BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Dario from basketbalcentral.it just sent me an email on Rawle Marshall, who plays for Cibona and also in the Euroleague.

Rawle got into a fight in a domestic league game against Split.

These fights of Americans have happened very often in recent weeks. I had to check immediately if Rawle is also from Arizona, as are his fight buddies Loren Woods and Joseph Blair, but thank god he is not: Rawle went to Oakland University, although he had a one-year contract with the Dallas Mavericks.

Here is the video evidence, thanks to Dario:

When I read the news here, I had to check today’s date. OK … this isn’t an April Fool’s joke or bad journalism – this looks like legit news.

During a secret meeting between two American investors, Henry Feinberg (shareholder of Technology Crossover Ventures) and partner Steven M. Julius (president of Workplace Solutions), it was decided that they would want to invest in a basketball team in Hamburg, Germany.

Since they seek to invest a budget of €12 million, which is about 50% more than the current budget of the German champion and Euroleague participant, it seems that the partnership wants to invest into a top European team.

Hamburg right now doesn’t have a first division basketball team, but it does have an arena that would be perfect for top European basketball. Now guess who owns the Color Line Arena in Hamburg: Anschutz Entertainment Group, the same group that owns the O2 arenas in London and Berlin. With about 14,000 seats, the arena would be another top venue for the Euroleague and European basketball.

The Americans probably saw the huge success of O2 World in Berlin, where more than 10,000 people follow Alba Berlin each game.

As for the German league, Feinberg and Julius want to start their venture with the 2009/2010 season; I am sure the Euroleague will consider another wildcard spot for Germany and Europe if the team is really investing that much money. I’m also sure that Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu liked the news on his desk this morning.

What’s our take?

Of course , we’re as surprised as anybody in European and American basketball, but this is more because of the opinions you get about German basketball. First of all, people tell us that German basketball is not that attractive and not top European quality. We’ve  also heard a lot that there is not enough interest in basketball within Germany – which is not true at all.

Checking our statistics, we get a huge part of traffic from Germany and our partner schoenen-dunk.de is on of the most visited Web sites in European basketball.

Another big reason is the attendance statistic from Berlin: With over 10,000 fans per game, Berlin is within the top ten of European basketball. Nobody expected this huge success.

Sometimes you have to form your own opinion to make sure you don’t follow a standard that other people set…

Vincenzo Esposito in Italy, Delaney Rudd in France, Tony Dawson in Germany, Oded Katash in Israel: All were top scorers in their respective leagues, leading the rankings with 25 or more points per game. Brad Oleson, Steven Smith, Rashad Anderson: These are our top scorers, nowadays. How many are they scoring? Not more than 21 points per game. (And that’s going to fall…) So what has happened across Europe over the last 10-15 years? Why, in a game that has itself evolved itself into one of increasing total scores, show, and thus its level of fan interest all over the world, do the top offensive players score much less? Let’s take a look at how our basketball has changed, following this decadent scoring line. The following is a list of a few changes.

Defense has improved. Every team has a huge number of defensive solutions. Coaches have developed their knowledge on man-to-man, matchups, box and one, press defenses. Even more, scouting reports have so much helped those who once knew only their enemy’s names. We still underestimate the power of Internet: Here can be found a detailed view (profile, stats, biography) of whoever you want, at any moment, in each place. Nevertheless, basketball societies have grown by size and ambition (from the lowest to the highest levels), with budget and people involved in scouting rising in the same way. Fifteen years ago, when you played against KK Split, it was always the same story: “Hey, they’re Croatian: They play hard and have a noisy crowd supporting them. Don’t be intimidated!” Today, by the time you land at the airport, you already know whether Mario Delas prefers to finish with right or left hand. Thanks to technology, go back to the start: Defense has improved.

US players aren’t as talented as in previous generations. True or false? I answer with a comparison: In 1995, the best newcomer from the United States was Dominique Wilkins (9th all-time NBA scorer); in 2008, the best is Josh Childress (one NBA playoff appearance in his career). Is this enough? Here’s another example. Since 1995, we here in Italy have had the pleasure of seeing Jermaine Jackson, Eddie Gill, Gerard King, Gary Trent, Erick Murdock, AJ Guyton, Shawn Respert, and Derrick Dial. I looked at them as “champions coming from the NBA,” but I still didn’t know that, when he was my age, my father could see Bob McAdoo, Bob Morse, Bill Bradley and Michael “Sugar” Ray Richardson. And I was only a child when Darren Daye, Mike Mitchell and Rolando Blackman charmed the stands. There’s really no contest.

Average quality has improved. Today, any team you face has at least eight men able to play at the appropriate level. When one of the starting five is called to the bench, his substitute is sometimes even better. (Don’t you know Kaukenas’ role?) That’s the reason why a top scorer can’t relax when the second team is in. This depends on the Bosman Rules that have broken down previous walls about player circulation in Europe, but it also depends also on a higher level of European schooling, because it’s not merely all about whether Greece or Spain forces Team USA to do the best they can to win an Olympic medal. More competition = better schools to create good players and protect your the lads of your country from foreign invasions = better players.

The 24 second clock. Less time to score, more action. More shots to distribute. No more of the man who freezes for his teammates to admire.

Length of the season. A Euroleague (or Eurocup) team plays 60 games a year, including the regular season and playoffs. So you must preserve your best players from fatigue. Are you happier if he scores 35 points against Bruesa in November or 25 against Unicaja in May?

These are some reasons that I consider to be a starting point for discussion about the lack of great scorers in Europe today. While we’re certainly seeing better basketball, at this moment, technical staffs and tactical solutions are deciding the games. I sigh a little, and then I get out my DVD of Steve Burtt Sr. and his 40-point performances. Unbelievable!

written by Francesco Cappelletti

Every year when October runs out, several players are denied a happy ending to their stories, and their NBA dream vanishes in a moment. This happens when waived by a franchise after a training camp spent sweating blood to emerge from among the “desperate ballers” hoping to make the team. So, there are two different paths to follow: Go down to the D-League or CBA, score 20 or more points per game, catch and shoot any ball you can, and try to obtain a ten-day contract (at least) from a NBA team during the season; or cross the ocean, build a new career maybe less rich, but in some cases much more satisfying than one in the US.

Let’s see who may be looking into this window of opportunity right about now, starting with NBA-caliber players.

Justin Williams didn’t have huge numbers with Sacramento and Houston, but has demonstrated that he can stay 10 minutes on the floor thanks to toughness, defensive intensity and rebounding capacity (Williams averaged 4.4 in 12 minutes per game with the Kings two years ago). Salim Stoudamire and his talent need no explanation: Obviously it’s his out-of-control mind that keeps him playing below expectations. But remember, he’s Damon’s cousin, so he should have no problem in ever finding an NBA team.

Comparisons between the former Hawks guard and Smush Parker are clear: Smush is crazy and he has been overpaid during the past seasons, but there’s no doubt about his value. David Harrison is another player endowed with a not-so-good relationship with the law. His body (213 cm, 125 kg) could allow him to dominate around the basket, but how badly does he want it? If nobody gives him a chance, the flight to Europe is ready for departure.

In my opinion, it’s time for Jamal Sampson, Darryl Watkins and Awvee Storey to come to Europe, just to name a few who will never be more than role players. The same goes for Elton Brown and David Noel; by contrast, Chris Richard is too young and promising to leave the NBA world. Luke Jackson, Keith McLeod, Jelani McCoy and Adrian Griffin are NBA travellers, and somewhere there they’ll remain.

Patrick Ewing Jr. (say goodbye to New York!), Coby Karl, Dwayne Mitchell, Jamaal Tatum, Blake Ahearn, Dan Grunfeld, C.J. Giles, Cheyne Gadson, Gerry McNamara (what a disaster in Europe: paid $90,000 to play exactly one minute with Olimpiacos, then was terrific with Panionios and Ventspils), and Julius Hodge are strictly US minors material.

Searching some interesting names for European leagues, Malik Hairston (a 6’6” all-arounder from Oregon who was the 48th overall pick in the last NBA draft) has both the scoring instincts and the physicality needed to be a factor not only in one halfcourt; David Padgett is a solid low-post player and comes from a winning team at Louisville;  Nick Fazekas has signed with Oostende by now.

The remaining waivees are all Europe-experienced, many able to compete at the medium-level (Roger Powell is too inconsistent to elevate his grade, Mateen Cleaves is far from the metronome admired in the past, Derrick Byars is intriguing but his five months in Roanne were less than stellar, Curtis Sumpter is always injured), many ready to serve as solid substitutes on elite teams (Gabe Muoneke, Josh Davis, Jared Jordan, Devin Green, Eddie Basden), and others yet close to upgrading themselves to top-level play. Reyshawn Terry, Charles Gaines, Robert Hite: Choose one of this trio and you’ll see the team improve very, very quickly.

Globalization – The player with the highest VAL on Zalgiris of Lithuania was US center Loren Woods. The players with the best VAL for Italian Montepaschi were Rimantas Kaukenas and Ksistof Lavrinovic from … Lithuania. In fact, the latter two combined for a VAL of 45 while all Lithuanian players on the Lithuanian team combined for a VAL of … 40. Neither Kaukenas nor Lavrinovic, by the way, ever played for Zalgiris.

New tunes – How many African big men can you think of who topped the “Best FT%” category in any league? Joventut’s Pops Mensah-Bonsu hit 4 of 4 last week, while yesterday proving he can make it even better by making 11 of 12 from the charity stripe in the loss at Roma. Can you believe this guy averaged 66.7% in the ULEB Cup and 54.6% in LEGA the past season, and that these numbers were considered decent for him?

Career low – In his long, long Euroleague career Nikola Vujcic had finished just one single game with a negative index rating: That was in last year’s semifinals, when Maccabi upset Montepaschi and Nikola had a -2 VAL. This was before his last Euroleague game with Maccabi. After the first game with Olympiacos, Vujcic set a new personal record with a VAL of -3.

Historical moment – If that’s not enough, the game against Unicaja will go down in history books as the first game ever that Nikola Vujcic finished with zero points in a Euroleague game. Vujcic had posted several games with two points, but always somehow found the way to get that ball through the rim. Last night, he missed one shot from close range, another behind the arc, and two shot attempts from the charity stripe. Nikola will surely contribute to Olympiacos down the road when the money is on the line and as long as his team won, he’s happy, but this game won’t be colored with happy shades in the boxscore archives of the Vujcic family.

Zero – Believe it or not but Le Mans, a team with two of the best shooters in Europe – David Bluthenthal and Dewarick Spencer – finished their first home game of the season with zero three pointers made of 12 attempts taken. The duo was responsible for eight of these attempts.

Just across the street – Not too far from there stood Cibona Zagreb. The days Croatian teams were considered great shooting teams are sadly long gone now, but they were just a tiny bit better than Le Mans. A long-range shooting night of 2-for-14 on Cibona’s side shone only next to Le Mans’ performance.

Happy thoughts for Pao – Obviously the biggest result of this week was the big knock out Pao got in Barcelona. The final difference was 24 after Barca were all over the game from tipoff. If you’re a Panathinaikos fan that might even be good news. On 21 March 2007, the last day of the Top 16, Pao traveled to Barcelona only to return to Athens with a very disturbing 21 point defeat. At the end of that season, Pao won their first Euroleague title since 2002.

No guards – Pao scored only 14 field goals inside the arc in the big defeat. Coach Zeljko used 10 players in his rotation, but only four were able to connect from two-point range. Three of them were big guys Fotsis, Batiste and Pekovic. The only saint in the backcourt was … Sarunas Jasikevicius, who knows the nets in Palau Blaugrana pretty well, but still won’t remember this “homecoming game” fondly.

February 14, 2008 – On that day Davor Kus missed his last Euroleague free throw shot until last night in France… Then, at Barcelona, he was only 1-for-3. Then followed a streak of 10 consecutive shots to finish the season, another 6-for-6 last week against Maccabi, and last night one of the best free throw shooters in the Euroleague was stopped. Literally. He finished the game 0-for-7 from the field and a VAL of -8, but when he went to the line in the closing seconds to secure the triumph with Cibona up by three, Kus connected just one. Enough for the win. Goodbye to the streak.

Spencer ties – The weekly followup on the battle between Dewarick Spencer and David Bluthenthal continues, and this week we saw the first tie at 1-1 in their competition “who took more shots?” Spencer contributed 14 shots and Bluth lagged behind with only 11. In between them crept JP Batista with 13. Altogether, the trio provided a little less than 2/3 of Le Mans’ shots.

Few of a kind, part I – Now check out this unique stat line made by Terence Morris. He registered a VAL of 23 but that was the only category in which he totaled double-digits: 9 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 assists and only four field goal attempts. Very, very few players in Europe can reach such a high index rating by doing a little bit of everything.

Stay away! – Some of those fantasy fanatics out there believe that it’s good to take the best players of the weak teams figuring that “well, at least one guy needs to have a decent game.” Panionios, in their home defeat to CSKA, proved this theory wrong. Panionios set a new season low with a team index of 28, while the top individual high on the team was no more than … 7. Several players scored a better individual VAL this week than the entire Greek team.

Few of a kind – part II – So there are very few players like Morris in Europe, and that’s why he’s in CSKA making the big bucks; but his successor in Maccabi, D’or Fischer, showed this week he can produce the same numbers. Fischer crossed the double-digit mark in scoring 11, but added 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and four drawn fouls to reach a VAL of 21.

Foul him! – Daniel Ewing finished this week as the top scorer with 32 points on a great shooting night when Prokom smashed SLUC Nancy 91-62. He hit 7 of 9 from close range, 6 of 8 in the distance and well, no shots from the foul line. Why? Because in the entire game, Ewing was fouled just once by the French defense. Ewing was hot, all right, but when you foul a player in a zone just once in a game it says a lot about the lack of aggressiveness in Nancy’s defense.

Nevertheless more than perfect – Real’s Sergio Llull, the 21-year-old guard, is one of the funnest players to follow in the Euroleague. He’s quick and athletic but most of all plays with no fear. With Real having Raul Lopez and Pepe Sanchez on the roster, Llull probably didn’t expect to see a lot of playing this year before the season tipped off, but now he’s leaving the duo veterans behind. At Partizan, Llull had a perfect game: 19 points, 7-for-7 on two-pointers, 1-for-2 from three, 2-for-2 from the line, one rebound, one assist, one steal, zero turnovers with three personal fouls and two drawn. OK, so it’s not 100% perfect, but if you followed the game you know Llull’s only missed shot and two of his fouls came in the last seconds in attempt to save his team from a loss. On paper, he’s close to perfection. For us watching, he was more than perfect.

Close to perfection on the dark side – So Llull was huge, but take a look at Pepe Sanchez’s stat line from the loss in Beograd: 22 minutes on court, 0 points, 0-of-0 on two-pointers, 0-of-0 on threes, 0-of-0 FT, zero defensive rebounds, zero offensive rebounds, one assist, one steal, two turnovers, 0 bl-f, 0 bl-a, 0 fouls-c, 0 fouls-d and the poetic justice of 0 VAL.

Italian mafia – Efes Pilsen collected a key road win in Milano, and the ones who made the difference were Charles Smith, Milos Vujanic, Michalis Kakiouzis and Bootsy Thornton. What they have in common? All played in LEGA at some point in their career.

Sofoklis Schortsianitis (Olympiacos) – No shot attempts at all and only one foul in 7:42 minutes. Only once before has Schortsianitis finished a Euroleague game without a single shot attempt and that was when he played only two minutes.

Milos Teodosic (Olympiacos) – How often did you get to see this Serbian scorer finish with zero three-point attempts in 14:40? It happened once last season. If this were to continue this season, it would mean Yannakis is turning the kid from a scoring machine into a true team player. Keep an eye out.

Loren Woods (Zalgiris) set a Euroleague career high with 17 points and nine defensive rebounds against Pao, who have one of the best front lines in Europe.

Tamar Slay (Avelino) had his Euroleague debut as well against a Greek team, but we won’t mention this game on his resume, with his 1-of-10 from the field and -11 VAL.

Marcus Brown (Maccabi) – On Monday, Brown took two flights to arrive in Tel Aviv in the afternoon from Kaunas. The following day, he took two more flights to get from Tel Aviv to Zagreb with his new team. In total, Brown has probably had more flights than practices with his new team. Nevertheless, he played 27:44.

Willie Deans (Zalgiris) – In his Euroleague debut, Deans finished 1-of-10 from the field and -9 VAL against Pao.

Tau Ceramica Vitoria (ACB) used the shortest rotation this week with only eight players. Efes used nine, with one player on the floor for just 22 seconds. All other teams used between nine and 12 players

Rawle Marshall (Cibona) – Simply fun to watch. 20 points, 5-of-9 from the field, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, zero turnovers, 7 fouls drawn, and 29 VAL in a Euroleague debut. All cold numbers. Bottom line: Simply fun to watch.

Dimitris Diamantidis (Panathinaikos) – The best defender award winner for the past four years and one of the top three ball stealers on The Continent played 25:42 against Zalgiris with zero steals.

Dewarick Spencer & David Bluthenthal (Le Mans) – Now this could be a weekly check: Which of these two took more shots for his team? This time, Bluth wins 14-13 and also scores better accuracy.

Theodoros Papaloukas (Olympiacos) – 2,380 days have passed between 18/04/02 and today. Back then, Theo played his last Euroleague game for the Reds; yesterday, he made his rdappearance. Back then, he finished the game with 26:53 in playing time, 8 points, 3 rebounds and a VAL of 16. Today, he played only 90 seconds less, still scored 8 points, still grabbed 3 rebounds, and notched a VAL of 15 …consistency over a six-year span.

Avelino (LEGA) – In its Euroleague debut, the small Italian team registered a VAL of 36. Often this is less than the best weekly VAL from a single player.

Armani Jeans Milano (LEGA) – The game at Moscow was far from Milano’s Euroleague debut but under the new hat and management, expectations were different. Just like Avelino, another Italian team finished a game against a Final Four contender with a poor VAL rating of 36.

Tau (ACB) and Fenerbahce (TBL) combined for 52 attempts from long range on a night on which neither surpassed 30%.

Drew Nicholas (Panathinaikos) – After three seasons in a row over 40% from long range, the US shooter started his career in green with an 0-for-3 performance from long range.

Juan Carlos Navarro (Barcelona) – La Bomba bombed on the NBA runnerups 34 points less than a week ago. Last night, against SLUC Nancy empire, Navarro celebrated his return to the Euroleague with only four points and 1-of-8 from the field.

Derrick Sharp (Maccabi) – The veteran didn’t play a single second the entire game in Zagreb. The last time a Maccabi coach chose not to use Derrick was on 6 January 2000. After a 195-game streak and 3,213 days, a new count begins. Back then, in the first week of the millennium, Maccabi was just 1-of-6 from long range. Last night they showed a poor 4-or-16. Whether that’s a coincidence or not, you be the judge.

Oguz Savas (Fenerbahce) – The Turkish center is a decent rebounder, sometimes even more, but in Vitoria spent more than 23 minutes on the court and finished without a single rebound. This happened to Savas only once all of last season and back then, he played only five minutes.

Milos Vujanic (Efes) is officially back. The Serbian point guard beat his former team by a single point and was his team’s top scorer with 17 and just a single missed shot. The last time Vujanic scored more than 17 in a Euroleague game was on 9 March 2005 (that’s 1,324 days if you’re curious), when his Fortitudo Bologna won at Zalgiris by a single point as well and Vujanic had 18.

Real Madrid (ACB) – No fewer than eight players wrote a double-digit VAL in the 21-point cruise to victory against Olimpija.

Ibrahim Jabber, Ray Allan, Rodrigo De La Fuente, Brandon Jennings and Sanice Becirovic (Roma) – Coach Repesa’s backcourt combined for 4-of-18 inside the arc against Alba.

Nana Mensah-Bonsu (Joventut) had a very busy night under both baskets. Around Joventut’s rim he blocked three shots but on the other end was blocked three times as well. Not many players get to experience such activity on both ends on the floor.

Partizan (YUBA) and Maccabi (BSL) – Both lost by a single basket difference, the smallest margins of the first week, but in both cases it was after a three pointer at the buzzer that only made it look closer than it really was.

Alba (BBL) – No less than 1,723 days, since 4 February 2004, when Alba won their last Euroleague game. It was a 16 point triumph over Efes. John Best, Jovo Stanojevic, Marko Pesic and DeJuan Collins were the top scorers for Alba then. Not a single player on Alba has survived on the team since that season.

Brandon Jennings (Lottomatica) – The most standout number in the game that took Jennings’ Euroleague virginity is his 22 minutes with just a single turnover. Brandon also took nine shots from the field, more than any other Roma player yesterday.

Montepaschi (LEGA) were shooting better outside the arc (48% with 12 made) than inside it (40.5% with 15 made) in the nine-point win over Prokokm.

Boniface Ndong, Marcus Haislip and Robert Archibald (Unicaja) – The team’s three big men were also its three top scorers with 14, 13 and 11 points, respectively, over Le Man’s bigs.

Alain Koffi (Le Mans) – The athletic big man has finished each of his five seasons in the ULEB Cup and Euroleague with seven to nine assists total. On Wednesday night at Unicaja, the local stat guys bestowed him with no less than three, obviously a career high, and a great start to set a new season record as well.

(In case you are too shy to leave a comment here, you can always contact Yarone by sending him an email at arbel@ballineurope.com)

• The first Euroleague game day of the 2008/09 season is in the books – all the home teams won their games besides Avellino (Italy) who lost to Olympiacos, and SLUC Nancy (France) who got killed at home against FC Barcelona.

• Player that impressed me the most: Loren Woods. I know Will McDonald is the Euroleague MVP of week 1, but with all the big problems in Kaunas, money problems, Loren hitting people on the court and then facing Panthinaikos, Loren pulls off a game with 17 points and 16 rebounds in 33 minutes, which means 28 ranking points for Loren. Good job!

• Player that disappointed (me) the most: Ibrahim Jaaber – come on man: you’re on my Euroleague fantasy team! I chose you for your steals and defense last season…and this time not one steal, not one assist and not even one point in 18 minutes. Thanks for your -3 ranking.

• Euroleague TV comments: I watched at least 10 minutes of every game during the first gameday to find out if the pay-more-money-for-fewer-games thing works out. I have to say that the stream works really fine and I had no problems following the games even switching between them all the time. What I did not like is the resolution offered. The windows are clearly too small to really enjoy a game and by switching to full screen you can’t even read the score because of the bad resolution. Also new this year – as far as I remember – EL.tv stays online during halftime and offers a closeup of the bench during timeouts.

• Brandon Jennings watch: Evin Demirel talks about it: It’s obvious Jennings is learning to adjust to the European game. 9 points on 3-of-7 for threes and 0 assists – not sure if this is what European basketball is about. I am sure, though, that it won’t take too long for Brandon to show his real potential and we really are looking forward to this.

• The 31st overall draft pick for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Nikola Pekovic, in his first Euroleague game out of Serbia and for Panathinaikos: 14 points in 14 minutes in a 78-51 win against Zalgiris Kaunas in front of 12,000 visitors, according to Euroleague statistics.

• Speaking of Euroleague statistics: Marques Greens (Fenerbahce) played 30 minutes and had 5 points by making one two-pointer, one three-pointer and two free throws. Please tell me that this still would equal 7 points.

• Same game, same problem – Gasper Vidmar: 1-of-2 on free throws equals 3 points right?

• Josh Childress watch: 14 points, 8 rebounds in 25 minutes with a ranking of 22. Josh, learn to look at these ranking points – This is what Europe, especially Euroleague fantasy players, will judge you for. Here are the highlights.

• Finally our thoughts on the Euroleague TV commentators. Overall judge – funny and entertaining – with insightful comments in a true European/Italian way (in terms of pronunciation and passion). Really disappointing is the only guy who seems to be an American. His English might be perfect but the way he commentates a game made me fall asleep while Unicaja and Le Mans were actually playing a very interesting game. We know that he had problems with European names: problems with European names in the past, but I am sure, if you prepare a little bit for a game you can see that David Bluthenthal is not spelled David BLUMENthal, which in German means David Flowerthal, by the way.

I never knew that Tyson Chandler was such a good writer – really. Maybe I should follow him more often, since he seems to be a very cool guy telling interesting stories. Tyson was in Berlin and Barcelona during the Hornets’ NBA Europe trip and will be able to tell his grand kids the story of a bum trying to rob him. But read it yourself:

…I’m taking pictures and all of a sudden, I hear somebody start cursing at me. I’m looking through my camera lens at the time, so I can’t see anything but the pictures I’m taking. I come from up under, and this dude walks up to me, cursing me out.

I put my camera down and I’m like, “Am I not supposed to be taking pictures here?” He starts yelling in Spanish and I can’t understand him obviously. He looked homeless to me, and I’m saying, “Oh, I’m not supposed to be taking pictures here. I’m sorry.”

He’s just screaming at me and I put the camera away and walk away. But then he’s still going off and I see like 10 more homeless people up against the wall with dogs and stuff. It looked to me like the other 10 people were asking him what he was doing, but they were speaking Spanish, so I don’t know what they were saying.

The guy’s walking toward me and I’m putting my hand out like, “Stay back.” I walk backwards and start to turn around, but then, in the corner of my eye, I see him reach back to throw something. I kinda ducked and all these coins hit me.

He threw a bunch of coins at me.

At this point, I wanted to just go at it. This dude just hit me all over my back with coins, and he’s still screaming at me. But I told him, “Listen, you had better stay back.”

How do you know if somebody can tell you a good story? Well, when you read it or hear it, you totally can picture it, and I really just can picture everything that happened, but I do wish Tyson or somebody else would have taped that!

To read Tyson’s story about his Euro trip in full, click here. Make sure you read the first comment – Hilarious!

Francesco Cappelletti does not need an introduction anymore. Francesco works for Montepaschi Siena and has written many great articles for us, such as things about Brandon Jennings and league previews for Italy, Spain, Greece and Russia. This time, Francesco gives us his insight on “his” team – Montepaschi Siena.

Overall record prediction: 8-2

For a team had never faced the Euroleague until 2002, three Final Four appearances (Barcelona 2003, Tel-Aviv 2004, Madrid 2008) is a laudable result. But this is not the final stop because, in the words of last year’s Euroleague Executive of the Year, Ferdinando Minucci, “Siena is raising the bidding,” and is about to take its final step in the race to the Euroleague throne.

Critics say that Montepaschi is not improved its weakest point – small-sized power forwards and centers – but they don’t know how coach Pianigiani, despite a sad bottom ranking in rebounds, loves this type of roster, one not anchored to the paint and with a long backcourt rotation. This is why Siena did not land a player such as Marc Jackson, reaching agreement instead with a top-level in Domercant and the true MVP of 2007/2008 Serie A, Morris Finley. This duo provides Pianigiani of someone more dangerous than Ilievski and Thornton to attack man defenses, and takes some pressure off McIntyre and Kaukenas, two key players who have entered their 30s are coming off back-breaking seasons and serious injury.

However, Montepaschi remains the same at 8 of 10 spots: consistency that could be more relevant than a huge summer renewal, as shown by Olympiacos, Maccabi and CSKA. Even more, several are getting closer to their last chance to win a Euroleague title (McIntyre is 31, Stonerook is 31, Lavrinovic is 29, and Kaukenas is 32): another reason to consider Siena a favorite to win the championship.

If they have learned the lesson provided by Maccabi last year, and if the desire, ambition and – most of all – physical integrity are still the same, Siena can succeed despite the most difficult Italian domestic league field in five years, a certain energy drain for Montepaschi. But ask Minucci what championship he would rather win: No doubt he would answer Euroleague.

Final four participants: Montepaschi, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, CSKA.

Final Four winner: Panathinaikos.

Just as last year we got our man Yarone Arbel from Israel on BallinEurope, presenting us his unique view on Maccabi. If you have been on BallinEurope and even read some stuff Yarone Arbel sent us to publish here, you will be more than happy to read his preview and expectations he has in Maccabi this year. Yarone is well known as one of the best basketball journalists throughout Europe and we are happy to have him on BallinEurope.

Overall record prediction: 6-4

Very few teams in Europe can make it to three big finals in one season and still consider that season as a huge failure. That was the case with the 2008 Maccabi that managed to lose all three finals, the most aching one was a one point loss to newcomers Hapoel Holon in the Final Four of the Israeli league. That was the first time since 1993 and the second since 1969 Maccabi didn’t win that title. It’s still a debate for some which was the “real face” of Maccabi last year – the team that made it to the Euroleague finals and came 20 minutes from the title, or the team that lost more domestic league games than any other Maccabi team in the history and eventually finished a season with no titles.

For some the 2008 Maccabi was the worst team in a Euroleague finals since AEK Athens in 1998 (and those two are probably the worst ever), but that only shows how strong and unbelievable is the tradition of this club. Walking around the Final Four media center in 2007, trying to figure out from the best specialist and journalists what brought Maccabi to the finals resulted in 99% the answer and it had nothing to do with basketball skills or tactics – “It’s Maccabi…” they said and such answer basically says both everything and nothing.

Welcome to the 2009 version. This is a totally new Maccabi team. In so-so-so-so many ways. First, after more than 40 years, Elite is no longer the Maccabi sponsor. Get used to Maccabi Electra. Next, Moni Fanan, the legendary team manager in the past 15 years, is no longer with the team due to disagreements with other forces in the team. If you were ever at a Maccabi game, home or road, you couldn’t miss a short, mostly bold guy, almost always dressed in black that jumps like crazy on the bench and sometimes even on the court. That was Moni, and one of Maccabi’s symbols is now gone. His replacement is former player and Euroleague champ Gur Shelef, who even as a player didn’t jump as high as Moni did on the bench, which says it all about the totally different approach he brings. With that in mind, it’s time for some real basketball discussion.

On the bench you’ll see a new face – Head Coach Effi Birenboim finally got the most prestigious chair in Israeli basketball. Very few know him in Europe, but in Israel he’s very famous and respected, known only by his first name – Effi. He coached everywhere but Maccabi and his teams were over-achievers many times. A veteran coach who is a real basketball animal. Very emotional and active during the games, with his players but also with the refs. Often you will see him jump on the people in orange, sometimes even “asking” for a technical that would hopefully wake up his players. Most times it works. He has a great sense for his players and for the game. The fact he has never coached in such level would probably stand against him in the first games, and expect Maccabi not to be a great road team this year, as the case is usually with “virgin” Euroleague coaches, but if Maccabi’s bosses will have the patience, they could earn a great coach that until this summer was famous most of all for being the strongest opposition to Maccabi’s dominance in the local scene. Oh, one more thing. Effi is also the only Israeli coach ever to beat Ettore Messina, and who cares it was around 15 years ago.

On court it’s what you won’t see that is the big news. For the first time in six years Nikola Vujcic won’t wear Yellow. The most Israeli foreigner in Maccabi’s history had to depart as he became too expensive for a club that isn’t as rich as many people in Europe think. Yotam Halperin is also gone as well as Marcus Fizer (Still not recovered from his injury last season so Maccabi cut him), Will Bynum, Vonteego Cummings, Alex Garcia and David Bluthenthal.

To take their spot arrived seven new players – Dror Hagag got his first chance in Maccabi and will be the back up point guard. Center Yaniv Green came back after one year in the cold Russian team from Samara. The rest are foreigners.

PG Carlos Arroyo, PF Rodney White, C/PF D’or Fischer, SF/SG/PF Jason Williams and SG/SF Tre Simmons. What they have in common? No Euroleague experience at all (if you ignore three games of Arroyo for Tau back in 2002…). How would that effect them is yet to be known, but it doesn’t sound like a good start.

Arroyo signed the biggest contract in Maccabi’s history – around 2.3 million USD, and he’s going to be the main barometer of the team. He’s the boss, the leader, the man that calls the shots, even if it’s an NBA range 3pt shot out-of-nowhere sometimes in his case. As any Puerto Rican, well maybe other than PJ Ramos, he likes to first of all run, and this is going to be the face of Maccabi this year. When Arroyo and Maccabi will execute their running game it will be difficult to stop them and very nice to watch. When not…things will be a little bit more complicated.

Simmons arrives after two great season in Israel. His experience outside the holy land in Paok and Gran Canarias, weren’t of the good type, and so far he struggles in Maccabi as well, and could be cut soon unless he finds the way to score again. Williams played for Effi in Bnei HaSharon the past two years and will take the spot of Garcia – an energetic player that can play in many positions, not the most skilled around but plays tough with big energy.

Rodney White arrives from China after playing already in ACB and LEGA2 where he most of the time showed some of the reasons that made him a 9th pick in the NBA draft, but his adjustment to Maccabi is slow, and don’t be shocked if White will need to find a new team somewhere around November/December. Fischer was the MVP of the league in Belgium as well as the top rebounder and shot blocker. For the Euroleague he’s a decent back up inside player who can hit the jumper and finish around the rim but shows no post up game. As long as he brings the blocks, rebounds and some points Maccabi would be happy with him.

The ones who did survive from last season are Tal Burstein, who after two years of long injuries, finally opens the season with his team-mates. The everlasting Derrick Sharp, who showed in the semi-finals vs. Montepaschi how dangerous he can still be in his age (37 – 13th season in Maccabi), Esteban Batista who doesn’t seem to be on top of Effi’s favorite players but is still a big force in the paint most Euroleague teams would like to have and two local forwards with a dream to be the first Israeli in the NBA – Omri Casspi and Lior Eliyahu. The first showed already last season his potential but only in few games or short stretches of the game. This year he’ll need to show he has some more offensive tools and more consistency to prove he can be more than a very hard nosed energetic and athletic player. Eliyahu spent most of the past season on the bench and would try to use this one to re-establish his spot.

Expect Maccabi to be a strong home team, and so-so on the road. A team that will try to run a lot and will have difficulties on the set game, when needed to think. Maccabi should easily make it to the Top16, and from there it’s all about the draw. Their legacy should make the difference to bring them to the Top8 and nothing more than that.

In the Euroleague there are four “divisions”. The first contains CSKA, Pao and Olympiacos – these giants can’t afford anything less than Final Four, and if they don’t then it’s earthquake time in European Basketball as it was last season with Pao. The following contains teams that really want to be in Berlin but could still show their face in public in case they don’t – All Spanish teams other than Joventut, Montepaschi, Maccabi and Efes. Two of them won’t make it even to the top eight, and that would be something these clubs can’t bare to imagine. Next are the teams that hope to make it to the quarter-finals but dare to dream of Berlin only if nobody is watching – Roma, Milano, Ulker, Partizan, Zalgiris, Cibona, Joventut. The rest will be satisfied with a Top16 spot.

For the second division, where Maccabi lays, it all breaks down to one cloudy noon after the Regular Season – the Top16 draw. If you get two of the three giants in your group and the parallel group, then your chances to make it to Berlin are close to none. The fourth team in Berlin would most likely come from the series which presents the team that topped the giant-free Top16 group. That would probably be the only “open battle” in the quarter-finals. If your team has a chance to play there depends on nothing but the Top16 draw, and that would be the case with Maccabi as well.

Final Four Participants: CSKA Moscow, Panathinaikos Athens, Olympiacos Piraeus, Montepaschi Siena/Efes Pilsen.

Final Four winner: Ballineurope.com (editor’s note: Thanks man!)

written by Yarone Arbel