Ball in Europe – European Basketball Blog

It’s official: 18-year-old American phenom Jeremy Tyler has washed out with Israeli club Maccabi Haifa but will stay in Europe next season to further his career and heighten his currently well-low standing on 2011 NBA Draft boards.

Tyler, as you may recall (funny how the early hype machine mysteriously went really silent for a long time there), was the prospective senior-year high school student in San Diego forewent his final year of schooling to pay professional ball in Europe. With some assistance from Sonny Vaccaro, he who helped orchestrate Brandon Jennings’ stint with Lottomatica Roma, Tyler managed to score a one-year, $140,000 deal from BSL team Maccabi Haifa.

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With the NCAA basketball tournament field of 65 now set, Lithuania-based Basket News is taking pride today in a trio of countrymen participating in the tourney. Representing the yellow, green and red in March Madness will be:

• Deividas Dulkys, Florida State University. The sophomore formerly of Findlay College Prep managed 8.5 points and 2.4 boards per game while shooting with 39.4% success beyond the arc coming off the bench.

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It’s not that BallinEurope is obsessed with both Bill Simmons and Rubio-to-Minnesota, but … all right, i am obsessed with both Bill Simmons and Rubio-to-Minnesota. Still, when BiE finally got around to reading this week’s patented “Mailbag” column only to see no. 1 best-selling author The Sports Guy take an incorrect swipe at the poster boy for European basketball’s future on the international stage, well, BiE had to come to the defense of Rubio, especially since the sparring partner in this debate will never actually see this column, heh heh.

The topic was, as stated, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ future. A frustrated fan sought empathy from Simmons in a pleading email that dissected a bit of the infamous 50% season-ticket discount the Wolves are pitching which BiE had a look at last week.

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The WNBA’s Atlanta Dream yesterday announced they’d acquired the rights to BallinEurope fave Team Hungary/MiZo Pécs guard Dalma Iványi from the San Antonio Silver Stars for center Michelle Snow.

Iványi is currently good for a line of 11.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game in the Hungarian league; in 13 games’ worth of Euroleague Women play, she was good for 7.6 ppg and a sliver under 7.5 rpg. Iványi really crashed the sports headlines last week when she went for a triple-double of 24/11/10 against EL final four team Wisla Can-Pack.

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A few in-house items to announce to readers this morning:

• First, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Yes, there will be prizes for the winners of the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge. An honorary gold medal today – no, that’s *not* the prize; i haven’t decided what the prize is yet – goes to Radallo. Radallo’s BAZ_&_MEZ outdid Meet The Boss’ well-publicized risk-taking lineup in the last week by a score of 173.2-150.8 and thus widened his lead atop the table.

"Basketball" by John Robertson

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It wasn’t the Academy Awards, but the supporting cast sure sounds similar: Folks like Kevin Spacey, Hugh Grant, Gwyneth Paltrow, Clive Owen, Kyle MacLachlan and the distinctly un-blue Michelle Rodriguez. However, the beautiful people from Hollywood and London had in fact come together to acknowledge some of the sporting world’s greats.

The occasion in Abu Dhabi last evening was the presentation of the Laureus Awards, at which former NBA great Dikembe Mutombo bagged a prestigious Laureus Award in the special “Sport for Good” category. Mutombo won the prize in recognition of his charitable work in his native country Congo.

What? You’ve never heard of the Laureus Awards? Well, as it turns out, Laureus is a philanthropic organization made up of the Laureus World Sports Academy, the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and the Laureus World Sports Awards; its mission statement promises to “promote the use of sport as a tool for social change and celebrate sporting excellence.”

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Now that NBA mock drafting is in full swing (despite the total lack of clarity regarding playoff positioning, not to mention seeing how the damn lottery ping-pong balls fall this year), BallinEurope’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick, will be taking a look at some of Europe’s prospective high draft picks. Today, it’s all about big man Donatas Motiejunas.

Vital stats
Position: Centre/Power Forward
Height: 7’0”/2.13m
Weight: 224 lbs/101 kg
Date of birth: 09/20/1990
Current Club: Benetton Treviso

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Smith loaded -- in the metaphorical sense

Anyone worried about former Tennessee Volunteer forward Tyler Smith’s viability in the upcoming NBA draft and/or his ability to play basketball after dealing with an arrest, court case, and dismissal from his college team within five weeks of early 2010 can put their worries at ease: Smith is back and just as good as ever.

After getting bounced from Tennessee’s hallowed halls, Smith signed a quickie two-month contract with Bornova Belediye, filling in for the injured Kendrick Brown. All he did in his first game for Bornova was go 5-of-5 on two-pointers plus a couple of threes for a team second-high 17 points. Talk about your immediate gratification.

Unfortunately, the outcome was none too gratifying for Smith and Bornova, who were crushed in the Saturday match by Eurocup contender Türk Telecom, 104-79. TT boasted a headline-grabbing American newcomer of its own in freed Los Angeles Clipper Ricky Davis, who managed a line of eight points, six assists and five boards.

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Another Jordan Brand Classic Camp is in the books, wrapping in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday. The camp saw 40 European players dueling on the court (and, in a serious sign of our times, apparently also in media relations) over eight days – including an all-day “presser” – in order to gain an invite to the prestigious Jordan Brand Classic game in New York.

A total of 10 invites were handed out to the under-17s at the camp, and Nike officials have announced that the European representatives in the Jordan Brand Classic game will be Tayfun Erulku (Efes Pilsen) and Talat Altunbey of Turkey; Serbians/FMP Belgrade players Vasilije Micic and Nikola Jankovic; Frenchmen/INSEP players Charly Maraux and Alexandre Chassang; Marius Grigonis (Sabonis Basketball School, Lithuania); Francesco Candussi (Isontina, Italy); Kyprianos Maragkos (Panathinaikos, Greece); and Malik Mueller (Urspringschule, Germany).

Six other international players will be selected to fill out rosters for the “International Game” as part of the third international ‘Classic.

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The latest chapter in the Ilgauskas-back-to-Cleveland is a short one, best summarized in a single emphatic line from agent Herb Rudoy and run in Associated Press stories: “It is Zydrunas’ desire to return to the Cavaliers if a suitable contract can be agreed upon.”

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