Monday’s cigarettes

Here we go for the Euroleague bye week. And we’ve put together some interesting stories in order to get through these 14 days without Devotion.

• Take a look into Nicolas Batum’s mind.
• In the German Bundesliga, the Giessen 46ers had to go for a road game on Saturday against EnBW Ludwigsburg. For this 250km trip, the staff planned a 3.5-hour drive by bus. Pretty normal. However, Giessen got stuck in a monster traffic jam 50 kilometers outside of Ludwigsburg and did not manage to arrive in time for the game. Ludwigsburg did not accept an offer to postpone the game to a later hour of day, and so they won the matchup, 1-0.
• What trouble for Partizan Belgrade these days. Not only did they lose against archrivals Red Star, the team is also in serious financial trouble, as their accounts have been blocked. Dusko Vujosevic also explains that they have contracted debt at a 17.5% interest rate. Crazy times…
• Always nice, always interesting and funny: Don’t forget to check regularly Kristian’s blog on FIBA.com. Sorry Kris, I always forget to check what you write, so thanks for the mail!
• Marcus “Highlight” Haislip got elected player of the week in the Spanish ACB.
• The TBB Trier players do a victory dance after their tough win against EWE Baskets Oldenburg in the Bundesliga.
• A tough weekend for some Euroleague teams.:As mentioned above, Partizan lost but also very bad defeats for Panathinaikos against Panellinios, Le Mans against Orléans and Olimpija Ljubljana against Bosna Sarajevo.
• Derby time in Lithuania, with Lietuvos Rytas beating Zalgiris Kaunas. But I see that Lithuanian basketball fans have serious metal troubles, as the tune “La Paloma Blanca” was used as background music on a basketball clip…

Monday’s light cigarettes

A little later than you are used to, but here are some light cigarettes from this Monday evening.

• Devin Harris knows more French than “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?”
• A bit more about Brandon Jennings, who has learned about being kicked out of practice.
  
• ALBA Berlin recorded their second consecutive 13,000+ attendance in the Bundesliga. Watch some highlights of the game against Telekom Baskets Bonn.
• Staying in Germany, a game in the third league was stopped because of a double backboard demolition.
• With the start of the ACB, we are also happy to see the spectacular Top 5 plays from the Spanish league again.
• Napoli and Capo d’Orlando are now definitively banned from the Italian League. Until now, it is not clear where they will begin their seasons.
• The Baltic League started with some big surprises, as Valmiera beat Zalgiris and Tartu Rock surprised Lietuvos Rytas.

Fantasy Basketball: European seasons about to begin

Before the upcoming Euroleague Fantasy League, we’ll take a look at the different national fantasy leagues set up around the continent. The biggest is, of course, the Spanish SuperManager for the ACB; we’ll come back to this later. Today, we’re going to introduce you to the German Bundesliga Fantasy League organized in collaboration with FIVE magazine and Crossover-Online.

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ACB remains leader in attendance

UPDATE (16/6/2008): BallinEurope checked the attendance figures of the different European leagues and has compiled some stats based on the averages. We didn’t see any big surprises, as Spanish ACB still tops the list.

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Monday’s cigarettes

More and more leagues are coming to an end while the transfer market is heating up. Additionally, the NBA Draft is approaching…

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