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On Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Giannakopoulos and the Greek League mess +++ Indoctrinating the youth into basketball fandom: Boston Celtics backer shows how it’s done +++ Podcast: Interview with Team Poland/Lietuvos Rytas coach Dirk Bauermann +++ Eurobasket 2013: Which NBA players are in, which are out? +++ Adidas Eurocamp: Edgaras Ulanovas demonstrates effortless 70-foot shot +++ Cinderella story in France as no. 8 seed JSF Nanterre wins LNB title, 2013-14 Euroleague spot (theoretically) +++ Team Latvia tops USA All-Stars in China (no, really) +++ CSU Asesoft Ploiești defend title, become Romanian champions for 9th time in 10 seasons +++ Weekend tipoff for Reality Check streetball tournament in Frankfurt +++ Podcast: Interviewing NBA Draft prospect Dario Saric, San Antonio Spurs writer Matthew Tynan; also Forgetting Paris +++
Feb
2

Basketball Movies in 2012: The winner of the Oscar (Robertson) for Best Full-Length Documentary is…

Other Dream Team posterCongratulations from BallinEurope go out this morning to Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Day-Lewis, the Argo team, Jennifer Lawrence (swoon) and the other winners of Academy Awards last night. And now, it’s decision time here.

The annual bestowing of BallinEurope’s Oscar (Robertson) Awards for basketball excellence in 2012 has seen Thunderstruck, The Dream Team and The Harlem Globetrotters take awards in their individual categories, leaving the prize for “Best Full-Length Documentary” still to be awarded — and lemme tell ya, BiE has spent way too much time thinking it over this weekend.

The no-brainer nominee (and well worthy) is the long-awaited The Other Dream Team, which was finally released in 2012 after more than two years of buildup and production. And damn, was it worth the wait.

For those somehow not in the know on this film, The Other Dream Team tells the story of the 1992 Lithuanian men’s basketball team, a squad essentially assembled from scratch, rather like its home nation itself in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. As with their Team USA counterparts in that fateful year (not to mention the silver-winning Croatia and even the fourth-place “Unified Team”), the scope of Team Lithuania’s story is huge. Unlike The Dream Team’s run to immortality in Barcelona, though, this team’s podium finish carried all the weight of history with more than a touch of good-humored wackiness.

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Jun
2

Official 2010 BallinEurope mock draft, version 3.1: Round two, the first 15

With just days to go before 2010 NBA Draft. BallinEurope’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick is frantically formulating and reformulating his mock draft board. Today, Chadwick forecasts the first 15 choices in round two, including his homeboy/new best buddy Ryan Richards

31. New Jersey Nets: Jerome Jordan (7’1”, C, Tulsa, Senior). New Jersey picks up another big man to come off the bench behind Lopez, giving the Nets a starting unit of Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Chris Douglas-Roberts, prospective no. 3 overall pick Derrick Favors and Lopez, with a second unit of a free-agent PG, Terrico White, Terrance Williams, Yi Jianlian and Jordan.

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Oct
1

One thing you didn’t know about Marco Belinelli

Well, maybe it’s a few things you didn’t know about Marco, but just one that I noticed on the official Golden State Warriors blog (via ESPN’s TrueHoop).

I thought I knew a lot about Marco but I still happened to learn some more today reading an excellent article on Italy-based Gazzetta dello Sport website (Italian language). Various things I learned: Marco can’t drive, so he asked one of his best friends to come over to the ‘States to be his driver.

He lives in a big house close to the Berkeley campus in San Francisco. He was nicknamed “Cookie Monster” by his teammates because of his love for American cookies. The only thing is that this love made him gain 4 kilos … He’s now supposed to go easy on the cookies. Last but not least, Kobe Bryant gave him his cell phone number and they’re trading text messages.

Yeah, Marco’s life could be a dream come true … if only he could dance…

See, Marco Belinelli cannot dance at all. Or maybe he is shy, I don’t know him personally, but this made him lose some of his poker face. I remember when him on draft night in New York… Continue Reading…