Is Vassilis Spanoulis throwing down a gauntlet? As the Euroleague official website leads its interview with The Captain by describing him as having “taken his place among the all-time greats of basketball by leading Olympiacos Piraeus to just the second Euroleague repeat title in the last two decades,” the below picture appears on the site’s front page.
Given that Olympiacos’ trophy was taken in Britain, does anyone else sense a subliminal message here, perhaps to the rest of the ‘League…?
The entire interview with Spanoulis may be found here.
The eminently quotable Sonny Weems was in fine form before his club’s matchup with Olympiacos in Euroleague Final Four play. See below for his talk with media members in which he downplays the revenge factor going into tonight’s game (of course, Sonny was not one of the half-dozen players who ended up on the wrong side of the big league’s biggest championship upset ever) and speaks of the difference between playing for CSKA Moscow and Žalgiris Kaunas.
And finally, for those who assume that any player worth his salt would automatically eschew European basketball for the NBA, watch to the end for a hint on Weems’ future with the Red Army. (Hint: CSKA fans should be stoked indeed…)
BallinEurope’s not exactly sure whose inspiration the below-embedded clip starring three Ratiopharm Ulm studs was or why Per Günther agreed to serve as guinea pig to test the classic punchline/sound bite of basketball subculture, namely “white men can’t jump.” (Or if you prefer, “Weiße Jungs bringens nicht” for appropriate local flavor. Completely irrelevant side note: In Hungarian, the Harrelson/Snipes/Rosie Perez epic is entitled “Zsákolj, ha tudsz!” or literally “Dunk if you can!”)
“Du willst Per Günther dunken sehen?” (or “Will you/we see Per Günther dunk?”) is a 68-second clip featuring Allan Ray and Pooh Jeter bringing the trash talk and the 185cm (6’1”) point guard’s strong willingness to jam.
Yesterday, Sannti (a.k.a. Savas Birdal) basically won Twitter and the entire internet yesterday by posting the one Euroleague bracket guaranteed to be 100% correct – not to mention encapsulating in a single image at least one team’s entire 2012-13 season. Click here to experience the genius.
Goran Dragic only appeared in 55 games with Shaquille O’Neal in the 2008-09 season, but it appears he learned a lesson pointed enough to be well summarized in 141-character Twitter length. And here it is:
“@espo: @goran_dragic What was the best lesson @shaq taught you?” Be your self and always pass him the ball:) lol
France’s Pro B league doesn’t get much media attention in the US and after the latest segment of “Shaqtin’ A Fool,” they won’t be hankering for another clip to appear on NBA TV. Check out Shaq’s no. 5 choice for the televised wall of shame, as SPO Rouen Basket head coach Sciarra Laurent applies a unique trap defense against Maritime Boulogne, only to get a “T” for his efforts – and sadly, an “L” for his team.
Instead, we’ll just let Taiwan-based Next Media Animation explain things; apparently, The Worm’s mission involves some NBA Jam-esque two-on-two in a match featuring himself and retired Pope Benedict XVI against a roster of priests, evil lawyers, a high-jumping altar boy and possibly a unicorn…
All right! The folks over at Japan-based Dunk Shot have produced another odd manga-like take on an NBA team. While not long ago, BallinEurope showed the hoops-centric newspaper’s take on Kevin Love and the Eurowolves, this time it’s Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin and James Harden getting animated. Translation is forthcoming, but it seems as though the Rockets are preoccupied in similar fashion to the Timberwolves, i.e. it’s all about pursuing the ladies, and Harden (like Nikola Pekovic before him) appears to be having troubles. It’s gotta be the beard, eh?
RT @TUBASKET: Teodosic y Dorsey, primeros objetivos del Fenerbahçe Ülker para construir un proyecto entrenado x Ivkovic http://t.co/x9e3k1t… 12 hours ago
