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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.
For bonus points, identify this player
The quiz is multiple choice and is European- and NBA-centric in topic. It is multiple guess choice, and so choose the one answer that best completes the phrase or answers the question. You may use any writing implement at your disposal to fill in the answers – as long as you don’t mind marking up your screen, that is. Good luck. You may begin the exam now.
1. In the 2010-11 season, Dirk Nowitzki became most known for:
a) Being a clutch player, despite an arguably disappointing past history.
b) Entering the conversation as one of the NBA’s top 20 players of all-time.
c) Passing 22,000 career NBA points.
d) Take Dat Wit Chew.
The 2011 NBA Draft is still going on as of this writing, but with the amazing amount of Continental players going early and often – a direct contrast to last year’s greatly Europe-bereft selections – BallinEurope gets in a quick two Eurocents with a brief look at (and YouTube clips of) the first seven players prospectively going to America to begin a career in the big league.
Enes Kanter, Utah Jazz – In a draft without scads of marquee players, it’s not too surprising that the biggest X-factor on the list was drafted so quickly. Kanter, he who spent his entire season watching University of Kentucky games from the stands thanks to an NCAA ruling of ineligibility, is certain to land a nice deal in Utah. The Jazz interestingly enough still went with Kanter despite the Turk’s declining of a pre-draft combine interview with the team.
An entire generation has entered basketball since his untimely passing and while ever-growing numbers of NBA and European stars who have never seen him play emerge, all owe a debt to Dražen Petrović.
It was on this day in 1993 that the only man who realistically could have held claim to the sobriquet of “the European Michael Jordan” was killed in a car accident in Germany. As detailed most recently in the excellent ESPN “30 for 30” documentary “Once Brothers,” Petrović was a fearless, proud player with Team Yugoslavia and later Team Croatia in international play; was on the verge of entering the prime of a Hall of Fame-level career with the New Jersey Nets.
For those of you who never saw Petrović play, do yourselves a favor and take some time to watch below. For those of us fortunate enough to remember this European pioneer blazing trails all over the world, it’s a welcome (if slightly meandering) trip down memory lane. We still miss you, Dražen.
Lima: Ready for prime time?
BallinEurope was consulted in making up the individual player entries along with Euroball-reporting luminaries like Slam and Freaknick of ELA; Alejandro Gonzalez of Net Scouts Basketball; and Simas Baranauskas of The Lithuanian Perspective and Lithuanian Basketball.
While only the entry on Jonas Valenciunas is up at present at the ‘Adventures, BiE today provides his unadulterated superbrief takes (plus YouTube clips, natch) on a baker’s dozen of European prospects, soon to be incorporated on the Darkometer. Enjoy!
Beyond checking out the wild Menorca-Caja Laboral Baskonia game yesterday, BiE spent a good deal of time this weekend contemplating an empty 2010-11 All-Euroleague team ballot. The EL folks sure don’t make things easy for the voter, providing 60 names are allowing one to vote for just five – not that anyone would ever think of stuffing the virtual box somehow…
All whinging and indecision aside, then, BallinEurope takes a stand and names the five below-listed players to make up the official BiE All-Euroleague team ballot for 2010-11.
The quest for the 2010-11 Euroleague title is officially reduced by 50% tonight as a full slate of games completes the Top 16 round of play; three games remain relevant to the final eight round and BallinEurope below takes a brief look at each, together with YouTubes and the ever-popular Fearless Predictions™. Enjoy the games!
• Unicaja vs. Panathinaikos – Would anyone have believed six weeks ago (hell, *two* weeks ago) that PAO just might be bounced from the big league before the final eight and that both Valencia and Lietuvos Rytas would advance? Probably not the PAO players themselves and certainly not BiE.
Tonight all the onus is on the Greek side, which now must win to advance while Unicaja plays for the proverbial pride at home; of course, when these teams met in week two, the Greens delivered perhaps the biggest beatdown not involving a team called “Cibona Zagreb” in the entire 2010-11 Euroleague season to back-breakingly dispose of the Malagans, 82-56.
While NBA fans were mostly talking about Blake Griffin and Carmelo Anthony last week, the buzzword around Europe last week was “upset.” Seemingly from end to end, Continental leagues saw their respective mighty – if not fall – at least stagger from a blow dealt by a lower seed.
Real Madrid lost to new no. 8 Power Electronics Valencia in the ACB block party but maintained a razor-thin lead over Olympiacos for the no. 2 spot in BiE’s top 100; by contrast, Montepaschi’s shocking loss to Pepsi Caserta dumped the Italian side to no. 4. In Turkey, former TBL no. 2 Banvit (now 14-4) was pummeled at seventh-place Olin Ederne; standard juggernaut CSKA Moscow is tumbling down the PBL table in Russia, dropping its second consecutive home loss Saturday night to Spartak St. Petersburg.
And so it went. The top 100 this week runs as follows.
Yes, readers, it’s Sunday. Or, as BallinEurope likes to think of it, “YouTube Trawlday.” (As though BiE avoids the ‘Tube on the other six days. Yeah, surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre.)
Whatever you want to call it, start your day with these 10 video clips starring Nando De Colo, Mirza Begic, Mehmet Okur, Milos Teodosic, Ibrahim Jaaber, Bojan Bogdanović and, you know, what’s his name from the Los Angeles Clippers. Enjoy!
The dust – and in Germany, the glass – has settled on a week of Cup tournament action throughout The Continent, so it’s time for BallinEurope to crunch the numbers in compiling the weekly Top 100 Teams in Europe list.
But, ran the first question, what relative weight should be prescribed for these games for national bragging rights? Should there just be a bonus for winning the big enchilada and perhaps ending up Cup runner-up? How much of national tournaments are mostly about pride and how much should a winning team be credited for beating an all-too-familiar-opponent? And how to keep the Copa del Rey winner from clinching the number one spot for the rest of the season?
