Ball in Europe, the European Basketball Blog

Huge in 2006: Sofoklis and Team Greece

After taking a look at the European players of the decade and top professional teams of the decade, BallinEurope today turns attention to the national level. Which teams from the 2000s will we still recall fondly in years to come? Below are listed eight key national squads from the passing ten-year span, the unforgettable basketball teams that made their marks in sports history.

• 2001-02 Yugoslavia. Sure, Team USA had taken hits to its perceived invulnerability in international competition between meeting Oscar Schmidt in 1987 and Y2K, but on one day in 2002, the Yugoslavian team slammed the door on American preeminence in basketball forever. And this was after breezing through Eurobasket 2001, winning five of six games by double-digit margins. Yugoslavia was the only country to take golds at Eurobasket and FIBA World competitions with (basically) the same team; the 2002 roster included Dejan Bodiroga, Peja Stojakovic, Marko Jaric, Dejan Milojevic, Vlade Divac and Vladimir Radmanovic, a roster good enough to merit mention among a discussion of greatest basketball teams ever assembled, period.

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Is it too early to start planning your basketball viewing for late August? Nah! And after looking over the 2010 FIBA World Championship schedule released yesterday, i’m already feeling anticipation for a bunch of matches in this year’s Europe-heavy tournament.

The official BallinEurope-recommended dates and games Europe needs to mark on its collective calendar include:

•  Saturday, August 28
Russia vs. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has a reputation as a giant-killer, so here’s a basketball giant for them (although with a FIBA ranking of 10 and many trips to the podium in Americas-based tournaments lately, maybe the island is the secret giant).

Additionally, if the clichéd and tiresome “Group of Death” sobriquet must be named for this tournament, it’s Group C. Excepting China, any of the remaining five teams here (joining Russia and Puerto Rico are Cote d’Ivore, Greece, and Turkey) could advance and even go deep into the bracket, so every game counts. And this is a key one early.

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Ivkovic: "Košarkaškog saveza Srbije skandalozni"

Maybe something was lost in the translation, but the English-language version of the Serbian edition of Blic reports that Team Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic and all-time great Vlade Divac have leveled some serious verbal fireworks in the direction of the national association.

Today at Blic.rs, Serbia Basketball Association honorary president Bora Stankovic fires back at Ivkovic and, by association Divac, who reportedly backed up the coach on his assessment of “scandalous relations” within the group leadership.

Calling the comments “laughable and sad,” Stankovic assures that Ivkovic’ “accusations simply don’t stand” while defending the record with “the people at the Association must be doing something right. Especially now, when Serbia, a nation which got its independence as recently as two years ago, is back on the European basketball map.”

Stankovic went on the deflect the blame for what Ivkovic and Divac see as problematic onto the individual Serbian professional basketball clubs.

On his part, Divac is reported to have stated that “u Savezu sede neradnici,” a phrase the Blic folks translated as “the Union are slackers.” (Can a Serbian speaker confirm this phraseology…?)

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Kemzura: New face of Lithuanian basketball?

Is the search for Team Lithuania head coach nearly over?

Lithuanian news service LITA is today reporting that the candidates for the position vacated by Ramunas Butautas after his team’s extremely disappointing performance in Eurobasket 2009 currently number three: Lithuanian citizen and former Team Latvia coach Kestutis Kemzura, current Team Greece coach Jonas Kazlauskas, and Lietuvos Rytas head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis.

Kemzura is thought to be the leading candidate for the job. Before taking the Latvia job in 2008, the coach of teams such as Lietuvos Rytas, Benetton Treviso and Dynamo St. Petersburg, had been wooed by Polish basketball and other national programs.

Kemzura was last heard from in the news blasting several of his players from his Latvian national team, claiming several of them were too fond of drinking over practicing; Kemzura singled out team co-captain Kristaps Valters as “irresponsible” and “afraid to admit he made a mistake.”

Despite this, Kemzura claims he’s still considering a contract-extension offer from Latvia. Said offer expires on Thursday.

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On the eve of Eurobasket 2009, Ball in Europe’s man in Italy, Francesco Cappelletti, looks back at this summer’s youth competitions to assess where Europe’s national programs stand and where they’re headed. From where will the future be launched? Read on!

One day until Eurobasket 2009: It has been a full summer which started with three youth competitions. These are useful to frame a speech about the basketball we are now playing in Europe, in attempting to open a bigger discussion on traditions, changes and examples European schools give us from time to time.

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As we await the two-game showdown between France and Belgium for the final spot in the FIBA Eurobasket 2009 tournament and Eurobasket Division B pool play enters the homestretch, Ball in Europe takes a speculative look at three national programs we might be hearing a lot more about in 2010 and beyond.

Finland. When Finland capped pool play in Group B of the Eurobasket Additional Qualification Road with an impressive 95-89 victory over Italy, an exclamation point was emphatically put on the team’s success in this tournament.

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It's "Arch," not "Tiny"

Unicaja fans will find something more than a little familiar with Team Great Britain’s big guys in Eurobasket 2009, as both Robert Archibald and the just-acquired Joel Freeland were officially named to the national squad this week.

The announcement follows in the wake of Luol Deng’s announcement that he would be taking August off to rest a stress fracture injury and would not be participating in the international tournament. Deng had a few nice words on the Archibald-Freeland tandem in speaking to the media on Monday.

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Bad news for fledging Team Great Britain’s Eurobasket 2009 chances: Luol Deng joins former Chicago Bulls teammate Ben Gordon in the “out” category.

Deciding that his stress fracture injury has not yet properly healed, Deng decided to sit this one out. Gordon decided as early as last August that he wouldn’t be joining the makeshift squad for Eurobasket.

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The Belgian national team has not been crowned with much success in recent years. But a growing number of interesting talents will try to qualify for 2009 Eurobasket in Poland for the first time since 1993. Head coach Eddy Casteels has published his shortlist of 24 players that will attempt the impossible.

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Italy still needs to qualify for Eurobasket 2009 in a tough elimination round with France and Finland this August before playing an eventual final game against the winner of the second qualification group which features Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, and Portugal. FIBA Europe has announced that two Italian NBA players, Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli, will be with the team.

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