Official story from FIBA follows.

(FIBA) – Iran will look to make it back to the top in Asian basketball with former Slovenia coach Memi Becirovic.

Champions in 2007 and 2009, the national side came up short in its bid to win a third straight FIBA Asia title last summer when it was upset by Jordan in the quarterfinals. The federation then parted ways with coach Veselin Matic.

Iran, who confirmed the new coaching appointment on their federation website, played at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and at the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

“I accepted the offer of Iran because I found it very interesting,” Becirovic said in remarks on the Slovenian Basketball Federation website.

“I know the team because we played it twice in 2010”: Becirovic coached Slovenia against Iran at the World Championship, a game the European side won in Istanbul, 65-60.

“Asian basketball is being developed with big steps, and Iran has good conditions for training,” he said.

Becirovic is expected to leave for Iran in April.

Most recent departures from the club include coach Zeljko Lukjić, who resigned his position yesterday, and Galatasaray addition Boris Savovic.

The perhaps soon to be renamed Vrsac is currently mired near the bottom of the Adriatic League table, tied for 11th of 14 teams with a record of 5-12 after the disastrous nine-game losing streak leading to Lukjić’s departure.

The news marks quite a blow for a club that has enjoyed some fantastic success since the millennium turned, with a 2004-05 Adriatic League championship and a second place finish in 2007-08; a silver medal in the 2000-01 Korac Cup; three seconds in the Serbian Cup tournament; and five appearances in the Serbian league finals, including back-to-back showings in the past two seasons.

While indicative of the general financial problems affecting professional sports in certain European nations, fans cannot be happy with another step back in what some see as a general devolution of Serbian basketball.

Coming to America

Messina began his career in Italy but then started “to feel uneasy” with his native basketball environment. “Moscow was the place where I felt the best,” he explains. In Russia, we won championships on the road, celebrated on the court with rival fans applauding us. In Italy, this would be inconceivable. In Spain, they are passionate, too, but for sure there is not the acrimony we have in Italy.”

Though, even Spain was tough sometimes to digest: “I wasn’t happy with basketball matters and I felt like a stranger. I was bothered by the fact that when we won, I was Ettore Messina. When we lost, I was ‘the Italian’.”

On the NBA, Messina’s future home: “I am curious and worried. Curious to experience the day-to-day life of the NBA, to coach great players. Worried because I hope I get accepted by others. I hope I’m ready – we’re finally getting started.”

Enrico Cellini is lifelong basketball fanatic and a long-time sportswriter with a focus on Italy and Spain. He was born among European hoops, was raised watching the NBA, and thinks choosing between American and European basketball is like choosing between one’s mother and father. You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Italian-language blog Hoop Addicted.

…which has more than once become stuff like what’s at about 5:10 into this video…

…but PAO coach Zeljko Obradovic is urging some restraint for this particular match.

Obradovic was quoted over at the official EΣAKE website as stating, “Once again, I would ask Panathinaikos [fans] to keep calm and come to the arena to help the team … in a purely sporting atmosphere without problems. This is most important.” We’ll see.

Panathinaikos is currently two points behind their rivals in the EΣAKE standings, though they’re 3-0 in Greek league play thus far. Olympiacos is a perfect 4-0, in perfect contrast to the Reds’ disappointing 2-3 Euroleague performance.

And speaking of Euroleague, Obradovic wants to make clear that the defending champions’ recent shocking 79-76 loss to Brose Baskets Bamberg is irrelevant to tonight’s match: “We know that we’re coming off a defeat in the Euroleague, but the struggles with Bamberg has nothing whatsoever to do with [the] game against Olympiakos. It’s a totally different situation, a completely different match.”

Team Lithuania’s Sarunas Jasikevicius, who knows a few things about wacky (if not quite so aggressive) fandom, added that “These games are amazing. Especially when you’re playing [at home], in your own world.”

Messina: "What am I gonna teach Kobe?"

From Italy, BallinEurope’s Enrico Cellini has quotes from a conference attended by one of the nation’s finest-ever coaching minds, Ettore Messina, and collected a few thoughts from the new Los Angeles Lakers assistant on living in L.A., Kobe Bryant’s transport and going to Disneyland…

After earning a status as one of the most successful coaches of the last 15 years in Europe, Ettore Messina was hired this summer by the Los Angeles Lakers as an assistant coach.

Messina is known for his charismatic and irrepressible attitude on the bench but has also the gift of self-irony outside the court. A few days ago, he spoke about leadership in a conference on sport business and digressed on the first challenges of his new life as a Laker.

“The other day I was on the phone with the Lakers staff, asking advice on where I should get a house,” said Messina. “I was told some people prefer living close to the practice facilities; others, like Kobe, live further away. Sometimes, in order not to challenge the incredible L.A. traffic, Kobe even comes to practice by helicopter.

“At that point I thought: ‘This guy makes $25 million and comes to practice by helicopter – What am I supposed to say to him? “Down with that ass, bend your knees”?’”

Messina has only coached elite teams throughout his career (the Italian national team, Benetton Treviso, Virtus Bologna, CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid); he has won four Euroleague titles plus eight national championships and has coached countless NBA players (including Manu Ginobili, who once said Messina is ready to be a head coach in the NBA). Europe was starting to fit too tightly on him.

Or, as Messina said: “Here [in Europe] I had Mickey Mouse and Goofy. Now, I’m going to Disneyland.”

Enrico Cellini is lifelong basketball fanatic and a long-time sportswriter with a focus on Italy and Spain. He was born among European hoops, raised watching the NBA, and thinks choosing between American and European basketball is like choosing between one’s mother and father. You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Italian-language blog Hoop Addicted.

The English-language version of the Serbia-based Blic online ran a piece on Monday which sought answers under the headline “Basketball stifled by financial troubles and busy calendar.” Writer Tatjana Dragojevic investigated some of the woes she (and others) see as dogging Serbia hoops; today BallinEurope takes a closer look at some points of speculation.

Setting the table for the “gloomy situation none of us are accustomed to when it comes to the sport in which the national teams have achieved top results with almost predictable regularity in the past,” Dragojevic says that “For a second time running captain Nenad Krstic and his teammates will miss out on an appearance at the Olympic Games and the team will now have to go through a qualification process for the 2013 EuroBasket [tournament].”

While the veracity of the statement cannot be debated, a couple of facts might quell the disappointment somewhat. Though Team Serbia managed to earn a spot in the ‘Games in 1996, 2000 and 2004, the pool gunning for Olympic basketball medals is quite an exclusive club: Just 12 sides will be invited to the 2012 London Games tournament … though the possibility of seven of these spots filled by European teams cannot be heartening for Serbia backers.

On the other hand, the list of European nations who also missed the mark for 2008 and 2012 includes Turkey (no. 6 in FIBA’s rankings after the 2010 World Championship and no. 3 in Europe), Italy (no. 7 and no. 4), and Slovenia (no. 17 and no. 9) – not exactly shabby company. Factor in France’s non-placement in 2000 and 2004 and it might be concluded that poor performance in one high-level international tournament or two does not a disaster make.

In fact, history indicates that Serbia fans might not exactly enjoy their team playing in the 2012 Games, as the squad fared worse on each of the three occasions after Barcelona, chasing its silver medal of ’96 with a 6th-place finish in 2000 and a lowly 11th in 2004.

As Dragojevic sees it, “it will be up to the Serbian Basketball Association to tackle the crisis” and “Until that happens, we can only hope for miracles and flashes of brilliance, such as the silver medal at the 2009 EuroBasket and a semifinal [finish] at the World Championships last year.” Sheesh, top-four finishes at two major international tourneys in a row is cause for panic? Plus, if you want to talk miracles, Serbia was on the wrong end of one in 2010; would the feeling be different in Serbia now had the team taken the silver in Turkey? More importantly, would the team have performed better in EuroBasket ’11?

In “Basketball stifled,” Red Star Belgrade head coach Svetislav Pesic calls for “formation of a strong Serbian league” in which “winning the domestic league is the top priority for players.” Well, he’ll get no argument from BiE here: Serbia’s top-heavy association suffers from the same ennui that is bothersome (at least to outside observers) for a disturbingly high number of European leagues, i.e. Italy, Israel, Turkey, Lithuania, Greece, and Russia to a great extent. When one or two clubs dominate, the remaining “competitors” in the given domestic league either not-so-subtly (and in Lithuania, not subtly at all) become a breeding ground for the top teams or are simply out-budgeted.

Yet, take a look at Team Serbia’s roster for EuroBasket 2011: Though technically they brought no NBA players to the tournament – unless one includes Nenad Krstic, officially with CSKA Moscow for the 2011-12 season before August – this twelve was stocked with 10 Euroleague players: Krstic, Nemanja Bjelica, Marko Keselj, Milan Macvan, Boban Marjanovic, Kosta Perovic, Aleksander Rasic, Dusko Savanovic, Milos Teodosic and Milenko Tepic. If the national federation is going to look outside Serbian clubs for ballers, why wouldn’t a youngster take the money and run in the meanwhile? Perhaps it’s more a question of money rather than motivation … no, not perhaps. Definitely.

KK Hemofarm coach Zeljko Lukajic meanwhile sees something of a paradoxical problem in scheduling. While “Hemofarm take part in all of the three domestic competitions every season and play in Europe,” says Lukajic, “what is alarming is that some teams finish their seasons as early as March. That means that for three or four months they don’t have any tough competitive games, eventually don’t develop well enough and are simply not ready for a step forward in their careers.”

Unfortunately for them, the strange Serbian schedule is imbalanced toward competitors like Hemofarm. “We reached the final stages in three domestic competitions and in Europe last season. Together with training matches we played over 80 games,” explained Lukajic. “With the calendar and schedules that tight and with games played at that pace, you lose track of the work with young talent.”

In the near-final assessment, BiE would point out that perhaps Serbia is merely facing a bit of a nadir due to inexperience: After all, the oldest player on the team going into EuroBasket was Krstic at just-28 years old. How many national teams in Europe would enjoy having under-24s like Teodosic, Tepic, Keselj and Bjelica or their squads, reckoning they’d be around for six or seven more years (and two more FIBA World Championships)? Most, BiE thinks.

However, all of this is for naught, too, if Lukajic’s informal assessment of the state of his country’s playground ball is correct: “Some former basketball centres like Subotica, Nis, Cacak and Kraljevo are faltering and basketball is not played as it used to be. You can’t see as many kids playing basketball in the street.”

Not being familiar with local Serbian ball, BiE won’t comment on this specific; any Serbian readers care to enlighten us on the true of this statement? And how about that bigger question: Is Serbian basketball suffering from terminal illness or just a bit sluggish for the time being? We may have to wait for the 2012 squad to be assembled to find out…

Suren Musayelyan of Armenia Now contributes to BallinEurope the story of Carl Bardakian, perhaps the key figure in the basketball sphere of the ‘Games; as a player, the Los Angeles native took tournament titles in 1999 and 2001, while in this game the former Cleveland State University assistant coached his L.A. side to the top of the 24-team field.

Los Angeles was led by Azusa Pacific University alum Mike Danielian, who was particularly brilliant in the final match with 49 points in Bardakian’s team’s victory over Russian side Sochi.

(Armenia Now) – Carl Bardakian of Los Angeles won Pan-Armenian Games twice with the Valley team in 1999 and 2001. Now, the former NCAA Division I assistant basketball coach has returned to Armenia a decade later to win the trophy with the Diaspora team as a coach.

Basketball was one of the 10 sports in which Armenian athletes from around the world competed at the Fifth Pan-Armenian Games in Yerevan on August 13-21. The events brought together more than 3,200 athletes from over 100 cities worldwide, including Los Angeles, home to North America’s largest Armenian Diaspora community. And the basketball tournament, especially its final game featuring Bardakian’s men’s team against rivals from Russia’s Sochi, which defeated Glendale in the semifinals, was the jewel in the Games’ crown, according to many observers.

In a highly contested championship game televised via satellite live to Armenia and the Diaspora, in the presence of hundreds of spectators at Yerevan’s Mika Gym, including Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, Los Angeles defeated Sochi 93-86 in overtime to prevail in the competition of two dozen teams representing Armenia, Karabakh, Russia, Australia, Austria, Canada, Syria, Egypt, Georgia, Turkey, Argentina, France, Lebanon, Iran and the United States.

Bardakian, a United States representative to the Basketball Federation of Armenia, says he had some great moments returning to Armenia as a coach. “Without a doubt, the Fifth Pan-Armenian Games were the most meticulously organized, from the breathtaking opening ceremonies to the detail that went into seeding the top teams in the brackets,” he told ArmeniaNow after returning to his Los Angeles home.

Bardakian, 40, says the night before the championship game he told his team that they had a special opportunity to be acknowledged by Sargsyan. “I had been in this situation 10 years earlier as a player when president Robert Kocharyan attended our championship game, again against Sochi. I was able to relive a great experience, only this time as a coach with a great group of Armenian basketball players.”

The coach singled out the performance of L.A. team captain Mike Danielian, who scored more than half his team’s points (49) in the final game, and as a dual citizen of the ‘States and America is seeking a professional contract in Europe or elsewhere.

“Danielian was completely dedicated and focused on our team winning a championship in Armenia,” said Bardakian. “I am glad his relatives in Armenia were on hand to witness his spectacular 49-point performance in the finals. Danielian has earned his place in Pan-Armenian Games basketball history. I strongly believe Mike can play professionally in Europe. All he needs is an opportunity.”

Other members of the gold medal winning team included Artin Adjamian, Aret Akbork, Vahram Amayakyan, Zack Armen, Ara Demirjian, Kevork Demirjian, Eric Halejian, Andrei Taniel Oztemel and Ara Vartanian.
Glendale College assistant basketball coach Zorik Isajane and New York-New Jersey Armenian Churches Sports Association basketball representative Levon Altiparmakian served as assistant coaches.

While taking pride in winning the tournament, the winners also acknowledged the strong competition they faced in Yerevan. Zack Armen, a 26-year-old associate at Goldman Sachs Bank in the States, says that playing seven games within eight days was physically grueling and that none of the games were “total cakewalks.”

The basketball player, who had also participated in two previous Pan-Armenian Games, says having quite a few of the key players who had been in Armenia before played a huge role in the team’s ultimate success. “The opening ceremony was such a grand and epic scene. I’ll never forget walking through the stadium and seeing the lights and cameras and thousands of people waving,” said Armen, “And the championship game felt as though a nation of people was watching. It had a power and energy to it that was certainly more palpable this year.”

Unlike his teammate, Oztemel was visiting his ancestors’ land for the first time. The 20-year-old Business Finance major at Ithaca College stated that “The sense of cultural pride was amazing and getting to see your family’s history and where they came from is something I think everyone should try and experience at some point. I’m fortunate enough to have met and played with a great group of guys and proceeded to win a championship gold medal in my first Pan-Armenian Games. This was definitely an experience I will never forget.”

Spain, France and possibly Russia (depending on how one feels about Georgia) have faced grievously overmatched competition in the first three games. The timetable has been particularly favorable to the defending champions, who drew a first three of Poland, playing without their only bona fide superstars in Marcin Gortat and Maciej Lampe; Portugal, the last team to qualify for the tournament; and still-developing Great Britain, who some have rather undiplomatically remarked belongs in FIBA Europe’s B Division. Forced to play on three consecutive days, the world no. 2 team couldn’t have asked for more favorability.

Conspiracy? Well, maybe, but according to Spain head coach Sergio Scariolo, the specific competition in pool play may be irrelevant. Speaking after the team’s practice last night, Scariolo, upon asked if his side was playing at 100% explained that, “It’s very difficult to [put a number on it]. Our plan is not to play 100% in the qualification round. Our goal is to play 100% in quarterfinals.”

With no serious lapses suffered to this point, Spain has looked quite good through three, but Scariolo insists that his team is merely “getting better step by step.”

Is this a Jacksonian head game? Perhaps, though Scariolo did apply a bit of modesty as well, stating that tonight’s opponent Lithuania – really the first true test for this edition of Team Spain – is “athletic, organized, very good at every position, [and] are playing with extra energy.”

The coach went on to say that “We are all well aware of the toughness of the tomorrow game. No question we will be playing one of the best teams here and even more that they are always supported by fantastic crowd.”

“We have to be extremely, extremely good tomorrow,” said Scariolo.

With Team Lithuania head coach Kestutis Kemzura and BiE fave Martynas “Air” Pocius before the assembled media, a journalist on his first stay in this hoops-mad land went for the deep query: “Why is this country so passionate about basketball?”

Pocius answered first, “I think it comes down to just one word: Tradition.” The 25-year-old’s historical perspective on the matter goes back to 1991, when the then-newly independent country reassembled its own team, famously assisted by the Grateful Dead, guided by Sarunas Marciulionis and Arvydas Sabonis; the most visible reminder of these days is still apparent in the red, yellow and green tie-dyed gear the team still sports at public events and medal ceremonies.

Kemzura wished to correct his player a wee bit, musing that actually this tradition goes back far further, perhaps to 1935 or ’37. (“I wasn’t born then,” joked Pocius; “Neither was I,” retorted the coach, who is currently 41.) And in fact, in 1937, Lithuania won the second-ever European championship tournament now known as EuroBasket.

Basketball “is really close to our mentality,” philosophized Kemzura. “At one time, it was political – and you know what I mean. It was a chance to say to everyone, ‘We are small, but we are big.’”

And today, there’s nothing bigger on this planet than a Lithuanian’s love for this game…

Stories of Messina perhaps landing work in the Lakers organization first began two weeks ago. Eric Pincus over at website HoopsWorld appears to have broken the story, citing as reference the Italian-language RivistaNBA’s Zeno Pisani in writing that Messina has signed a full-time deal to “help Brown in a similar capacity that Tex Winter served former Laker Coach Phil Jackson.”

Four-time Euroleague champion Messina, who left Real Madrid in March of this year, has been linked to positions with the Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs.