Ball in Europe – 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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Noah's arc has yet to peak

As one of the popular highlights of the NBA season, everything about the annual All-Star Game is loaded with pomp, hype and (hopefully) fun. No exception was that moment many a basketball fan awaits with gusto and prepares to heartily attack in argument as the naming of the rosters for the teams that will be squaring off in a Harlem Globetrotters-looking exhibition game next month.

Without further ado, then, the presentation of those long-awaited all-star rosters! (We’re talking the Official BallinEurope European NBA All-Star Team; what’d you think was meant?)

The following is a roster based on performance in the US’ big league in 2009-10 to this point. An attempt at building a normal-seeming roster was made, though this team has a definite accent on the big man. Let the arguments begin!

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Ilyasova: A hero returns

With the NBA regular season nearly one-quarter finished (yeesh, when did that happen?), Ball in Europe takes a look at the league’s freshmen and sophomores from The Continent. The NBA currently lists over 80 international players on its rosters, with exactly 50 coming from European quarters. About one-fifth of those are recent enough entries to be considered newbies in America; so today it’s time for a little informal hazing. Early on, who looks to be the next Darko or the next Dirk? Read on!

Success stories
• SG Rodrigue Beaubois, Dallas Mavericks
The Mavericks would like to be temperate in the development of their no. 25 overall draft pick, with Donnie Nelson stating in late November – a week after Beaubois went for 14- and 12-point games on the road – that “we want to continue to have him develop with NBA court time versus developmental [league] court time.” But there’s still been no need to send the Guadeloupian to Albuquerque, as he’s been steadily munching away at Josh Howard’s playing time to good effect.

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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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parallel universe (n.): A universe or space-time continuum that exists alongside ours, and which may possess different physical laws or a different history. – Answers.com dictionary

Talk about your critical decisions: I mean, imagine if Allen Iverson had turned down Olympiacos’ mammoth $10 million offer back in August to come play for the Angelopoulos Brothers’ Reds. In just three Euroleague games and three in the Greek League, the Answer has multiplied the awareness of Continental basketball on the other side of the Pond while rebooting his reputation as one of the greatest ever at taking over a game.

Sure, Olympiacos may only be 2-1 in Euroleague play (apparently not even Iverson is bigger than the H1N1 virus that took out a number of his teammates before the Unicaja game), but this team has got to be considered the favorites to take the crown in 2010 with seemingly little adequate competition for the Reds. (Pity poor Efes Pilsen tomorrow night, who, like so many others, have never experienced anything like playing against the Answer.)

In fact, the 86-68 loss and the attendant controversy around it has made for the sole speed bump in what may, ultimately, go down as the most important season in A.I.’s career. Media in the U.S. and Europe made much of Iverson’s remarks about not attending practice for fear of contacting the flu infecting teammates, not to mention his 4-of-18 shooting for just 13 points in the game – marks that might be acceptable on a bad night in the NBA, but represent the sort of ball-hogging that European teams, said common wisdom, would have done well to stay away from. Iverson backers point to his 20-plus and 25-plus ppg averages in Euroleague and A1 play to say “Who needs the extra pass when you can drive the lane like the Answer does?”

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With Brandon Jennings ripping things up with the Milwaukee Bucks early in the NBA season, the interweb is alive with proclamations on the relative success of his “European experiment,” i.e. his much ballyhooed year spent playing with Lottomatica Roma in lieu of a year with an NCAA program.

John McMullen, NBA specialist over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website, notes that he’s been converted to the Jennings church, noting that at first he didn’t have much faith in the player after an “unimpressive” year with Roma:

“…During 27 games in the overly-structured, fundamentally obsessed Italian Lega A, Jennings averaged just 5.5 points, 1.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.5 steals in 17.0 minutes per game. He shot a miserable 35.1 percent from the field and a dismal 20.7 percent from three-point range in Lega A play.

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Who know who’s happiest about the whole Jeremy Tyler-to-Haifa Heat story? Rick Pitino. After all, the moralizing/speculating tales about Tyler represent the only chance stories of certain excesses in the University of Louisville head coach’s lifestyle will be bumped from the basketball world’s front pages and homepages.

Yes, it’s a feeding frenzy for basketball media, particularly in Israel and the ‘States. A brief summary of some indignation and wonder on Tyler from the blogosphere.

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Jurica Golemac is a role player. Roberto Gabini was a leader in pectore, nearly a non-player captain. Are they worth much more than Brandon Jennings? From the viewpoint of the end of the season, the end of the story, it seems to be. To judge the Jennings experiment, we have to start at the beginning, but the statement is well marked in our heads: B.J.’s Italian journey can’t be considered a success.

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According to Spain’s leading internet basketball mag Solobasket, Tau Vitoria got Pete Mickeal a Bulgarian passport in order to sign another U.S. citizen, Gerald Fitch, as an import player to the team, as only two are allowed to play per team in Spain’s ACB (The other player would be John Lucas III.)

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I read the news about the decision made by high school junior Jeremy Tyler last week and was really surprised. A 17-year-old US guy stops his high school career a year before graduation to play in Europe? After the Brandon Jennings door-opener this season, I thought that maybe some other HS seniors would go that way, but a junior? When I read the different statements then, I really have some doubts about this move.

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