win over previously unbeaten Caja Laboral. The victory made Nancy 2-0 at home this season and just like in their previous win in front of French fans, Batum was the star of the show and subsequently earned Week 4 bwin Euroleague MVP honors. Batum amassed an impressive stat line of 21 points with just three missed shots in addition to nine rebounds, four assists and one block en route to a performance index rating of 35. Beyond the numbers, Batum was also crucial to the Nancy effort in that he played all 40 minutes – his average 39:26 minutes per game is most in the league – and was clutch down the stretch with seven points in the game’s last five minutes.”

• Tony Parker: Decisive against Cholet
Asvel Villeurbanne, wave bye-bye to your alpha dog. Parker was actually slightly under his LNB scoring average in Asvel’s match at Cholet Basket on October 29, but the two-time NBA champion contributed a “decisive” performance for his French team, going for 19 points, including nine in the fourth quarter in the 79-70 Asvel victory.

A number of reports in recent days had the Beşiktaş search linked with names like Kevin Love, Luol Deng, Lamar Odom, Nene and Marcin Gortat, but Lopez made for reportedly a somewhat less expensive option than Odom or Gortat, for example.

Lopez went for 20.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game with the New Jersey Nets last season.

And if you’re keeping score at home, the refugees from Nets land playing in Europe increases: After Williams and (prospectively) Lopez, there are Jordan Farmar (with Maccabi Tel Aviv), Sasha Vujacic (Anadolu Efes), Mario West (Scaligera Basket Verona), Sundiata Gaines (BC Armia) and Bojan Bogdanovic (Fenerbahçe Ülker; and okay, BiE realizes Bogdanovic isn’t technically a refugee, but he may be a Net someday).

[Update: Talk Basket is running a list of all players with point totals of 36 or more in a Eurochallenge game since the league was formed in 2003. As it turns out, the all-time high to this point was 39, a mark shared by Fernando San Emeterio, then of CB Girona, and Svendborg Rabbits' Johnell Smith. Williams has, no matter how the NBA lockout turns out, left a mark on European basketball that will remain for quite some time, it seems.]

Göttingen simply had no answers for the New Jersey Net, allowing him to go 17-of-23 from the floor, including a 7-of-10 performance on three-pointers; stated the German side’s coach Stefan Mienack in the post-game: “We played against one of the elite teams of Europe. They’re absolute contenders for the title and they have great players. It’s so hard to win agaınst a team in which Deron Wıllıams plays for.”

Check out the video below for a highlight clip stuff with Williams’ relentless attacking; the Violets’ backcourt of Dale Lewis, Kyle Bailey, Paris Horne et al will certainly be suffering nightmares for months. Official FIBA writeup follows the clip.

(FIBA Europe) – Deron Williams exploded for 50 points on Tuesday in Istanbul and Besiktas Milangaz needed every one of them in a 105-94 EuroChallenge victory over BG Göttingen.

The point guard, one of the first NBA players to move to Europe during the NBA lockout, made 17 of his 23 shots from the floor. Included in that were seven of 10 makes from three-point range.

Göttingen, who have been struggling this season, trailed 91-90 after their 23-year-old point guard Louis Dale buried a shot from the arc with 2:14 to go.

Williams went to the other end, though, and with the 24-shot clock winding down answered with a three-pointer. Then with Besiktas on top 95-90 and 1:10 remaining, Williams struck again from the arc before going in for a layup on his team’s next possession for a 100-90 lead.

The USA Olympic gold medal winner reached the 50-point plateau with a layup on a fast break just 13 seconds from the end.

The most points ever scored by Williams in the NBA came in a 2010 when he played for the Utah Jazz against the Oklahoma City Thunder and poured in 42.

David Hawkins finished with 23 points for Besiktas, who improved to 3-0 in Eurochallenge Group B.
Raymond Sykes led the Violets with 25 points and Kyle Bailey had 19. The German club fell to 0-3 with the defeat.

“Odom turned 32 earlier this month and is considering whether to accept the proposal,” states the ESPN article, which also informs that Beşiktaş officials had been chasing the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Kevin Love and the Chicago Bulls’ Luol Deng. Love formally declined an offer on the weekend, telling media that “I didn’t feel it was the right decision for me at this time.”

Beşiktaş is reportedly also looking into signing free agent Nene or Team Poland/Phoenix Suns big man Marcin Gortat; Gortat is described as “highly interested” in getting with the Turkish team.

But if Odom signs up? BiE’s already imagining the reality TV program…

Below, BallinEurope presents some links, highlight clips and like on some of the competing teams starring Igor Rakocevic, Tiago Splitter, D.J. Strawberry and that Williams guy, among others. O, if only BiE had time to properly cover all this basketball … sorry, the NB-what?

• Rod Higgins of the Basketball Post provides much food for thought going into Montepaschi Siena’s game against Unics Kazan on how Igor Rakocevic affects the Italian side’s game plan: Has Ferdinando Minucci sacrificed trademark defensive trickery at the cost of a faster game with another shooter?

On the other hand, perhaps Minucci’s master plan with Rakocevic is just crazy enough to work … tonight provides another nice litmus test: Unics Kazan is middle of the Euroleague table in terms of turnovers at 13 per game while Montepaschi is fifth in team scoring at 84.0 points per game.

• Once resembling a super team, CSKA Moscow entered last week’s PBL game against Krylya Samara short-handed; with Andrei Kirilenko now out for two games minimum, the situation approaches near-critical mass as the Red Army hosts Žalgiris Kaunas. Will a holey CSKA still have enough against the outmatched-on-paper Žalgiris?

Said head coach Jonas Kazlauskas in the post-game: “The thing that worries me is that Kirilenko is injured seriously. [Milos] Teodosic is injured. Taking into account that [Darjus] Lavrinovic is not practicing with the team yet, [Nenad] Krstic had a high temperature … I don’t want to get back to the difficult situation we had last season.”

So, Krstic’s back tonight while the other three above-mentioned won’t be suiting up; adjust your Euroleague fantasy rosters accordingly.

• Speaking of playing/not playing, Da’Sean Butler won’t be on the VEF Riga roster for the team’s Eurocup game against BC Khimki Moscow region – indeed, BiE believes Butler hasn’t yet left the ‘States and is not even 100% sure that the “European team” the locked-out San Antonio Spur’d claimed to have signed with is in fact Riga – but he’s anxious to get there.

• Which naturally leads to Butler’s NBA teammate Tiago Splitter; he’ll be making his 2011-12 Eurocup debut when his Valencia Basket host Telenet Oostende. Splitter went for an impressive 12 points and 10 rebounds in his team’s squeaker of an 86-83 win at UCAM Murcia in ACB play.

• In the leadup to the Anadolu Efes-Partizan game, um, here’s a picture of Sasha Vujacic:

• More seriously, Anadolu Efes claims they’re close to signing locked-out Dallas Maverick Jose Juan Barea.

• Incredibly, Hapoel Jerusalem posted its first win against Maccabi Tel Aviv in 21 years in a 78-64 shocker on Sunday – and D.J. Strawberry says it “wasn’t even our most important game of the week.” According to Strawberry, that would be Jerusalem’s Eurocup match against Cibona Zagreb.

Reports the Jerusalem Post: “Hapoel’s 80-71 defeat at BC Donetsk in its Eurocup opener means its situation inGroup A is already complicated just one game into the regular season, making a home win against Cibona crucial to Jerusalem’s hopes of finishing in the top two and advancing to the last 16…

“Zagreb’s streak of 20 straight years in the Euroleague ended this season and its Eurocup campaign got off to a nightmare start when it was thrashed at home 101-71 by BCM Gravelines of France.

“We need to win our home games in Europe, starting on Tuesday,” Jerusalem coach Oded Katash said. “There is good reason to celebrate after the win against Tel Aviv, but I told the players to put the party on hold until we beat Cibona.”

• Yet another Spur isn’t playing. Tony Parker’s shoulder injury will keep him out of Asvel Basket’s game against Lukoil Acadmic in Sofia; this will mark the first time Asvel plays without Parker since his arrival. Said head coach Pierre Vincent, “We still have a team capable of playing. It is certain that Tony makes a difference, especially in the pick-and-roll. We’ll see if others can take over. And there are other solutions to implement.”

Incidentally, the guard/team executive stated that he and Boris Diaw “have already spoken. If the season is canceled, I will make him an offer for him to come play with me and Ronny [Turiaf].”

• Deron Williams and his Beşiktaş Milangaz meet BG Göttingen in Eurochallenge play tonight. From the In Case You Missed It Department, the Eagles’ troika of D-Will, Semih Erden and Marcelus Kemp wasn’t quite up to spec in TBL play on Saturday; Erdemir handed heretofore undefeated Beşiktaş its first loss of the season by a score of 88-84. Williams went 6-for-16 overall in scoring 16 points and contributing eight assists, Kemp was 5-of-15 for 15 points and Erden battled foul troubles throughout, seeing less than 16 minutes of playing time. In that one, Erwin Dudley (!) was the top scorer for Beşiktaş with 19 points and Zoran Erceg (!!) had 16 points to go with his team-high six rebounds.

It’s been a rough 2011-12 in Göttingen, meanwhile. The team sits dead last in the Bundesliga at 1-8 while going 0-2 in Eurochallenge play, last losing to ZZ Leiden, 80-71, at home in EC play last week.

• No, Linas Kleiza isn’t getting with Lietuvos Rytas any time soon.

Beşiktaş Milangaz cruised past Armia in game two of FIBA Eurochallenge play as Williams was good for 31 points, including 5-of-9 shooting on threes, and six assists in the 103-82 win. Nets fans might also note that their theoretical player Sundiata Gaines turned in a nice eight-assist, three-steal performance for Armia.

The usual suspects were once behind Williams in victory: Semih Erden put in 20 points, grabbed three rebounds and snatched three steals; David Hawkins was good for 17 points and three steals; and Marcelus Kemp contributed 19 points and five rebounds.

Since bowing out in the Eurocup Qualifying Round, Besiktas has gone undefeated: The Eagles are 5-0 in TBL play and 2-0 in Eurochallenge. But don’t tell coach Ergin Ataman. Said he to media in the post-game, “I don’t know how many wins we have now. I’ll let you do the counting.”