BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn’t we? With the NBA season tipping off next week, BallinEurope’s man in Britain, Sam Chadwick, gets into the spirit of things as he analyzes offseason moves and roster makeups in the big league – and ranks all 30 teams. While Sammy’s top three is pretty standard stuff, things get interesting quickly, and BiE just loves how he’s positioned the Eurowolves and Euronuggets for the upcoming season … Get your arguments ready and read on!

1. Miami Heat
Last season’s champions not only benefit from the continued development of Lebron James, who was one of the best if not the best player at the London Olympic Games in becoming the first Team USA player to record a triple double: The Heat also add one of the association’s best shooters of all-time in Ray Allen plus another dependable shooter/scorer in Rashard Lewis, the same guy who, yes is a little past his prime, but one who can give you career averages of 16 points, 5.6 rebounds and can hit 39% from deep.

2. Los Angeles Lakers
For a team that was ravaged in 2011-12 by a preseason mishap revolving around Chris Paul and his vetoed trade, followed by a conference semifinals 4-1 spanking from the Oklahoma City Thunder, who took game one by 29 and finished with an average victory margin of over nearly 10 points. Thanks to that little wakeup call, the Lakers front office decided to work its magic – literally – in taking the Magic’s best player for a song while also adding one of the NBA’s best veteran point guards still very capable of averaging a double-double. With Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant on his team, Steve Nash will hope that this is his chance to compete, yet again, for a championship.

3. Oklahoma City Thunder
Continue Reading…

While basketball lovers are getting something of a Christmas gift this season in the December 25 NBA opening day – BiE says “something of” there because this belated debut is kinda like your parents saying, “Well, we’ll just give you your birthday gift at Christmas.” When your birthday’s in October – BallinEurope would like to add to the virtual bounty under the tree with our annual Eurocentric NBA preview.

Here’s BallinEurope’s predominant working theory for at least the first two months of this season: The teams with more critical players who did a stint in Europe (or South America, for that matter) during the lockout will jump out to the best starts. And with a shortened season increasing the importance of every individual game, imagine what a, say, 17-5 could mean in the long-term – for a European equivalent of this model, how ‘bout that CSKA Moscow turbo boost?

So Kevin Garnett’s complaining that the preseason is too short … guys like Deron Williams have already been in real-game situations. Manu Ginobili is well rested but not “in basketball shape?” The Danilo Gallinaris, Mehmet Okurs and even the Gasol Brothers of the basketball world are set to go. More back-to-back games than ever before in NBA history? Hey, perhaps those two-a-days European coaches are so notorious for assigning will have readied these NBAers well more than the fortnight many of their colleagues are getting.

BiE would even argue that latecomers such as Tiago Splitter and late-peakers like Serge Ibaka are surely few steps ahead of the many American ballers who did not take Continental clubs up on even the most outrageous of offers. It is with this dictum in mind that this preview and Official Fearless Predictions™ were written. Today, the Eastern Conference.

Continue Reading…

With seemingly no end in sight to the NBA lockout situation forthcoming, BallinEurope has to admit to enjoying the schadenfreude of the situation … just a bit. Even more exciting than the day-to-day speculation as more and more players from the big league consider their Continental options are the possibilities for the future: History has shown that inclusion of one American player can change the entire course of clubs, domestic leagues and even national programs.

While living in the present, BiE takes a look at the past with a virtual all-star team of guys from the ’States who have been great for the European game in one way or another. This quintet was chosen not necessarily for their skills and greatness, but for their impact on the game itself both in Europe and America – at least until Kobe Bryant decides to hop the Atlantic, heh heh…

Continue Reading…

What’s former American high school baller-turned-Lottomatica Roma pro Brandon Jennings during his summer break now that his Milwaukee Bucks have been bounced from the NBA playoffs? Hanging out in India, of course!

Jennings is today scheduled to attend the NBA/Junior WNBA National Skills Challenge Finals, “culmination of the largest school-based initiative ever conducted by the NBA in India.” Indeed, the project cosponsored by HP involved clinics for some 500 Indian coaches and the teaching of “basketball and life skills” to schoolchildren in five cities.

The big league’s official ‘site notes that Jennings will be doing some basketball/life skills work in Mumbai tomorrow and Pune thereafter. In fact, NBA gives the Buck another accolade for his young career, noting that Jennings “will become the first NBA player to host an event in [Pune].”

Continue Reading…

Middleton: Product of a different era

Yet the 44-year-old plays on … yesterday, Power Electronics Valencia announced the signing of Middleton to a two-month contract, enough to let him finish out the season with the Euroleague club and extend his ACB record for “oldest player to appear in a league game.” Middleton will certainly threaten, if not break, the Euroleague record for same when Valencia goes to Real Madrid next Tuesday night in the playoff round; Valencia plays at Fuenlabrada on Saturday.

Turning 45 in July, BallinEurope would also guess Middleton to be the single oldest player in a top-level basketball league in the world today … if anyone knows of some more elderly than this European mainstay, please inform.

Continue Reading…

Myers learned about Eurostep, pubs, chicken sandwiches with Sheffield

Good morning! So without further ado, here’s a roundup of some recent stories relating the Europe, basketball, and European basketball.

• What is the Euro Step? It’s The Continent’s contribution to NBA basketball! Here’s a great story on how a European technique – Sarunas Marciulionis is credited with its introduction to American hoops – has been adopted by the likes of Dwyane Wade, Rajon Rondo and John Wall.

• As though the prospect of an NBA lockout in 2011 weren’t bad enough, is the 2013 Eurobasket tournament itself now in danger as well? According to the Associated Press:

“The cash-strapped Slovenian government has delayed a decision on whether to support the country’s bid to host the 2013 European basketball championship.

“The government is expected to pay governing body FIBA €6.5 million for the hosting rights.

Continue Reading…

Amidst a recent run of great basketball documentary productions, the story of a hoops maverick continues on to its third country in as many years: A production of Andrew Gallery and Cavelight Films, “My Life: Chasing the Dream” seeks to tell the story of former San Diego High baller Jeremy Tyler.

Indeed, now that Tyler has escaped the glare of American and international media, things even seem to be looking up for the lad a bit. Followers may recall that Tyler made sports history in 2008 when he decided to eschew his senior year of high school in San Diego – publicly stating he was bored and sought new challenges – to play professional basketball abroad while waiting two seasons to enter the NBA draft.

Continue Reading…

With the 2010-11 NBA season tipping off tonight, BallinEurope marks the occasion in the best way possible: By overrating the league’s Continental players and making a few offhand Fearless Predictions™ in the guise of a preview column.

Brief notes and snarky remarks on all 25 NBA teams follow. (Yes, BiE said “all 25.” Since the Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, and Los Angeles Clippers boasts no Europeans, they can’t really be considered proper NBA teams for our Eurocentric viewpoint.

Southwest Division
Some folks are calling the 2010-11 edition of the Dallas Mavericks its strongest team ever; it’s also a pretty good Team France embryo, with Ian Mahinmi, Alexis Ajinca, and last year’s sensation Rodrigue Beaubois helping make up Dirk Nowitzki’s posse. Unfortunately, the Western Conference may be tougher than Western Europe this year…

Continue Reading…

Parker leads 11 French NBAers

With NBA teams starting to get warmed up for the regular season tipoff, BallinEurope figured it high time to take stock of the European players prospectively set to take the court in America for 2010-11.

In considering the expanded rosters for each of the 30 NBA teams, BiE counted 50 players from The Continent plus one free agent. The asterisk here is Linas Kleiza, who carries an American passport and in fact has played organized ball in the ‘States since high school, but hey: He’s a Team Lithuania guy, so he makes this list.

A country-by-country tally produces some interesting results. France again leads all non-U.S. nations in supplying players. In fact, had Yakhouba Diawara not taken his talents out of South Beach in favor of Italia Serie A’s New Basket Brindisi, the ineffable signing of Papa Sy would have given La Republique a potential full roster of 12 NBA players.

Continue Reading…

“It dont get no worse than this. The hardest thing I ever had 2 face is here. Need vision cuz everything blurry now. Where do I go from here?” – American prospect Will Barton on Twitter

Will Barton of Baltimore faces an all-too-familiar problem of young American basketballers, but thanks to Latavious Williams and Brandon Jennings, he seemingly has more options than ever to continue his promising hoops career.

Barton was one of the prizes of the 2010 NCAA recruiting class and University of Memphis backers were well pleased when the 6’6” guard declared his intent to attend their school – albeit most likely only for the minimum single season, as he was getting penciled in as an NBA Draft first-rounder out of high school.

A new problem came to light yesterday which threw Barton’s immediate future into doubt, as he was informed before a practice yesterday that the NCAA was reviewing his academic eligibility – the “hardest thing” referenced in his tweet.

Summarized Dan Wolken at the local Commercial-Appeal: “The issue with Barton [...] is believed to be about whether he completed high school within the NCAA-mandated eight semesters, graduating from Lake Clifton High in Baltimore last August instead of June.”

Continue Reading…