Ah, well, then. At present, Prokhorov is in Russia in an effort to win votes for his liberal, pro-business Right Cause party with few delusions of actually, you know, becoming Russian president; the Washington Post states that “his main goal at the moment is to force a second round, by keeping Putin under 50 percent and emerging as the second-place finisher.”

Right Cause currently holds no seats in the Duma after earning about 2.14% of the vote in 2008 elections, and The ‘Post reported last week that Gennady Zyuganov and his Communist (!) party are running second and “Opinion polls put Prokhorov, the 46-year-old owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, at the bottom of the list of contenders with support of around 4 percent.”

So let’s assume Prokhorov will be sticking around in his American office for some time to come, then. BiE will now leave it up to Nets fans to decide whether that’s positive or not; the big guy himself appears to believe that everything is “going according to plan” with their team.

In the third quarter, Tyreke Evans lost the handle, and La Pistola swooped in on the errant ball to lead the fast break for the ‘Wolves. And then, the pass. While in motion, between the legs to another BallinEurope NBA favorite, Nikola Pekovic, for the slam as Evans can only watch.

Ah, Ricky Rubio, you’ve done it yet again…

Below runs a clip of the record-breaker itself, a feed to who else but Tim Duncan; a full run of game highlights may be seen here.

But hey, don’t stop at the brief text description. See below the break for a compilation of all 10 swats, and repeat after BiE: “Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-block-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Scene from 2008

Nevertheless, just as certain is the fact that entering the American media environment is the communication equivalent of diving into a tub of alligators. A common fear is of speaking in public? Imagine doing it in another language. Spontaneously. Scrutinized, analyzed and tittered about by tens of millions of rabid fans milliseconds after a tough loss. And all of it done under the glare of those tens of millions’ high expectations – which, essentially, every European basketballer in the NBA faces.

(Yes, BallinEurope knows that some readers must do this kinda stuff all the time – particularly those first two bits. But still. It does boggle this expatriate American’s mind, even after 15 years on The Continent.)

So guess what: The Human YouTube Highlight Clip has produced another moment for the virtual archives, showing good game in the intensely difficult off-court field of trash-talking – against no less an opponent than Kobe Bryant, a pretty fair verbal wrangler himself.

While Kobe has peppered swipes regarding a Team USA-Team Spain showdown in the 2012 Olympic Games to his teammate Pau Gasol, he was recently able to conversate with Rubio briefly when the two teams met last Sunday. Things went down as follows.

The transcript (warning: R-rated language included) runs thusly.

Bryant: (to Rubio) Good job, brother. You talking about London?
Gasol: Oh yeah.
Rubio: You’re gonna be there?
Bryant: Fuck yeah, I’m gonna be there.
Rubio: You know you’re getting the silver medal, right?
Bryant: Shiiiiiiit!
Rubio: You know that.
Bryant: I’m taking bets. I’m taking bets.
Rubio: I’ll bet what you want.
Bryant: If I win, I get the keys to Barcelona.
Rubio: I’ll bet what you want.
Bryant: I’ll take it! I’ll take it!

God, BiE loves how the table is being set for The Games already – and as of this writing, opening ceremonies are still 177½ days away … they can’t come soon enough, says BiE.

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.”

However, Nowitzki then add that, for last year’s finals, he left his parents and his sister home because of that 2006 series: “They came in 2006 and it went badly: Too many distractions around. This time I wanted to stay focused. They really got mad at me. And now I regret such a choice!”

Asked which Italian NBA player he would like to have in his team, Nowitzki said, “Tough choice. Perhaps [Danilo] Gallinari, as he can play both small and power forward. He’s got a nice shot and the ability to draw fouls. But I like [Andrea] Bargnani, too – he’s improved a lot. He used to play only from the perimeter, and now he steps up.”

On his meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel: “She’s nice, I spent half an hour with her, she asked me a lot of questions – even though she doesn’t know a lot about basketball!”

On his future, Dirk said that “I’ll play for at least two more years. Afterward, I’d like to stay in the basketball world. I see myself as a teacher to the kids, but I still don’t know if I’ll do it here in Texas or in Germany.”

Finally, he has no doubts on the next challenge: “This is my sixth Europlayer award, I want to get one more, beat [Arvydas] Sabonis and be no. 1 in [Gazetta della Sport’s all-time] rankings.”

Ricky Rubio, Los Gasoles, Gallinari and Bargnani: You have been warned.

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.

First and foremost, BallinEurope feels for Pau Gasol. While the Lakers’ game right now might best (and most charitably) be described as “disorganized,” particularly in the offensive sets where The Triangle is no more, it *feels* like Kobe is subtly, slowing freezing out Gasol.

Though Pau fed Kobe three times in the Indiana game, Gasol got rare touches from Bryant who apparently was instead looking to exploit a size advantage underneath and got three assists to Andrew Bynum. Against the Pacers, Kobe notched two assists to Pau, both within 90 seconds of one another in the third quarter.

But BiE digresses and is probably just paranoid.

Nevertheless.

Let’s talk trade.

A couple of other big-name disgruntled/outgoing players await, ostensibly on the trading block. There’s Dwight Howard, who reportedly will allow a trade to the Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey Nets or Los Angeles Lakers. There’s Deron Williams “enjoying” another excellent season at the peak of his skills while mired with a disappointing New Jersey Nets time and probably considering requesting a trade to Beşiktaş.

In short, why wouldn’t this work?

Okay, so the Lakers aren’t addressing the paucity of the bench and Howard’d probably not appreciate going to a Nets side sans D-Will, believed to be a main motivation for Superman II to move to New Jersey. And Orlando Magic management would lose lots of face for bagging “only” Pau for the dominant Dwight; any theoretical trade involving Howard must factor in the desperation to get something for the departing star – and if in fact said star wants to, you know, leave at all.

Right, so BiE’ll be the bad guy in L.A. Gussy things up just a bit and imagine a draft choice or two also changing hands and you get this; hey, the ESPN Trade Machine likes it. No, BiE isn’t particularly enamored with Matt Barnes; why do you ask?

And can you feel the frustration and fear? Interesting time to be a Lakers fan.

Prospective Bull/Euroleague “Rising Star” Nikola Mirotic again came to the fore last night to prevent an upset of his Real Madrid at Unicaja Malaga. In Los Blancos’ 81-80 victory, Mirotic played 25 minutes to help matters with six rebounds, two blocks and 6-of-9 shooting for 12 points, none as important as his clutch shot in the final second.

Below the break, watch how Mirotic burns Jorge Garbarosa and Luka Zoric on the way to the hole to throw in a buzzer-beating runner off the glass with 0:00.5 or so remaining in the game – dagger!

• Tony Parker contributed perhaps his best NBA performance of 2011-12 last night, with 20 points and nine assists to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 99-83 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. Fellow TrueHoop blog 48 Minutes of Hell does some “Statistical Sleuthing” in an excellent piece on Parker’s play in the paint and at the rim this season, for ages a strength for the Spur.

After crunching the numbers, 48 Minutes’ Aaron McGuire deduces that “The fact is, Tony Parker has been playing atrociously, *especially* at the rim, and it’s tough to say whether this should make Spurs fans excited or terrified. Why excited? It’s easy to simply chalk this up to small sample size and assume he gets better as the year goes on, which would be an instant improvement to San Antonio’s already gelling offense. Terrified is more obvious — if this represents a permanent change in his game, the Spurs are essentially down to *no* all-star caliber offensive players.”

Regardless of Parker’s play and Manu Ginobili’s absence, San Antonio has managed a competent 8-4 start with the win over the Blazers; oddly enough, they’re now 8-0 at home at 0-4 away.

Also of note: Former Baskonia big man Tiago Splitter went for 14 points off the bench; check out the nice play in aggressively working the ball inside against Gerald Wallace for a key fourth-quarter and-one at about 1:31 in the game highlight clip.

• Dirk Nowitzki scored his 23,000th career NBA point in the Dallas Mavericks’ 102-76 immolation of the Milwaukee Bucks. The defending champs are now on a 7-2 run, while the big German put in perhaps *the* clutch NBA play of last week in besting a too tightly-guarding Kevin Garnett.

• Speaking of beating the Celtics – as a Lakers fan, one never gets tired of speaking of beating the Celtics – Boston went down to the Chicago Bulls last night, 88-79, in Beantown. Derrick Rose was naturally his typical badass self, but whoa, what a line turned in by Team Britain stud Luol Deng, eh? 21 points, 16 rebounds, a steal and a block – nice.

While much of the Bulls-centric press has been devoted to D-Rose’s MVP repeat chances and/or the harmony between Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer, Deng has suddenly caught fire in averaging 18.0 points, 14.0 rebounds, 2.66 stocks (steals plus blocks, statistic courtesy Bill Simmons) in over 44 minutes per the last three games.

• Yeah, BiE’s still a hater. So what’s better than the Miami Heat losing a third straight game? How about losing to the Denver Euronuggets despite 35 points from Lebron James?

It was a barn-burner in Denver, with the homers outlasting in a 117-104 shootout. Red-hot Žalgiris Kaunas favorite Ty Lawson (at 17.8 ppg and 7.5 apg for the surprising, league high-scoring Nuggets, where’s the bandwagon for an all-star nomination?) came back from a minor foot injury to net 24 points and nine assists while exposing weak Heat perimeter defense throughout. Off the bench, Rudy Fernandez also helped in deconstructing the Miami backcourt with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Danilo Gallinari added 14 points, five rebounds and three steals.

• While watching last Tuesday’s Chicago Bulls-Minnesota Timberwolves game, BiE was struck with a revelation: The reason why Ricky Rubio has performed so well ‘Stateside is because NBA players are geared toward going hard to the hole. Blake Griffin wants to rave about “Lob City”? Hell, La Pistola’s the mayor of that town.

Unfortunately, ESPN’s Michael Wilbon quoted none other than Magic Johnson as having recognized the same thing, only way, *way* earlier. Said Magic: “[Rubio will] be better in the NBA than he is in Europe because our guys are more athletic and they run to the rim. In Europe, guys don’t really run the break; they fan out around the three-point line, they pump-fake, they look to score in other ways. Our guys are going to see a dude who can pass it like Rubio and run like hell to the rim…”

At least BiE can take solace in the fact all the hyping here did not go for naught; even Wilbon confessed he was wrong…

Rubio was the hero in his first NBA start last night as the ‘Wolves eked out the 87-80 victory at the New Orleans Hornets. Kevin Love contributed another ridiculous game (34 points including 17-of-18 from the free-throw line, 15 rebounds and three blocks), but the Human YouTube Highlight Clip is sure to snag headlines for simply coming through in the clutch at the free-throw line with 4-of-4 shooting in the final two minutes of play to seal the win.

Along the way to the final buzzer, Ricky was once again Globetrotteresque, with nine assists alley-oops, no-look behind-the-back passes, and a bouncer that even made Darko look good.