Ball in Europe – European Basketball Blog

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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Koponen: Something to talk about

Welcome to the 10s, everyone! Now, enough with the pleasantries: With an entire demarcated decade stretching out before us, Ball in Europe wonders about future headlines, about who’s coming up, about “Who’s Next” in ESPNspeak. Here’s to thinking we’ll be talking about some of the following this decade…

• Enes Kanter. It’s impossible to tell at present where the sensation (and MVP) of the 2009 FIBA U18 European Championship will be going in 2010 and beyond, unless “upward” is included as a potential location. Despite announcing his intention to play NCAA basketball at University of Washington next season, certain improprieties Kanter may or may have not been involved with at Fenerbahçe Ülker could keep him from playing at his stated destination next year; the question of whether Kanter actually played professionally with Fenerbahçe reportedly led to his departure from Las Vegas’ Findlay College Prep in September.

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Not enough time for reading up on everything basketball this week? Have no fear, for BallinEurope.com has collected a top-five for your perusal this Sunday.

• Not sure if this was the best basketball-themed piece of the week, but it certainly was the most unique(?): Sneaker specialists Kickz.com took a brief sojourn from dressing up the feet to looking at heads – specifically, the top 10 all-time NBA player haircuts. The site is German-language, but these pictures are truly worth a thousand words each. At least.

Naturally, no one is ever satisfied with any top 10, so BallinEurope would suggest the following additions:

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Morning news time and for today’s edition, the datelines are set in Spain, Rome, the new FIBA Europe headquarters and the WNBA. And videos! Enjoy the day that is…

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Phew! Hopefully people were betting big point spreads in the Euroleague’s first game day as Montepaschi Siena, Barcelona, Olympiacos and Zalgiris notched easy victories by an average of more than 27 points. More on Euroleague as well as bigger than Jordan; a new basketball film; new players soon coming to Europe; a German star talent; and why Euroleague did not want to watch Maroussi-CSKA highlights.
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The pickings for basketball-related news online this week were a tad slim, with that inevitable last-weeks-of-August malaise that conquers Europe annually and sends the entire continent on holiday really settling in. Ah well, Eurobasket 2009 tips off in a couple weeks, followed by national leagues awakening, and Euroleague/NBA isn’t that far off, really. In the grand scheme of things.

So call this week the proverbial calm before the (perfect) storm, and enjoy these offerings from around cyberspace.

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That large brick-resembling motor vehicle you see rolling through Germany on the way to all parts Western European isn’t any normal van: Rather, it’s something EA Sports and consumer electronics specialists Hannspree like to call the NBA Jam Van, on its second (presumably) annual trip ‘round the Continent to spread the good word of roundball.

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The official statement comes as no great surprise to BallinEurope, since we discussed the problems at CSKA women’s basketball team a few days ago. As basketcentral and the official CSKA website just informed, CSKA will drop out of Euroleague play.

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Just a little update on the women’s final four. Spartak Mosocw beat UMMC Ekaterinburg in the first Semi-final 78-68. Just to remember, Moscow is that WNBA ALL STAR team with players like Tina Thompson, Sue Bird, Kelly Miller, Diana Taurasi and Lauren Jackson. So you might figure that this team would win.

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Since Christophe published this great article on the women’s final four which already started (UMMC Ekaterinburg already lost a few minutes ago to Spartak Moscow Region 68-78) we sent a few questions to Hamchetou Maiga, who is one of the stars at Brno. Brno’s game against Bourges will tip off in about 45 minutes and can be followed LIVE on fibaeurope.com.

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