BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Hosting dignitaries and politicos from Italy this week, U.S. president/basketball devotee Barack Obama recently gave an interview to the visiting media as well, naturally taking time to praise Italia’s representatives in the NBA. As self-proclaimed scholar of basketball diplomacy – perhaps the only one on the planet – Enrico Cellini has noticed that Obama’s effusive acclaim for Danilo Gallinari and Marco Belinelli is in fact quite similar to the prez’s gushy quotes on Hedo Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur back in 2009…

In a rare interview between an American president and an Italian newspaper, Barack Obama went through a wide variety of topics ranging from the state of the current Euro Crisis, through the turmoil in Syria to the importance of Italian-Americans in US society: “Italy can be proud that its sons and daughters continue to make invaluable contributions to the success of the United States and to our bilateral partnership”.

Of course, Obama didn’t miss the chance to deploy his trademark basketball diplomacy and dropped the following grand finale for the interview: “Of course, I have to add that guys like Danillo Gallinari and Marco Belinelli bring some pretty good game to the NBA, too.”

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Despite receiving a nomination for the 2011 Big East first team in his senior year, former Georgetown Hoyas guard Austin Freeman went undrafted by the NBA and so flew overseas to play for Libertas Fulgor Forli’, a team based in a small North Italian city and playing in the second-division Legadue. Enrico Cellini met with Freeman at the gym after a recent practice session to chat with him about his new life on and off the court.

General managers of European powerhouses tend to distrust American players out of university, as their teams cannot afford to await the player’s adaptation to a system that’s all about team execution. This is why even young talented players with prestigious college résumés may have to start professionally in the provinces of Europe.

A big Carmelo Anthony fan, former Hoya Austin Freeman is a powerful 6’3” (190.5 cm) guard with a wide shooting range: “I think I’m more like a Joe Johnson type of player, but I like watching many players and try to take a little something out of them.” Last season, his senior year as a Hoya, Freeman scored 17.6 points per game and joined Kemba Walker in the backcourt of the All Big East First Team.

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Surely to no one’s surprise, Gazzetta dello Sport gave its prestigious Euroscar Player of the Year Award to Dirk Nowitzki, he of the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks. Clearly the favorite to take FIBA Europe’s equivalent award, the Mav was bestowed with the honor on the same night he collected his bling-bling title ring in Dallas.

Enrico Cellini has gathered a few choice quotes from la Gazzetta’s interview with Nowitzki, including the German’s thoughts on his favorite Italian player, meeting Angela Merkel and topping Arvydas Sabonis.

On January 27, Dirk Nowitzki did not play for the Mavericks against the Minnesota Timberwolves but still brought home two interesting souvenirs from American Air Center. As you are reading BallinEurope, you don’t probably care too much about the diamond-encrusted $40K NBA championship ring (courtesy of Mark Cuban) that Dirk received in a touching ceremony (courtesy of Rick Carlisle), do you? Instead, what’s worth reporting about that night is the fact that Wunder Dirk also received the Europlayer 2011 award, an acknowledgement assigned by Italian Gazzetta dello Sport to the best European basketball player of the season.

You may see the ceremony here.

All right, so it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the ring ceremony but still …

Gazzetta dello Sport later published in its printed version an interview with Nowitzki, in which Würzburg’s finest touched on several topics.

Said Dirk on the loss in the 2005-06 NBA Finals to the Miami Heat: “That experience actually helped me – it made me improve: Now I handle the fourth quarter with more intelligence.”

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BallinEurope’s Enrico Cellini gives us some excellent highlights from a recent interview between his countryman Danilo Gallinari of the Denver Nuggets and Italy-based daily Gazzetta dello Sport. Gallinari is nicely candid in the piece on topics ranging from the comparison of the ladies in Milan, New York and Denver to el jefe himself, NBA commissioner David Stern. Read on for some Danilo, translated but uncensored…

In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Danilo Gallinari goes through his lifestyle in Denver: “I want to live downtown – I’m looking for a house.” Regarding food, a crucial issue for every Italian abroad, he says, “I have been doing some ‘scouting’: I found a couple of pretty good restaurants. One is downtown and is managed by an Italian guy. The other one is in Cherry Creek, a neighborhood full of shops and fun places. It’s the closest thing you can get to Corso Como,” recalling a commercial street in the center of Milan, very close to where he was living during his term with Euroleague club Emporio Armani Milano.

The comparison with the more glamorous Milan and New York to Denver comes inevitably. “Yeah, I’m feeling the difference,” says Gallinari. “We are in the provinces here. I need to get used to it. They send you to bed earlier – which is positive – and there is less temptation. Women are less aggressive, you might need to fall in love,” he jokes.

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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.”

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Kind enough to give BallinEurope a nice extensive interview is Cameron Rundles, currently plying his trade with the Leicester Raiders in his rookie season as a professional. Rundles made a name for himself ‘Stateside in his junior and senior years at Wofford College in taking the NCAA’s Southern Conference and earning NCAA tournament bids in consecutive years. (And he was even once a Mighty Unicorn!)

Rundles chatted with BallinEurope’s British basketball specialist Sam Chadwick about his love for football, playing in the NCAA tournament, and the importance of Andrew Sullivan, among other topics. And judging by Rundles’ apparent enthusiasm within his responses, he can’t help but get noticed along the way to playing pro hoops “in as many countries as I can.” This guy knows how to bring the exclamation points.

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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.

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The ACB official website (and just about every other Spanish-language outlet for sports news) offers a lengthy piece on Pau Gasol, based on interviews with French newspaper L’Equipe.

Highlighted in the Spanish league reportage is Pau’s line to the effect that “I prefer the European game in the NBA because basketball is a team sport and is more beautiful to watch when players pass the ball or when ball movement creates shots.”

(Gods know what language this interview took place in, so bear in mind that this quote is probably emerging by way of English to French to Spanish and back to English; however, surely the sentiment survives through this mutant translation.)

Gasol also seemingly put to rest any notions of his playing for FC Barcelona this season, stating that he’s only training with the club and that it wouldn’t be “fair” were he activated only to have to return to America for the NBA season. With his addition to the team, Gasol reckons that “the Barça game would change. In the end, my starting the season with the team would penalize them.”

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No matter how you feel about Dirk Nowitzki’s place in NBA history vis-à-vis “Top 10” lists and whatnot, yesterday’s interview in Der Spiegel will certainly put him among the all-time greats in terms of humility.

In the interview, which touches on subjects including Barack Obama, race relations in the NBA, and the upcoming 2011 Eurobasket tournament, Nowitzki deflects compliments about his outstanding play in the championship series against the Miami Heat with “I don’t think that I played all that exceptionally in the finals. If we hadn’t played so well together as a team, it would have been disastrous.”

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Back in the day (L to R: You Know Who, Daniel Gibson)

In this week’s edition of the talkfest, recent co-host and Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson takes a few questions about new Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Brown, Russell Westbrook, and certain undiplomatic quotes to the media by James. How does Gibson feel about grammatically shaky stuff like “I wanted to team up with some guys that would never die down in the moment”? Hell, how would you?

The entire podcast may be downloaded here. And, in the interests of equal time, below the break runs the official NBA clip of Miami’s 92-84 victory over Dallas in which Lebron, admittedly, killed.

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