Ball in Europe – European Basketball Blog

One more announcement from the FIBA folks today and this one’s surely no surprise: For an unprecedented third straight year, the honor of FIBA Europe Young Men’s Player of the Year goes to Spanish wunderkind Ricky Rubio.

Rubio’s win makes Spain two-for-two on FIBA Europe accolades this year and, with Pau Gasol expected to bookend his 2008 Men’s Player of the Year with one for 2009 by dint of his country’s win at Eurobasket 2009 and his club’s win in the 2009 NBA Championship, one can’t help but wonder if Spain (and Ana Montañana) pulls off the sweep. We’ll find out on Friday…

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This story is just in and so congratulations are just going out from Ball in Europe to Alba Torrens, who has taken the first of FIBA’s four annual “player of the year” awards, taking the 2009 Young Women’s Player of the Year. Finishing behind Torrens in the voting were, in order, Louice Halvarrson, Jelena Milovanovic and Gintare Petronyte.

Official FIBA press release follows the break.

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Milos comes of age

This season has already been seen as a “Next Level” step for the 22-year-old and with Euroleague officials of naming him Player of the Month for January 2010, the confirmation of Milos Teodosic as the first great new star of the ‘10s is here.

After the youngster was named to the Eurobasket 2009 All-Tournament Team, Euroleague – and particularly Reds fans – have awaited the megastardom of Teodosic. Through the 2009-10 season, the guard hasn’t disappointed, shooting at an incredible 71.9% rate in the big league while maintaining a line of 11.5 points and 4.5 assists per game.

Congratulations, Milos, and may your promising career continue prosperously!

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Koponen: Something to talk about

Welcome to the 10s, everyone! Now, enough with the pleasantries: With an entire demarcated decade stretching out before us, Ball in Europe wonders about future headlines, about who’s coming up, about “Who’s Next” in ESPNspeak. Here’s to thinking we’ll be talking about some of the following this decade…

• Enes Kanter. It’s impossible to tell at present where the sensation (and MVP) of the 2009 FIBA U18 European Championship will be going in 2010 and beyond, unless “upward” is included as a potential location. Despite announcing his intention to play NCAA basketball at University of Washington next season, certain improprieties Kanter may or may have not been involved with at Fenerbahçe Ülker could keep him from playing at his stated destination next year; the question of whether Kanter actually played professionally with Fenerbahçe reportedly led to his departure from Las Vegas’ Findlay College Prep in September.

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A notable for Team Hungary in Eurobasket 2009 and former PAOK player Zoltán Horváth has died from injuries suffered in a car crash yesterday. He was 30.

After spending most of his career in Hungary’s domestic league, Horváth got with PAOK for the 2008-09 season, but had been playing this season with Falco KC Szombathely. Horváth put up huge numbers of 21.3 points and 10.4 rebounds per game in the Hungarian league this year.

In Eurobasket 2009, the big guy helped the surprising Magyars to an impressive showing in the tournament, helping them reach Division A for 2010 with a twelve-point, nine-rebound effort against Estonia in the competition’s final match.

Condolences and messages are requested to be left at the team’s Facebook page.

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Huge in 2006: Sofoklis and Team Greece

After taking a look at the European players of the decade and top professional teams of the decade, BallinEurope today turns attention to the national level. Which teams from the 2000s will we still recall fondly in years to come? Below are listed eight key national squads from the passing ten-year span, the unforgettable basketball teams that made their marks in sports history.

• 2001-02 Yugoslavia. Sure, Team USA had taken hits to its perceived invulnerability in international competition between meeting Oscar Schmidt in 1987 and Y2K, but on one day in 2002, the Yugoslavian team slammed the door on American preeminence in basketball forever. And this was after breezing through Eurobasket 2001, winning five of six games by double-digit margins. Yugoslavia was the only country to take golds at Eurobasket and FIBA World competitions with (basically) the same team; the 2002 roster included Dejan Bodiroga, Peja Stojakovic, Marko Jaric, Dejan Milojevic, Vlade Divac and Vladimir Radmanovic, a roster good enough to merit mention among a discussion of greatest basketball teams ever assembled, period.

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Good morning, b-ball devotees. Ball in Europe’s daily dose of video clips and text blurbs from around the internet is here. In today’s edition, Papaloukas and Kleiza go off, Andrea Bargnani sounds off, an Israeli executive gets pissed off, and some stuff on Allen Iverson — true, not European ball, but come on! It’s A.I.!

Enjoy, all!

• Of course, the headlines from last night are all about the Entente Orleanaise-Olympiacos match. Not only did Orleanaise force the Reds to mount a furious fourth-quarter comeback, but Theo Papaloukas, in getting a few more touches with Josh Childress away, scored himself some immortality by entering the Euroleague record books with 14 assists in the game. See below for the Papaloukas-Kleiza – i mean, Orleanaise-Olympiacos – highlights.

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Some news from the women’s coaching ranks today for you, with one definitive career move and one seat rumored to be getting hotter.

In Lithuania, Team Lithuania/TEO Vilnius coach Rutenis Paulauskas has relinquished both duties in the hopes of taking his career to the men’s game. The national women’s team was a bit disappointing at Eurobasket 2009, managing just a 1-5 showing.

The resignation was announced after Paulauskas met with Mindaugas Balčiūnas, secretary-general of Lithuanian basketball governing body LKF.

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Ivkovic: "Košarkaškog saveza Srbije skandalozni"

Maybe something was lost in the translation, but the English-language version of the Serbian edition of Blic reports that Team Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic and all-time great Vlade Divac have leveled some serious verbal fireworks in the direction of the national association.

Today at Blic.rs, Serbia Basketball Association honorary president Bora Stankovic fires back at Ivkovic and, by association Divac, who reportedly backed up the coach on his assessment of “scandalous relations” within the group leadership.

Calling the comments “laughable and sad,” Stankovic assures that Ivkovic’ “accusations simply don’t stand” while defending the record with “the people at the Association must be doing something right. Especially now, when Serbia, a nation which got its independence as recently as two years ago, is back on the European basketball map.”

Stankovic went on the deflect the blame for what Ivkovic and Divac see as problematic onto the individual Serbian professional basketball clubs.

On his part, Divac is reported to have stated that “u Savezu sede neradnici,” a phrase the Blic folks translated as “the Union are slackers.” (Can a Serbian speaker confirm this phraseology…?)

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Onto Group F of the 2009-10 FIBA EuroChallenge go the BallinEurope.com primers … Group F features quite a grab-bag of contenders, once each from Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey. Should be a weird one.

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