Ball in Europe, the European Basketball Blog

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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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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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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Darko Milicic started an NBA game for the first time since 2008 against the Dallas Mavericks last night, but to no avail. The suddenly much-played Darko was in foul trouble early in the 112-109 loss and therefore only played 14 minutes, going three-of-three on shooting and adding two rebounds.

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Rubio-ooooooooooooooo!

“Teams survive on TV money, season-ticket revenue and luxury suites. They don’t care about the upper decks. They care about getting fat checks in March and April for the following season, then banking that money for a few months and collecting interest on it. They care about getting us to pay for a spring’s worth of playoff tickets up front even though our team might survive only eight days in the postseason. And if they stink, they care about only one thing: creating an illusion of regret.” – Bill “The Sports Guy” Simmons

The statement sounded good, with the general manager apparently committed to landing his hard-to-sign first-round draft pick and thereby soon bring relief to fans of a franchise essentially troubled since its inception.

And then you realize it’s David Kahn talking about signing Ricky Rubio. David Kahn of the long-suffering Minnesota Timberwolves. And you start thinking about what ESPN columnist Simmons so succinctly summarized as the “illusion of regret.”

“The illusion of regret is crucial. It’s the single most important dynamic in the NBA right now. It drives every lottery drawing, every trade deadline and every free-agency period.”

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“Best of the (Basketball) Net” is one day late this week, but that extra 24 hours or so will surely make all the difference in terms of quality. For some most interesting recently-posted basketball-related stuff from the interweb, read on to check out excerpts from a classic of basketball literature, see highlights from a big ACB upset, discover Dirk Nowitzki’s secret weapon, and to witness the first-ever truly 21st-century dunks. Enjoy!

• Anybody who remembers the seminal book Heaven is a Playground will definitely want to check out this interview with Rick Telander conducted by the amazingly-named Bethlehem Shoals. For those of you not-in-the-know, be sure to check out the extended excerpts from the book which ran at Slam online in October 2008 and precipitated the book’s recent new edition out of University of Nebraska Press; and you can click here for the book’s official site.

Incidentally, the book was also morphed into a, um, not-so-great film starring D.B. Sweeney in the Telander role and featuring ballers Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon (no, really) and former NBAer/Hank Gathers teammate Bo Kimble.

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Just a quick note on former Cleveland Cavalier/sitting-in-limbo Zydrunas Ilgauskas from the big network. ESPN reported last night that, despite interest from the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks in Z, the big man plans and expects to re-sign with the Cavs.

Ilgauskas must wait until March 22, due to a NBA-mandated 30-day wait period required of released players seeking to re-sign with their former club.

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Face of Britain to be Cavalier next year?

With 22 NBA teams going at it last night across the ‘States, the official website has a serious compendium of clips collected this morning. Several favorites from The Continent are featured and BiE has compiled this run of videos with which you can kill a good ten minutes of your morning this morning, easily.

• Below is Hakim Warrick on the peripheral-vision bounce pass to Luol Deng, he of the much-anticipated Team Great Britain.

There’s more and more murmuring about Lebron-to-Chicago during the upcoming free agency period these days, it seems, and two key questions arise for BiE in conjunction with such rumors: 1. How much is Deng praying he doesn’t end up with the Cleveland Shell-Of-The-Former-Cavaliers on the wrong end of a sign-and-trade? 2. Can King James and prospective teammate Yannick Noah find a way to, you know, just get along?

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