BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Congratulations go out from BallinEurope this morning to FC Barcelona, Montepaschi Siena and Panathinaikos, perhaps each respectively their nation’s top basketball club, for taking domestic cup titles this weekend.

In Spain, FC Barcelona showed no letup after outlasting Real Madrid in Thursday’s barnburner from the Copa Del Rey quarterfinal round and cruised through Valencia BC in the finals, 85-69. Nice to note that BiE fave Pete Mickael snagged this year’s MVP award from within a relentless and balanced Blaugrana attack.

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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.)

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From Sweden, sportswriter/broadcaster Magnus Dahlborn checks in with BallinEurope today to give us reportage on the recently completed Nordic Championship tournament, which saw the title awarded to undefeated Team Finland.

Due to the tragic events in Norway, a sombre feeling overlay the past weekend when the Nordic Championships between national teams from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland began in Sundsvall. The Norwegian team came and participated well nevertheless, considering that their senior national program in basketball has been non-existent the past few years.

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Maric a true big man

Francesco Cappelletti’s regular column with BallinEurope is back as our man in Italy takes a look at the after-effects of Euroleague week two action. This time out, Francesco sees European basketball history returning to the old days on the Continent while Balkan squads fight economic problems but dispatch Western European teams anyway. And early on, what have proven to be the better Euroleague transactions involving big names and bigger contracts? Read on!

The *big* problem
The recent history of European basketball shows an amazing evolution to starting fives full of dynamism and athleticism, but not weight – even in the 5 position, originally land of real big men limited in the paint. We were used to having pick-and-rolls, then pick ‘n’ pops. Now it seems it’s time to go back to the old traditions.

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Yesterday, BallinEurope.com ran part one of Francesco Cappelletti’s analysis and forecast of Italy’s first six Serie A teams for 2009-10. Below runs part two, covering the remaining 10 hopefuls from the top Italian league.

Angelico Biella. Last year’s semifinal is only a memory: Biella must again plunge into the tough reality of its life as small basketball center among wealthier clubs and cities. On the other hand, the peacefulness and consciousness working in Biella makes it easier than in Milano to remain in Northern Italy. That’s what Fred Jones was surely thinking when he decided to cross the ocean and leave the NBA. The dunk specialist from Malvern is the noisiest acquisition an Italian club made this summer, and Jones could easily be Serie A MVP if he stays healthy. Joe Troy Smith is delegated to assist him, above and beyond scoring his usual 15 points per game, with support essential to a squad which has only one other pure shooter in Pietro Aradori. Aradori is set to confirm his past progress before returning to Roma, owner of his contract.

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