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Happy 10th birthday, Eurocup! The Continent’s no. 2 club competition will tip off season no. 10 tonight with seven matches, definitely highlighted by the showdown between Tony Parker’s Asvel Villeurbanne against a Valencia Basket side bringing in a lineup which includes Victor Claver and A.J. Ogilvy – not to mention Team France’s Nando de Colo and Florent Pietrus.
Official press release on the giddy night and highlight video from last year’s Unics Kazan-Cajasol final runs below the break.
This just in. Chandler Parsons has decided to leave Cholet Basket, tweeting just about an hour ago, “Thank you to Cholet for the opportunity to play during the lockout. It was a great experience that I’ll never forget. Back home tomorrow!”
What’s that? You want some Tony Parker videos? Right … in Saturday’s game at Cholet Basket, Parker put in what the league’s official website is calling a “decisive” performance for Asvel Villeurbanne. The locked-out San Antonio Spur went for 19 points, including nine in the fourth quarter in the Asvel victory. The final score: Asvel 79, Cholet 70. Décisif, bien sûr!
Parker’s first public appearance at the Angers-Loire airport was naturally YouTube-worthy … would you believe screaming girls…?
A months-old story finally came to resolution this morning, as Asvel Villeurbanne announced that San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker will be playing for the Pro A team in which he holds a position as director of operations, pending the ending of the NBA lockout.
In an official statement, club officials stated that “Asvel Basket welcomes with great pleasure the arrival of Tony Parker, one of the best basketball players in French history. Following the uncertainty of recent weeks, the club is delighted that this transaction has been finalized.
Songaila: Best hope for Galatasaray upset?
Lietuvos Rytas vs. Galatasaray Café Crown Galatasaray looked impressive in dispatching Asvel Villeurbanne (O, Tony Parker, où êtes-vous?) and putting up 93 points, the highest total registered in qualifying round games thus far. Better yet, the high-profile additions to the already solid Turkish team’s roster appear to be working perfectly: Jaka Lakovic and Darius Songaila contributed a whopping 40 points combined in the win.
Deja vu in our future?
Kobe Bryant: 1/5 if you believe Claudio Sabatini, 1/1 if you’re a bit more stoic. The Kobe-to-Bologna soap opera storyline continues into this weekend with the Virtus head ever more publicly confident that the Los Angeles Laker will in fact be playing ball in Italy this season – at least for a month.
Most recently, Sabatini announced that he had reached an agreement with Bryant’s agent Rob Pelinka vis-à-vis a 40-day deal that would have Kobe playing 10 games in Milano colors. Something seems a bit amiss with this announcement, however, as the team is not playing in any pan-European competitions in 2011-12, and thus is on a once-a-week schedule. (Maybe. More on this below.)
You know Tony's coming over...
First, BallinEurope would like to a couple more American players to The Continent, as Milwaukee Bucks second-round draft pick Jon Leuer has signed with the Bundesliga’s Frankfurt Skyliners to play during the NBA lockout and undrafted Colorado State University forward Andy Ogide has joined the ranks of LEB club Breogán.
But as the BiE schadenfreudometer works overtime, the Euroleague Transfers Table loads up with NBA names (Hello, Mr. Farmar and bienvenue to you, Monsieur Batum!), and the working assumption currently figuring the big league to be playing an abbreviated schedule in 2011-12 at best, BallinEurope admits that he’s becoming spoiled about new news on NBA players jumping the Atlantic to play ball here.
And so, without too much hard fact recently on NBAers, marquee or otherwise, making said leap, BiE today presents odds on some players rumored to be plying their wares in Europe soon. Readers should note that these odds are offered at no bookmaker service and are completely arbitrary (which is to say mostly made up).
Dirk Nowitzki: 3/5. The incredible story of the Bayern München basketball club’s resurrection to primacy would be made complete by signing Dastardly Dirk, hero of the 2011 NBA Finals.
Perhaps further contemplating a lockout, the San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker declared he will suit up for Team France in Eurobasket 2011. In an interview with French TV, Parker stated emphatically that he “will be at Eurobasket this summer” and that he is “eager to get started.”
Though the Spur believes that Les Bleus “have a really good team” as it is, Parker took time to appeal to at least one other Frenchman he wants on the club: “You need great inside play to win in Europe, so Joakim Noah can be a very important piece in our puzzle and make a big difference.”
Parker has been quite visible in the news lately with matters of French sport. Last week, he stated to L’Equipe that, “si le conflit dure,” i.e. if the incipient NBA lockout continues into the season, he would try his fortunes in Villeurbanne. “If the [lockout] lasts,” said Parker, “I think I’ll go and play in France so that my fans can see me up close … I will probably go play with Asvel Basket.”
Lithuanian legend Arvydas Sabonis recently gave a brief interview to Erildis Budraitis of Balsas.lt – later picked up by the official website of Žalgiris Kaunas – in which the big man reminisces about life in the NBA and speculates on the presently American league’s future a bit.
A few interpreted excerpts follow.
Balsas: Do you remember your first days in the NBA?
Sabonis: It was the year 1995, the month of October. Although I was 30 years old, I felt like a rookie. Everything was very interesting. It was a completely different kind of basketball: A very different organization, a different life, and [a different] intensity to the game.
If it hadn’t been for all the personality-cult stuff surrounding a certain King James, the fateful FIBA committee vote scheduled for Sunday would more rightly be known as “The Decision”: In Lyons this weekend, the final determination will be made as to whether Team Britain receives for the 2012 London Games the traditionally-granted automatic qualification given the host nation’s hoops team.
On the eve of British basketball facing what even FIBA Secretary-General Patrick Baumann has called “the biggest decision in its history,” pundits, players and the powerful are all weighing in on the impact of “The FIBA Decision.” BallinEurope rounds up a few stories and such from the interwebs for your perusal.
(As for BiE, of course we’re backing the British bid. How can you not give it them?)
• First and foremost is Pops Mensah-Bonsu. BiE dares say that no one represents the pride and hopes of this team better than Pops, and the man’s passion for winning with Team Britain is matched by few.
