Enrico Cellini has gathered a few choice quotes from la Gazzetta’s interview with Nowitzki, including the German’s thoughts on his favorite Italian player, meeting Angela Merkel and topping Arvydas Sabonis.

On January 27, Dirk Nowitzki did not play for the Mavericks against the Minnesota Timberwolves but still brought home two interesting souvenirs from American Air Center. As you are reading BallinEurope, you don’t probably care too much about the diamond-encrusted $40K NBA championship ring (courtesy of Mark Cuban) that Dirk received in a touching ceremony (courtesy of Rick Carlisle), do you? Instead, what’s worth reporting about that night is the fact that Wunder Dirk also received the Europlayer 2011 award, an acknowledgement assigned by Italian Gazzetta dello Sport to the best European basketball player of the season.

You may see the ceremony here.

All right, so it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the ring ceremony but still …

Gazzetta dello Sport later published in its printed version an interview with Nowitzki, in which Würzburg’s finest touched on several topics.

Said Dirk on the loss in the 2005-06 NBA Finals to the Miami Heat: “That experience actually helped me – it made me improve: Now I handle the fourth quarter with more intelligence.”

However, Nowitzki then add that, for last year’s finals, he left his parents and his sister home because of that 2006 series: “They came in 2006 and it went badly: Too many distractions around. This time I wanted to stay focused. They really got mad at me. And now I regret such a choice!”

Asked which Italian NBA player he would like to have in his team, Nowitzki said, “Tough choice. Perhaps [Danilo] Gallinari, as he can play both small and power forward. He’s got a nice shot and the ability to draw fouls. But I like [Andrea] Bargnani, too – he’s improved a lot. He used to play only from the perimeter, and now he steps up.”

On his meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel: “She’s nice, I spent half an hour with her, she asked me a lot of questions – even though she doesn’t know a lot about basketball!”

On his future, Dirk said that “I’ll play for at least two more years. Afterward, I’d like to stay in the basketball world. I see myself as a teacher to the kids, but I still don’t know if I’ll do it here in Texas or in Germany.”

Finally, he has no doubts on the next challenge: “This is my sixth Europlayer award, I want to get one more, beat [Arvydas] Sabonis and be no. 1 in [Gazetta della Sport’s all-time] rankings.”

Ricky Rubio, Los Gasoles, Gallinari and Bargnani: You have been warned.

Enrico Cellini is lifelong basketball fanatic and a long-time sportswriter with a focus on Italy and Spain. He was born among European hoops, was raised watching the NBA, and thinks choosing between American and European basketball is like choosing between one’s mother and father. You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Italian-language blog Hoop Addicted.

• Tony Parker contributed perhaps his best NBA performance of 2011-12 last night, with 20 points and nine assists to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 99-83 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. Fellow TrueHoop blog 48 Minutes of Hell does some “Statistical Sleuthing” in an excellent piece on Parker’s play in the paint and at the rim this season, for ages a strength for the Spur.

After crunching the numbers, 48 Minutes’ Aaron McGuire deduces that “The fact is, Tony Parker has been playing atrociously, *especially* at the rim, and it’s tough to say whether this should make Spurs fans excited or terrified. Why excited? It’s easy to simply chalk this up to small sample size and assume he gets better as the year goes on, which would be an instant improvement to San Antonio’s already gelling offense. Terrified is more obvious — if this represents a permanent change in his game, the Spurs are essentially down to *no* all-star caliber offensive players.”

Regardless of Parker’s play and Manu Ginobili’s absence, San Antonio has managed a competent 8-4 start with the win over the Blazers; oddly enough, they’re now 8-0 at home at 0-4 away.

Also of note: Former Baskonia big man Tiago Splitter went for 14 points off the bench; check out the nice play in aggressively working the ball inside against Gerald Wallace for a key fourth-quarter and-one at about 1:31 in the game highlight clip.

• Dirk Nowitzki scored his 23,000th career NBA point in the Dallas Mavericks’ 102-76 immolation of the Milwaukee Bucks. The defending champs are now on a 7-2 run, while the big German put in perhaps *the* clutch NBA play of last week in besting a too tightly-guarding Kevin Garnett.

• Speaking of beating the Celtics – as a Lakers fan, one never gets tired of speaking of beating the Celtics – Boston went down to the Chicago Bulls last night, 88-79, in Beantown. Derrick Rose was naturally his typical badass self, but whoa, what a line turned in by Team Britain stud Luol Deng, eh? 21 points, 16 rebounds, a steal and a block – nice.

While much of the Bulls-centric press has been devoted to D-Rose’s MVP repeat chances and/or the harmony between Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer, Deng has suddenly caught fire in averaging 18.0 points, 14.0 rebounds, 2.66 stocks (steals plus blocks, statistic courtesy Bill Simmons) in over 44 minutes per the last three games.

• Yeah, BiE’s still a hater. So what’s better than the Miami Heat losing a third straight game? How about losing to the Denver Euronuggets despite 35 points from Lebron James?

It was a barn-burner in Denver, with the homers outlasting in a 117-104 shootout. Red-hot Žalgiris Kaunas favorite Ty Lawson (at 17.8 ppg and 7.5 apg for the surprising, league high-scoring Nuggets, where’s the bandwagon for an all-star nomination?) came back from a minor foot injury to net 24 points and nine assists while exposing weak Heat perimeter defense throughout. Off the bench, Rudy Fernandez also helped in deconstructing the Miami backcourt with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Danilo Gallinari added 14 points, five rebounds and three steals.

• While watching last Tuesday’s Chicago Bulls-Minnesota Timberwolves game, BiE was struck with a revelation: The reason why Ricky Rubio has performed so well ‘Stateside is because NBA players are geared toward going hard to the hole. Blake Griffin wants to rave about “Lob City”? Hell, La Pistola’s the mayor of that town.

Unfortunately, ESPN’s Michael Wilbon quoted none other than Magic Johnson as having recognized the same thing, only way, *way* earlier. Said Magic: “[Rubio will] be better in the NBA than he is in Europe because our guys are more athletic and they run to the rim. In Europe, guys don’t really run the break; they fan out around the three-point line, they pump-fake, they look to score in other ways. Our guys are going to see a dude who can pass it like Rubio and run like hell to the rim…”

At least BiE can take solace in the fact all the hyping here did not go for naught; even Wilbon confessed he was wrong…

Rubio was the hero in his first NBA start last night as the ‘Wolves eked out the 87-80 victory at the New Orleans Hornets. Kevin Love contributed another ridiculous game (34 points including 17-of-18 from the free-throw line, 15 rebounds and three blocks), but the Human YouTube Highlight Clip is sure to snag headlines for simply coming through in the clutch at the free-throw line with 4-of-4 shooting in the final two minutes of play to seal the win.

Along the way to the final buzzer, Ricky was once again Globetrotteresque, with nine assists alley-oops, no-look behind-the-back passes, and a bouncer that even made Darko look good.

To wit, in 2011, we enjoyed:

• an exciting round of Euroleague playoffs which included FC Barcelona’s surprising tournament-round exit and culminated in storied franchise Panathinaikos bagging its third EL trophy in five years;

• in domestic leagues, another weird Bundesliga playoff tournament, another controversial Greek tourney, and from Italy and Spain second-place shockers Bennet Cantù and Bizkaia Bilbao Basket advancing;

• lots of European superstars battling it out in the NBA playoffs, particularly on the Western Conference side, with Tony Parker, Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and of course Dirk Nowitzki proving so key to their teams’ successes (or lack thereof);

• the Eurobasket 2011 tournament hosted in the world’s basketball-maddest country which ultimately inspired Team Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic to opine that “this has been the strongest European Championship in history…” (and, judging only from the star content alone, BiE would probably agree, despite a general loathing for such hyperbole directly after an event);

• some awesome schadenfreude-laced moments as NBA refugees came to play on the Continent during the player lockout, plus all the incredibly amusing speculation on names beginning with Kobe Bryant; and finally

• the close to the 2011-12 Euroleague regular season with a week 10 that featured some crazy dogfights for entry and positioning in the Top 16 round, including a great do-or-die game between Emporio Armani Milano and Partizan Belgrade.

Olympic Games or no, how can basketball year 2011 be topped? On the first day of the new year, BallinEurope takes a last brief look back at the most popular stories we ran in 2011. Relive one killer 365 days of European roundball once more below.

1. Eurobasket 2011 Power Rankings: First take. With nine days to go before Eurobasket 2011 tipped off, European basketball fans were clearly focused on the international tournament. While power rankings are not designed to predict the final outcome of a given competition, history shows that BiE’s first assessment was decent, at least up top. Three of BiE’s first four did eventually get through to the quarterfinals. Lithuania, Serbia and Greece were placed too high, Croatia was way too high. But note Finland in the top 16, though! And whereas your bracket surely had FYR Macedonia getting a 2012 Olympic bid, nine days before the tournament, the BallinEurope Power Rankings had them … (gulp) 23rd?

2. Top salaries in European basketball, 2011-12. Soon after Deron Williams signed up for a $5 million-or-so salary with Beşiktaş JK in July, the intrigue began along with fandom’s burgeoning panic about what David “El Jefe” Stern would later dub the NBA’s “Nuclear Winter.” The numbers posted on BallinEurope drew a much attention as we all speculated on just which European clubs might be able to afford who … ultimately nearly creating some strange bedfellows indeed.

3. Ron Artest to play in Finland. No, really. Actually, in reality, not. But today’s Metta World Peace isn’t really about reality, is he? No matter, #15 is one of the funner, funnier tweeters out there and for a short while we believed (or wanted to believe) in this madcap plan – and later that he’d be suiting up for the Cheshire Jets. How droll!

4. Highlights from Ty Lawson’s epic Twitter venting. What can be said about this that hasn’t already been tweeted? October 25, 2011, might have gone done as notable date in European basketball tweeting history if, you know, the collective consciousness regarding Twitter lasted longer than 24 hours or so. For two hours, Lawson tossed the 141-character ball back and forth with mostly Lithuanian fans. Despite having to deal with some of the shadier side of fandom, Tweeter Ty stayed honest, truthful and even pithy throughout.

5. Report: Deron Williams to Beşiktaş Cola Turka. BallinEurope was one of the first English-language sites to break this story: BiE’s luckiest break of 2011, perhaps. Unfortunately, the Zaza thing never worked out, but the results vis-à-vis D-Will’s performance there certainly were nice.

6. Yi gods! Jianlian throws it down over Barac, Croatia. Team China didn’t have much to celebrate vis-à-vis their participation in the London Invitational Tournament in August – even losing to theretofore winless Britain – but at least Yi made the highlight reel in his team’s 30-point blowout loss to Croatia.

7. Ricky Rubio: An object of faith. Let’s face it: Even the most ardent worshippers in the Church of Rubio noted that on the offensive end at very least, Ricky’s 2010-11 was not at all impressive. Seeing a downturn in essentially every statistical category, muttering from the US (with an epicenter in Minneapolis-St. Paul, where Minnesota Timberwolves fans were probably greater each other with “Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!” in lieu of “Hello”) wondered about Rubio’s lost jump shot – or if he’d even had one in the first place. He seemed to be improving on defense both in Euroleague and ACB play, but it didn’t take keen observation to note that the second place finisher for 2010 EL defensive MVP honors was nowhere near the finalists the following season.

In March, with FC Barcelona’s bouncing from the Euroleague’s elite eight round and Rubio’s ho-hum Eurobasket play still ahead, BiE wrote: “It’s as though Rubio becomes an object of faith, a representation of European basketball itself as the single most exciting product to come out of The Continent since at least Dirk Nowitzki. Can this wunderkind baffle with his ball-handling in America? To say ‘yes’ is to meet with derision and charges that the viewpoint’s holder underestimates one-on-one defense in the NBA; to say ‘no’ is seemingly to continue denying that top European players are among the tops on the planet.

Now? Heck, BiE wonders if maybe Rubio’s off-year was all about daydreaming of playing in the NBA the whole time. The Spaniard’s play for the Minnesota Timberwolves early on has exceeded expectations.

BiE’s closer on this piece went as follows: “Opinion: Rubio may be slightly overrated (representing a change from the traditional BiE stand, which was heavily involved in helping overrate him – though he did have a great season in 2009-10, gotta admit). On the other hand, perhaps he’s having an off year.

“BallinEurope will choose to believe the latter for now. And before the vitriol rises and the mad keyboard punching begins, BiE will paraphrase Soren Kierkegaard with the closer, “The existence of Rubio’s superhuman talent is founded in our minds not on the basis of logic or reason, but purely on faith.”

Good news, then, devotees, our faith would seem to be getting rewarded.

8. Highlights: Deron Williams in “all-star mode,” goes for 31 points in Eurochallenge win; Besiktas now 7-0. After drawing a bit of criticism for his early play with Beşiktaş, D-Will soon heated up, producing this eye-opening gem against Armia in mid-November. And by the time this guy was scoring 50 a week-and-a-half later, we were already taking performances like this one for granted.

9. Live blogging EuroBasket 2011: Turkey vs. Lithuania (a.k.a. the big match). After what were basically warmup matches for the home team, Team Lithuania finally got a true test in Eurobasket game three with Turkey the opposition. And wow, this game didn’t disappoint with awesome up-tempo play, a controversial flagrant foul call with less than 1½ minutes to play, and a packed house that brought the noise throughout.

10. Return of the Bulldog: Adam Morrison goes for 30 against Union Olimpija. Who knew Morrison was so popular? The former Gonzaga Bulldog became one of the feel-good stories of 2011 in the resurrection of his career with Red Star Belgrade. Folks back ‘Stateside truly began to sit up and take notice after this aggressive 12-of-18 barrage in Adriatic League play. After experiencing a slump in the last two games (going for a combined 3-of-16 overall shooting), Morrison’s Adriatic League averages for 2011 read 15.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.

11. Hey, who wouldn’t want to be like Dirk? Well, in 2011, who? And a happy 2012 to all!

The first 20 will listed by competition, followed the top five runners-up and the champion jam of the year. Who will be no. 1? Read (and watch) on to find out…

Euroleague
• The Dunking Ninja. Of course, you knew Jan Vesely was making this list, so we’ll dispense with the formalities quickly. Here’s a nice, wide-open alley oop that earned him dunk of the in February during the Euroleague’s Top 16 round. Vesely started the 2011-12 as a first-round draft pick with the Washington Wizards, thereby immediately entering into the conversation of coolest NBA nicknames – though one wonders just how many ninja there are in the Czech Republic…

• Pargo-go-go! Another must-have representative of Euroleague jammery, Jeremy Pargo turned in this YouTube-able masterpiece was only number three from an EL Top 16 round game against Virtus Roma. Like Vesely, we’ll see this guy in this list again.

• EL, meet AK-47. European basketball in 2011 will be remembered for the impact of locked-out NBA stars in the early going of the season. Andrei Kirilenko was particularly useful to CSKA Moscow’s fortunes in Euroleague round one, beginning on opening night in Lithuania. (And what’s this? He’s coming back for another tour of duty with the Red Army? Look out, Europe…)

• Sonny Weems for Žalgiris Kaunas, episode one. One NBAer who couldn’t/didn’t reemigrate to North America once the lockout was lifted was the former Toronto Raptor. As a free agent, Weems was one of the first such to sign in Europe for 2011-12, and boy are Žalgiris backers happy. Here’s Weems going to work against Unicaja Malaga…

• Sonny Weems for Žalgiris Kaunas, episode two. … against Brose Baskets Bamberg …

• Sonny Weems for Žalgiris Kaunas, episode three. … and finally in the win-or-go-home Euroleague game 10 against KK Zagreb. The man’s 17.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per EL game ain’t too shabby, either.

NBA
• Pau, when the Lakers looked invincible. Remember the days when these no-look pass from Lamar Odom to Pau Gasol was so routine? Seems like a long time ago, dunnit?

• Jolly good, Mr. DeRozan! The big league came to play in London in March, and whoo boy, did fans get bang for their pounds sterling: The Saturday night game ended up a triple-overtime thriller between the Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets. Though the Nets ended up with the W, Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan contributed a worth-the-admission-price dunk late.

European domestic leagues
• Bryce Taylor’s “Monsterdunk” in Bundesliga championship game five. Slamming home perhaps the jam of the season from Germany, the former University of Oregon contributed this two for Alba Berlin in the decisive championship game while utterly posterizing Predrag Suput. Nevertheless, Suput’s Brose Baskets Bamberg took the game, the title and Germany’s Euroleague spot for 2011-12.

• “Le poster absolut”. Speaking of posters, check out what Diabate Souleyman did to Cliff Hammonds back in early January for Chorale Roanne. As the man says, < >

• Kerusch crushes. And one more. This time the victim was Olympiacos’ Kyle Hines, beaten badly by current rookie Sergio Kerusch of Aris Thessaloniki.

• Kevin Harley: King of the skies, pain. Playing with the Poitiers Basket junior team, Harley got YouTube junkies (ahem) sitting up and taking notice with this insane liftoff … and splashdown. The youngster was “more frightened than hurt” and was able to finish the game.

• Hendrix kisses the sky. In October, while seemingly every other European player was still finding the rhythms, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Richard Hendrix blasted off in a Chance Cup game against Barak Netanya. With the Euroleague side already well into a laugher and up 81-41 in the third quarter (final score 117-66), Hendrix goes…

Dunk contests
• Dar Tucker takes two dunk contests in one year. Yesterday in the slam-dunk festivities in France, Tucker reportedly smoked his competition, easily notching top scores in all three rounds to take the title. This trophy will look nice on his shelf set next to the D-League slam dunk championship he bagged in January. After the contest, Tucker said, “I was very surprised at the level of the competition. There are very good dunkers in France. Max [Kouguere] was particularly good!” (BiE thinks he was just being polite.)

• Two from Poland. Yeah, yeah, the car and the choir were great, yadda yadda. But let’s see Blake Griffin try to reproduce either the visual tribute to His Airness Himself executed by Cameron Bennerman of Energa Czarni or the six-cheerleader leap by winner Łukasz Biedny.

• Europe’s unlikeliest dunk champion. In Germany’s All-Star weekend festivities earlier this year, it was an against-all-odds storyline as Salu Benjamin Tadi took the crown. Why such a longshot? Well, in the unique format of the BBL’s dunk contest, a qualifier is held among second-division amateur players prior to the main event; the winner gets to compete against the Bundesliga pros in the final. You can catch a few rough drafts of the winning jam by clicking here, but the hangtime achieved in the contest ender by the 6’0” Tadi is truly Jordanesque.

Eurobasket 2011
• Yi gods! While August was mostly devoted to national teams participating in friendlies leading up to Eurobasket and other continental tournaments, there wasn’t a lack of highlight clips. Here’s Yi Jianlian contributing one of Team China’s sole happy moments in the London Invitational Tournament against Croatia. That’s mostly Stanko Barac on the receiving end.

• Enes Kanter learns Bill Walton’s dictum. One of the great pleasures of Eurobasket 2011 was studying the performances of exciting up-and-comers such as Team Turkey’s Kanter going up against concentrations of the world’s best talent. While Kanter was hot-and-cold in the tournament, the sidelining of Pau Gasol for the Spain-Turkey match allowed the young Turk to do some damage against brother Marc. And his team stayed alive in the tourney with the win. Throw it down, big man!

• Boom, goes Batum. Nicolas Batum against Russia – damn, has he always been that quick?

• Hometown lad makes good. Things ended disappointingly for Team Lithuania, but the youngest player on the squad, prospective Toronto Raptors Jonas Valanciunas was inspirational. Inspirational enough, in fact, to inspire a song.

Five runners-up
• Beaver brazenly breaks backboard. During the summertime lull, the Oregon State University basketball time visited some teams in FYR Macedonia and thereabouts for exhibition games and general goodwill. And then Roberto “Maybe I’m Strong” Nelson took it to the hole … one wonders in OSU Athletics picked up the tab on the destruction – not to mention the 20 stitches Nelson’s face required.

• The return of the Dunking Ninja. Jan Vesely. Euroleague Top 16 round. Game four. What else do you need to know?

• Air Pocius strikes for Team Lithuania. BiE just loves Martynas. Does this guy actually have invisible wings?

• Dirk dunks a dagger. It’s tough not to give Nowitzki top honors in this “Year of Dirk,” but the big (and now beringed) guy can rest easy with the memories of blowing past Lebron James and The Evil Empire on the baseline in game five of the NBA championship; this one came in the fourth quarter, naturally.

The dunk of the year
• Jeremy Pargo in the Euroleague Final Four. Just look at the way Pargo has to work his way through Real Madrid’s half-court defense. Just look at where he takes off. Just admire the landing. This one would get a 10 from any judge – maybe even Charles Barkley. All things considered, this was the dunk of 2011.

*Los Angeles Lakers fans, over whom a huge cloud of doom hangs to start this season, excluded (sigh).

As in the Eastern Conference preview, BiE seeks to keep an eye on those players who contributed a stint in Continental ball this summer during the lockout period and even, to some, extent participants in Eurobasket 2011. BiE believes that the running start from real game-time situations plus the suddenly intensive NBA season will give the Euroballers an advantage in the short-term against more laggardly opponents not in “basketball shape.” And with the shortened regular season, a jump start will provide lasting effects.

To BiE, it looks something like this.

Northwest Division
It’s another case of ecstasy in being proven wrong: Since at least, what, the beginning of the 2009-10 Euroleague season, BiE has brazenly (though not Fearlessly™) told anyone who’d listen that Ricky Rubio would never play ball for the Minnesota Timberwolves, we’re just a day away from that very occurrence. The Human Highlight Clip went to work a couple times in the preseason and could start all 66 games this year.

But could Ricky even lead what GM David “Noonien Singh” Kahn likes to think may be a “steady rise to the top”? Wellllllllllllllllllllll, BiE wouldn’t necessarily go that far, though this is a scintillating, exciting lineup suddenly, with Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, Derrick Williams and J.J. Barea aboard.

But wait! From Europe are ‘Wolves Nikola Pekovic and – o, yeah – Darko Milicic. Does any realize that Minnesota is 19-90 (.174) since acquiring Darko? These two things can’t be related, can they? This dude is as good a passer as Vlade Divac, after all…

We’ll see early on as the Timberwolves get to play tomorrow night against the mighty scary-looking…

…Oklahoma City Thunder. European basketball fans can’t help but to have noticed Serge Ibaka in the past half-year, with the naturalized Spaniard going from the NBA playoffs to Eurobasket to Liga Endesa/Euroleague play with Real Madrid. And he’s looked mostly real good throughout.

As essentially the sole new member on Team Spain for the European championship, Ibaka typically got 15-20 minutes per game for Los Rojos. A couple of key performances came against Lithuania (15 points on 7-of-9 shooting with quite a few dunks and putbacks, nine rebounds, two blocks) and France (10 points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes of play) in early rounds, but the real badass came to play in the championship game. While scoring just four points, Ibaka controlled the middle whenever on the floor and totaled five blocks in denying Les Bleus access to the paint.

Chasing this, Ibaka merely contributing single-digit scoring with a block or 1.5 per game in Spain and in the EL for weeks, until suddenly unleashed and blowing up just as the lockout ended for back-to-back games of five blocks and 12 points against Spirou Charleroi, then a monster 15-point, five-dunk, nine-rebound, six-block tour de force against CAI Zaragoza.

BiE can’t wait to see this guy in a starting role playing a lot of minutes – any question he’ll win the block title this season? And, o yeah, the rest of the Thunder’s pretty good, too. Real good. Championship-level good.

The Denver Nuggets have an interesting roster happening, including lockout Euroballers Danilo Gallinari (with Emporio Armani Milano), Rudy Fernandez (Real Madrid), Ty Lawson (Žalgiris Kaunas) and Timofey Mozgov (BC Khimki Moscow Region). Gallinari is certainly getting the thumbs up from top-level pundits, with ESPN’s fantasy basketball machine proclaiming him “[maybe] the best player on the Nuggets this season,” while touting his “game-high 23 points in a game-high 34 minutes in the Nuggets’ preseason finale victory Thursday night. Gallinari’s shot was off (6-for-17 FG), but he was able to get to the line (9-for-9 FT) and knock down a couple of treys while also producing six boards, three assists and two steals.”

Indeed, Gallinari’s shooting percentage has been in a steady decline in the NBA since entering the league, a trend that keeps him away from all-star (or at least near all-star) status. Who knows? Maybe the lack of distraction will help.

BiE believes Lawson will be worth watching. Established as point guard with a swell stat line of 11.7 points on 50.3% shooting plus 4.7 assists per game, Ty will serve as the poster boy for BiE’s “ready to play” ideology. Plus, maybe he’ll tweet something interesting…

Then there’s Fernandez. Probably the last NBAer out of Europe, this guy has been pining to get out of American ball for some time. As the lockout ended, Real Madrid talked about attempting to keep Rudy aboard … then he had troublesome visa problems … let’s just hope the new team means a new start for the Madridista.

Finally! Enes Kanter suits up for the Utah Jazz! And with Mehmet Okur now dealt, Kanter should be seeing lots of quality time behind Al Jefferson – after seeing some nice continued development on Kanter’s part during Eurobasket, BiE anticipates the Turk’s season highly; with more confidence and work on ball-handling skills, this guy is bound to leave up to his ample promise. (Doing it in Utah, do you think anyone will notice…?)

Who can tell what the Portland Trail Blazers will do? And how much Nicolas Batum (SLUC Nancy) will be a factor? BiE loved what he did in Euroleague after another up year in the NBA…

Southwest Division
First up here: The champs, Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks. It would be so easy to choose the Mavs to repeat – after all, this is the NBA, where dynasties and mini-dynasties happen. All the time – but wasn’t there something of a lightning-in-a-bottle effect last season? A perfect storm of events that included an imploding defending champion and an arrogant up-and-coming contender? Remarkably free of injury late for a squad bringing so many key veterans (Jason Kidd, Peja Stojakovic, etc.), the Mavericks weren’t exactly lucky per se but as with championship teams, the breaks went their way.

None of this is to detract from Nowitzki’s remarkable 2010-11 season, however. Nowitzki entered discussions of “top 20 NBA players of all-time” and “top European players ever” last year, and justifiably so as everyone discovered that he’d been doing this for years. And years and years in Dallas. Imagine the talk triggered by a repeat…

So can they repeat? Well, the best deal of the offseason may ultimately go down as the Lamar Odom-for-soda crackers trade – what a great shot in the arm for this roster, and one that will allow Dirk’s range to be further extended with Odom inside. Scary.

In the European interest is the current development of Rodrigue Beaubois, now ready to garner more minutes (last season marked his career high of 17.6 per game) with the departure of J.J. Barea. Much more than expected, say, three months ago, of the onus to repeat will be on Beaubois in 2011-12.

Despite his 10 years in the uniform, it will be strange to see Tony Parker donning San Antonio Spurs gear again. After a half-year’s worth of status as undisputed team leader and center of hype for Eurobasket’s silver-medaling Team France followed by Eurocuppers Asvel Villeurbanne, Parker becomes yet another piece in the puzzle with the perpetual playoff team. Again, though, BiE thinks the European warmup will do Parker and thus San Antonio much good in the early going. If he’s looking like an all-star point guard by late February, will management be so willing to trade him as has been so often rumored?

Then there’s Tiago Splitter, the former Euroleague force with Caja Laboral Baskonia. Splitter got in late to the European game this autumn, thereby playing just a handful of games with Valencia BC, though he looked impressive in his element of endless waves of the pick-and-roll. BiE found Splitter quite frustrating in NBA play in 2010-11, however, as he looked far too often to contentedly plant in the high post and set the occasional pick. Splitter could help form the nucleus for this team’s future with a modicum of constructive aggression.

What should have been could have been Pau Gasol’s new team before the whole Chris Paul-to-the Lakers deal was cruelly and pathetically subverted voided, the Houston Rockets, still have some Europeans to look for. Luis Scola is still around, fighting for minutes with three other power forwards on the current roster, while BiE fears Goran “The Dragon” Dragic may starve for minutes behind Kyle Lowery.

The best re-signing of the offseason: It’s gotta be the Memphis Grizzlies reupping Marc Gasol, doesn’t it? And in terms of the preseason workout ethic, Marc and brother Pau may have made the best decision of the lot in merely training with FC Barcelona: With little chance of injury and mostly basketball-skills conditioning going on, aren’t the Gasols primed to play?

As for Jeremy Pargo, formerly memorably of Maccabi Tel Aviv, his two-year extension signed in December is a good sign he’ll stick around despite a crowd at point guard in Memphis.

In the short term, perhaps the best that can be said for the New Orleans Hornets in 2011-12 is that Chris Kaman is in a contract year. (What? He’s German, right?) And we’re cheering for Marco Belinelli, too. On those one or two occasions we watch the Hornets.

Pacific Division
All the hype going into the season is on the newly christened “Lob City,” a.k.a. Los Angeles, Clippers. And why not? What’s more exciting sounding that YouTube fodder feeder of Chris Paul to Blake Griffin. On the other hand, can BiE throw a little sobriety into the party? Look, after these two and Chauncey Billups, the roster gets pretty damn sparse. Do they really have no natural centers to back up DeAndre Jordan? After Griffin at power forward, they’re going to Ryan Gomes and Brian Cook? And don’t the Clippers have a history of bizarre knee ailments? BiE’d be holding his breath between gasp-worthy dunks if he were a Clips fan. Otherwise, enjoy the party.

For the Phoenix Suns, the battle at center: Robin Lopez vs. Marcin Gortat!

Message from Sacramento Kings: Come back, Omri Casspi! All is forgiven!

Golden State Warriors’ starting center Andris Biedrins is looking to bounce back from a couple injury-riddled seasons with the club. He’ll definitely be depended on from among a very slim frontcourt … And who’s this? Jeremy Tyler? And listed on the depth chart behind Kwame Brown … how utterly appropriate.

Then there are the Los Angeles Lakers. As a Lakers fan, BiE can tell you that two years removed from a title already seems like decades … and the season hasn’t even begun yet. What is this existential angst hanging over this team going into 2011-12? Of course, it’s all about The Trade That Was Never Made. It’s impossible to determine what exactly was the worst bit about that disaster – even if you keep it Laker-related. Maybe it was losing Odom for nothing to the team that smoked ‘em in the playoffs last year. Maybe it was having a vision of a clear future of excellence nastily snatched away in hours. Or maybe, as BiE fears, it was the effect on Pau Gasol’s psyche.

As the Lakers crumbled steadily in the playoffs before collapsing in Dallas, Gasol was the epicenter of rumor and implied blame; many stories revolved around a nasty breakup with a girlfriend. Whatever the cause, it didn’t take B.F. Skinner to see that Gasol was in shape but distracted, blessed with stamina but not willpower.

After the non-trade was announced, he reportedly felt “devastated,” probably, reasons the suddenly suicide-level pessimistic L.A. backers (you’d be too if your fourth-best player was Josh McRoberts), erasing any good an all-tournament team showing in Eurobasket and proper training with Barcelona. And, as a Laker fan, BiE will just stop before the keyboard gets too soggy with tears.

The Official BallinEurope Fearless Predictions™ for the Western Conference playoffs, in order of seeding: Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves. Your Western Conference champions will be Oklahoma City, but they’ll lose to the Chicago Bulls in the finals.

To the games!

The process of elimination went the following way, in reverse order of finish, and garnishing with highlight clips.

10. Dimitris Diamantidis, Panathinaikos. Yes, Double-D was the Euroleague MVP and the Euroleague Final Four MVP for 2010-11. Yes, he thus established himself as one of the five or six greatest of the EL modern era. But Diamantidis did not play any international ball, whereas all other nine nominees participated in Eurobasket 2011 and most where instrumental to their team’s successes. Dimitris simply has the shortest CV of a very talented ten.

9. Dusko Savanovic, Power Electronics Valencia/Anadolu Efes/Team Serbia. Savanovic may not have even been the best player on an ultimately disappointing Serbian side that lost six of its last seven games to finish eighth in the Eurobasket tournament. (Nenad Krstic? Milos Teodosic, anyone…?) Savanovic seemed to get swamped with the tide as Serbia sank late, only managed to top 4-of-9 shooting twice in that seven-game stretch.

This is not to say that Savanovic can’t be clutch. After all, he live on forever in Valencia BC annals for the game-winning shot that put the Spanish side into the Euroleague Top 16…

8. Nicolas Batum, SLUC Nancy/Portland Trail Blazers/Team France. How old is this guy? What? He’ll be 23 on Wednesday? BiE guess we’ll have to call his 2010-11 NBA season (of 12.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists per regular-season game) as his coming of age on the international stage, with the 2011 Eurobasket tournament and subsequent play with SLUC Nancy during the lockout the icing of that reputation. But even before his two Euroleague Player of the Week awards, Batum turned in one of the great clutch performances of 2011 for Les Bleus against Team Russia in the Eurobasket semifinal with his “all-action line of 19 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks.” BiE can’t believe we’re only up to number eight…

7. Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies/Team Spain. Like Batum, Gasol The Younger will have a few more chances at winning this award – how about in, say, 2012, after a deep run by the surprising Memphis Grizzlies chased by a silver- (or gold-!) medal win by Los Rojos at the Olympics …? Marc did have one heck of a 2010-11, though, enjoying an all-star level performance in the regular season; a playoffs in which he averaged a 15.0/11.2 double-double while generally performing at a level diametrically opposed to that of his older sibling; and a nearly turbulent-free cruise through Eurobasket as he and brother Pau formed a twin-tower combination built for schooling young ‘uns like Enes Kanter. To paraphrase the governator, “he’ll be back.”

6. Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers/Team Spain. You’d think that after starting at center in the NBA All-Star Game and leading one of the best national teams ever assembled in points and rebounds in Eurobasket would get Pau ranked higher, but the truth is that, fair, fortunate or not, for the 2010 FIBA Europe Player of the Year, 2011 will be remembered as the year in which he, ahem, “led” the Lakers’ ignominious collapse in the NBA playoffs. No way can he make this ballot, particularly with the suddenly reborn possibility that he could enter “disgruntled” status after landing with the Houston Rockets. And this has nothing to do with the fact that BiE is a Lakers fan. Well, not much.

5. Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs/Asvel Basket/Team France. Tough elimination here … the last name to be definitively crossed off the list nevertheless had a year for the ages, turning in his usual solid season for the Spurs at 17.5 points, 6.6 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game. While Western Conference-winning San Antonio was bounced early, Parker contributed the second-most points (19.7 per game) and dished the most assists (5.2) for his team in six games of the first-round series.

All Parker did to “redeem” himself was write his and Team France’s way into the history books at Eurobasket 2011, leading the tournament in scoring, FG attempts, and FGs made. Given more weapons on a national team than ever before, Parker was nevertheless an indispensable force in getting Les Bleus to their first-ever Eurobasket final.

Parker capped the calendar year by becoming one of the first NBA players to announce a jump overseas; while proving utterly crucial to Asvel’s success in French League and Eurocup play, Parker may be creating something of a financial model for European basketball stars, particularly in times of labor troubles: That of the team executive/player.

Four names remain … now we come to the hard bit, so let’s dispense a couple of easy formalities first.

1. Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks/Team Germany. Nowitzki last won this award in 2005, the first year of the award. Compared to that year, Dirk is down statistically in all major statistical categories from games played to free throw attempts to assists. But come on! Proving unstoppable in the 2011 NBA playoffs while simultaneously shrugging a big monkey off his back, entering “all-time greatest” conversations and dispatching the EEEEvil Miami Heat? Yep, Nowitzki wins.

2. Juan Carlos Navarro, FC Barcelona/Team Spain. Navarro is to European basketball as Nowitzki is to the NBA: Ever-reliable, always there to consistently produce for consistently winning teams. Though Barça suffered an early exit out of the Euroleague playoffs, the Blaugrana nevertheless took the ACB title – with Navarro named tournament MVP. Team Spain of course took gold at Eurobasket 2011 … with Navarro named tournament MVP. Just for good measure, La Bomba helped Barca to the Spanish Cup … and was named tournament MVP, has led his team to a 17-1 overall run to start 2010-11, and just became the modern-era Euroleague career scoring leader. A pretty good year.

And so they meet yet again to decide the final spot on the BallinEurope ballot: It’s down to Andrei Kirilenko and Bo McCalebb.

Regarding Kirilenko, forget his season with the Utah Jazz (even though his stat line was a respectable 11.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists in a turbulent year for the team); if we’re talking *European* Player of the Year, just consider what the AK-47 did on The Continent in 2011. As the oldest player on a decidedly more up-tempo Team Russia than he’s used to, Kirilenko was nevertheless a monster at Eurobasket 2011, leading the third-place finishers in scoring, offensive rebounds and total rebounds; plus, his 29 steals was best of the tournament.

But it was with CSKA Moscow that Kirilenko really demonstrated his brilliance and abilities as a model European player. After arriving about 14 minutes before the season began, Kirilenko was thrice named Player of the Week in six weeks of Euroleague play, sometimes killing with shooting, sometimes crashing the boards, sometimes doing it through intangibles. From a purely selfish perspective, one of the worst outcomes of the NBA lockout settlement is the departure of the most dominant performer we’ve recently seen in Europe’s biggest league.

Finally, what about Bo? BallinEurope can feel the shudders all across The Continent in reaction to this nomination. Seriously, a New Orleanian who’d barely stepped foot in FYR Macedonia suddenly becoming a citizen of that country and subsequently gaining eligibility to awards like such as this? McCalebb’s new passport was quite the subject of debate among the Eurobasket press corps, let BiE tell ya.

Put the micro-geopolitics aside momentarily, though, and consider the kind of ball Bo brought to Europe in 2010-11. After a Euroleague season in which McCalebb led a youthful Partizan Belgrade to a shocking Final Four finish, Bo moved to Italy and, despite a knee injury, returned to the tournament to help Montepaschi Siena land a third-place finish. He’s already adding to his personal highlight clip this year as well with a 23-point show against Unics Kazan a couple weeks ago.

And then there was the biggest surprise and perhaps even the single biggest story (competing only with Spain’s dominance and France’s first-ever finals appearance) of Eurobasket 2011: Team FYR Macedonia. McCalebb fearlessly and meticulously led his equally fearless and meticulous national team to mouse-that-roared status at the European tournament. With the point guard position given such exaggerated importance at tourneys of this ilk, McCalebb added an exciting cutting-and-slashing dimension throughout Eurobasket, consistently drawing attention while contributing to the best side in terms of ball protection and turnover differential in the competition.

As awesome as Navarro and Pau Gasol were, as brilliant a field general as Parker was, no Eurobasket team – and perhaps no European team on any level in 2010-11 – so depended on a single player as did the 2012 Olympic qualifiers FYR Macedonia.

So, how about it? Who gets the no. 3 spot on BallinEurope’s ballot? Good thing that BiE has until January to figure this out…

…and Europe! The Continent-centric BallinEurope has unabashedly become addicted to the little birdie’s ‘site, and yesterday proved quite fruitful for those anxiously awaiting more imports into top pan-European and domestic leagues. After the dismal news of Monday and impending dissolution of the players’ union plus imminent anti-trust lawsuits, more and more stars are finally willing to cut the cord to the NBA, bite the bullet and, you know, try that whole European basketball thing.

Below run the results what BiE’s Twitter scorecard from yesterday; stars include the Gasol Brothers, Kevin Durant, Jan Vesely, Joakim Noah, Tiago Splitter, Kyrie Irving and many more.

• The big deal of the day was reported by SLAM Magazine, among others: “Pau and Marc Gasol to Play in Spain if NBA Season Gets Cancelled.” Pau in particular has been flirting with the possibility of rejoining the Liga Endesa power for some time and this move is seeming evermore inevitable. But sheesh, with a roster including the Gasols, Juan Carlos Navarro and Victor Sada, why don’t they just rename the squad “Team Spain” and be done with it? (Unless, of course, Real Madrid already owns the rights…)

• Walter Sobchak – if that is his real name – of Turkish Hoops poured a little gasoline on fire with his tweet that “Rumor, just a rumor: Kevin Durant, Hedo Turkoglu and Omer Asik to Fenerbahce Ulker?”

Turkey-based Turyiet also speculates on this gossip, but one must remember that Walter is a big propagator of the “#lockoutfantasies” Twitter tag, among which Turkish Hoops dreams that “Reports say Anadolu Efes is very close to reach an agreement with LeBron James” and “Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki to Galatasaray? Gasol and Kobe to Besiktas? Duncan and Ginobili to Fenerbahce?” BiE must say he loves this guy’s style…

• Washington Wizards lottery pick Jan Vesely may be back on the fence vis-à-vis a return to Partizan Belgrade or elsewhere in Europe; tweeted France-based Basket News: “Jan Vesely n’exclut pas de revenir jouer au Partizan Belgrade.”

• Basket News also reported on Joakim Noah, who may also be tired of waiting out the lockout: “Joakim Noah prendra cette semaine une décision. Sur RMC, il s’est dit tenté par l’opportunité de jouer pour le Paris Levallois.” The big-market club could really use this boost, as the 4-2 team sits in a tie for fourth on the LNB table behind Euroleague side SLUC Nancy, Eurocuppers Cholet Basket and FIBA Eurochallenge’s Gravelines Dunkerque.

Specifically, Noah was quoted in Le Parisien as stating that “I am a little disappointed because I thought the NBA season would soon begin. I will make a decision within a week, but it is sure that if I return to France, Paris would [be good for me].” (“Je suis un peu déçu, car je croyais que la saison NBA allait bientôt commencer. Je vais prendre une décision dans la semaine, mais c’est sûr que, si je reviens en France, Paris me plairait.”) And Noah reconfirms that he’ll make a decision next week in the article as well.

• Locked out San Antonio Spur/former Caja Laboral Baskonia big man Tiago Splitter is reportedly being courted by Real Madrid, Unicaja Malaga, Caja Laboral, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Emporio Armani Milano. The shakily reliable Eurobasket.com this morning reports that a deal between Splitter and Unicaja is in place.

• No word from frustrated no. 1 overall NBA Draft pick Kyrie Irving, but the former Duke University baller did weigh in on one important issue affecting players in his particular niche within the drama: “The lockout isn’t a joke but people pretend like they can just try to violate us rookies…ain’t happening.”

• Andres Nocioni has turned down a contract offer from Caja Laboral Baskonia, but Luis Scola is weighing his options. Plus, the Spanish side also hopes to bring Maciej Lampe aboard soon.

• Would you believe a comeback from 54-year-old Bernard King? “Pour remplacer Nate Carter, blessé, Châlons-Reims a signé l’ancien Havrais Bernard King en tant que pigiste medical.” BiE hasn’t found anything to back this one up, though it sounds fascinating.

• Excruciating pun of the day came from the awesome False Hoop: “#NBANuclearWinter For Deron Williams on Thanksgiving … more Turkey.”

• Igor Rakocevic of Montepaschi Siena summed up the sentiments of many over here when he tweeted, perhaps thinking of Omri Casspi’s joining Maccabi Tel Aviv, that “If now many NBA stars come to EL it is going to be strongest Euroleague ever!”

• Finally, here’s an early (and solid) prediction for the 2012 NBA champions, per tweet by IamaGM.

On the other hand, the truth is that dozens of the world’s greatest players are doing nothing basketball-related, denying everyday fans – call us “The 99%” – the greatest minute-by-minute sports entertainment on Earth. Sure, it’s great to see Andrei Kirilenko, Tony Parker, Deron Williams and Nicolas Batum play well in Continental games *that honestly matter*, but what about Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Pau Gasol, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera?

(Incidentally, BiE knows how some readers of/commenters on this website feel about the performances of locked-out players in Europe. BiE says: Give it time. If the lockout in fact cancels the NBA season, BiE’d take any of the teams with the above-mentioned players to go far domestically, in European regional leagues and even, in CSKA Moscow’s case at very least, in the Euroleague.)

In any event, kudos go out from BallinEurope to Rube (or maybe that’s Mr. Elrube or even Mr. El Rube) and Deadspin for producing/disseminating the “NBA Lockout Anthem,” a rap that deftly encapsulates what most of us are feeling about the boardroom drama keeping the courtroom drama offline.

Despite it all, suggests Tom Schad in the Copenhagen Post Online, “Denmark could become world beaters in basketball.” Citing the examples of Tony Parker, Dirk Nowitzki and Yao Ming, Schad argues that it only takes “one great player to give a country hope” in its national basketball program, and “For Denmark, maybe that player is about to arrive.”

That would be Anton Larsen, currently with Old Dominion University.

It’s a compelling argument, as basketball allows one outstanding player to carry a team through a tournament single-handedly – and Spain can be added to the list of countries that came from seemingly out of nowhere to become a perpetual powerhouse in the modern era.

On the other hand, if Larsen’s the centerpiece, wellllllll … time will tell, one supposes.

The seven-footer played sparingly in Saturday’s 63-46 loss to Northern Iowa (!), going just 0-of-1 from the floor in seven minutes. Last year, as a sophomore, Larsen played in 12 games last season, with season totals of 15 points and nine rebounds in 36 minutes.

Another potential problem: Larsen is 23 years old; at his age, Nowitzki had already played three years of NBA ball and was the top scorer in EuroBasket 2001. Parker wore two NBA championship rings (!!!) and one EuroBasket bronze medal. The Monarch is a bit behind the curve here, but presumably we’ll be seeing him with Team Denmark in FIBA Europe’s Division B play in 2013.

So call Larsen, like Danish basketball (particularly the U18s, whom Schad notes “finished second and are now considered one of the best young squads in Europe. Teen phenoms Rasmus Glarbjerg and Esben Reinholt will be particularly interesting to watch”), a work in progress. It’s good that they’re keeping the faith up there…

Name: Jan Vesely
Country: Czech Republic
Club: Partizan Belgrade
Position: SF/PF
Height: 6’11” (211 cm)
Age: 21 (born April 1990)

The continued arguments about which 2011 European NBA draft pick has the most potential will be answered within five years: And within that time Jan Vesely could have become Rookie of the Year, an all-star, a dunk contest participant … you name it, he could do it – that’s how much I believe in this guy, and that’s how much potential Jan has.

Not many players would turn down the contract of a top-20 draft pick to return to Europe for a year, work on their game, and come back to be selected only a few positions higher, but that’s just what Vesely did. He knew he wasn’t ready so he made himself better with a work ethic that puts guys like Daniel Orton – and all those guys who were drafted last year, played rare minutes and collected junk stats rather than returning to college for improvement – to shame,.

An ESPN Insider article that I read a few weeks back stated that “[Jonas] Valaciunas might have the most upside of any draft pick in this year’s class. Who doesn’t need a scoring machine who can rebound, run and defend? He’s also a high-motor player.

“Put it this way: If he was coming out of college after a year at UNC, he’d have gone No. 1 overall.”

You can make the same argument for Jan: If he had gone to Duke or any other NCAA school for a year, he too would be a no. 1 overall pick – but back in 2010, after just one year of college ball.

If you read my profile of Jan prior to the 2010 NBA draft, then you know some things about this guy already: He’s known as the European Blake Griffin, he is 6’11” and plays small forward, and he has been compared to Andrei Kirilenko. Vesely can score from outside and in, and lastly he is a tremendous energy guy … and that’s not all he can do, as there’s that work ethic, that desire to improve himself. When you look at potential, Vesely has bucket loads with the attitude to match.

With the Washington Wizards, alongside John Wall, the highlights should be limitless and the way Vesely jumps will give Wall a player to throw ridiculous lobs to anywhere near the basket. Teamed with Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee, Rashard Lewis, Chris Singleton, Yi Jianlian and potentially Nick Young (if the Wizards decide to resign him), this Wizards squad has a good mix of both young talent and veteran leadership.

The list of Europeans with limitless potential is at an all-time high this year; with the likes of Vesely, Valaciunas, Enes Kanter and Nikola Mirotic, it’s now a race to see who will become the next best European Player in the NBA and who will be passed the torch from stars like Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki.

Sam Chadwick is the co-head coach of the Solent Kestrels U14 basketball team, along with dividing the remainder of his time among an assistant quantity surveyor job, university studies and sportswriting. You can follow him on Twitter at @chadwick9.