BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

BallinEurope’s man in Italy, Enrico Cellini, contributes quite a bizarre story out of league basketball there. (To think that Cibona Zagreb fans merely created an interesting image in protest of their team’s poor play.) The headline gives away the punchline so BiE won’t forestall this tale’s telling further … um, enjoy.

On January 2, Scavolini Siviglia Pesaro (then 6-6 in Italy) was supposed to be fully focused on preparing for the toughest match of the season, i.e. the Serie A game against almighty juggernaut and five-time repeat champions Montepaschi Siena. Nobody could have ever expected that the greatest challenge for the team would come from outside the court.

On the morning of the game, Pesaro officials informed media that head of a pig had been left in front of Scavolini Pesaro basketball operations offices by an indignant anonymous fan or group of fans (or rather, more appropriately, “fanatic” or “fanatics”).

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Though Team FYR Macedonia eliminated hosts Lithuania from the 2011 EuroBasket tournament in mid-September, a certain amount of talk-trashing about the match continues in the blogosphere.

Yesterday, FIBA was forced to do a bizarre bit of damage control after Lithuanian media – specifically, who else but powerhouse club sponsor Lietuvos Rytas? – reported that two players competing in EuroBasket had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs; the piece quoted representatives from the Lithuanian Anti-Doping Agency stated abnormalities had been found and that further testing would have to be done by FIBA on the samples of the two players.

FIBA Europe was quick to deny any such claims, however, soon releasing the following tersely-worded statement on the subject:

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In a ceremony to mark the opening of the 2011-12 professional basketball season in Greece, Olympiacos GM Christos Stavropoulos rather bit the hand that feeds him a bit in making some rather harsh allegations – okay, implications – about official favoritism given his club’s chief rivals Panathinaikos.

“These days, our country is passing through difficult times, but basketball could be an exception. We can all offer a nice show and decent product to our fans,” stated Stavropoulos, adding the proviso that such can only be accomplished “if the rules are applied to all.”

Without actually naming the target of his allegations, Stavropoulos publicly mused, “I wonder how an entire year passes [for a team] without a league drug test. I wonder how they spent an entire season without the decisions of sports bodies announced. And I hope this year is different.”

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If Besiktas Cola Turka ends up running with the only NBA players on their squad for 2010-11 as Deron Williams and Zaza Pachulia in the wake of the NBA lockout, their fans can blame soccer.

Turkey-based NTV Spor, the sports news outlet which first broke the story of Besiktas’ contract offer to Williams, is today reporting that the signing of Bryant by the Eurocup club will be put on hold thanks to a scandal in the country’s football league. ESPN Los Angeles reports today that the match-fixing scandal will force Besiktas to look elsewhere for funding any new big-deal contracts due to penalties to be assessed to the club, one of a few cited in the case.

In speaking to reporters, after a meeting with UEFA officials, Turkey Football Federation deputy chairman Arıboğan Lutfi said that the possible punishment for the Besiktas sports club would be decided upon soon.

Bryant was reportedly offered a whopping $500,000 per month to play for Allen Iverson’s former team, and the Mamba in turn was asking for an even more whopping $1 million for his services.

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While NBA franchise owners are crying poverty (reportedly, some 20 of 30 clubs are losing money), at least the players get paid. And while speculation on which NBAers will play in Europe during a 2010-11 full-season lockout continues – Whoever thought a Sonny Weems-to-Žalgiris deal would be so compelling? – we can now assume that few of the big league’s players will be coming to Greece.

To kick off the week, the Greek players’ union PSAK formally announced what has been rumored through this season and in seasons past: Namely, that most EΣAKE clubs are delinquent in payment.

In a stark post on the union’s official website Monday, PSAK representatives showed the results of “an investigation conducted by members of our association.” The numbers are indeed staggering.

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Just a couple of weeks ago, as Olympiacos polished off Aris in the EƩAKE semifinals with a couple of convincing wins to bring the Reds’ record against Greek sides to 36-0 in 2010-11, some observers were calling out for the brooms. After Sunday night’s play, cries of “sweep!” surely rang out across Hellas – but it’s the seven-time defending champion Greens who are positioning themselves to win in straight games.

Looking at the larger picture, however, a third win (and subsequent 3-0 series win for the 8th consecutive title) by PAO on Wednesday could be quite the Pyrrhic victory for PAO and the league.

While Mike Batiste (19 points, four rebounds), Dimitris Diamantidis (15 points) and Antonis Fotsis (eight rebounds) all had fine games for Panathinaikos, many observers – including key Olympiacos/Team Greece members – all chalk up the loss to those extra men on the court, i.e. the referees. Amid the boxscore statistics, most damning is that 31-9 line, as in Panathinaikos got 22 more trips to the free-throw line than Olympiacos.

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More details have been released about Allen Iverson’s recent conflict with Atlanta police and the subsequent impounding of his Lamborghini last week – or, according to the man himself, one of his 11 or so Lamborghinis.

The Associated Press is today running a story in which law enforcement officials describe Iverson as “angry” to “irate” when pulled over by police on March 30, repeatedly asking “Do you know who I am?” in the midst of an estimated 20-minute rant (imagine that).

Reportedly, Iverson later apologized to the police officers for his disrepect and stated that he was just upset about the state of his club Beşiktaş Cola Turka, currently fighting for a TBL playoff spot.

Nah, BiE’s just kidding about that last bit. A.I. actually “stated he was just upset about his car.”

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Hmmm, it doesn’t appear as though Allen Iverson is any closer to Turkey … and in fact this morning is one Lamborghini short of his complete set.

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Thanks to an injury suffered by Antonio Graves, Turkish side Banvit had been left with a hole in the depth chart at the no. 2 spot plus a free “foreign-born player” spot on the roster – an unfortunate situation for the team, but ultimately a serendipitous chance for Juan Dixon to return to professional basketball in a comeback bid.

Dixon came to European basketball in 2009 after stints with the Washington Wizards, Portland Trail Blazers, Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons. Dixon was with Aris for Eurocup play in 2009-10, where he went for a line of 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 27.1 minutes per game in the European competition; he signed with Unicaja Malaga in January 2010 and was expected to finish out the season with the ACB club.

The former University of Maryland Terp wouldn’t last long with Unicaja, however, as Dixon tested positive for a banned steroid in early February and was thereafter suspended from professional basketball indefinitely.

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By the time the home side left the floor, the teams resembled members of a schoolyard “Shirts vs. Skins” game, but very little playground bonhomie was evidenced in the aftermath of Sunday’s Iraklis BC-PAOK match in Greece.

PAOK (8-7, tied for fourth place in EƩAKE play) manhandled the homers (3-12, tied for 14th) in the match, 87-68, resulting in a bizarre move of protest demanded by Iraklis coach Georgios Kalafatakis. Gathering the team together at halfcourt, he had his players remove their jerseys and leave them on the floor. The team president stunningly later apologized for his team’s (lack of effort), reportedly referring to their game as “queer” – and not in the sense of “strange.”

(The key word in Greek is “αδερφίστικο,” which defies Google translation, but judging from the backlash, BiE will take the media’s word for it.)

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