BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

What say we close out 2012 with a whole bunch of highlight clips? BiE knew you’d be willing. Tomorrow, a list of the most popular BallinEurope stories of the calendar year will be running, but today comes an attempt to encapsulate the past 365 days in European hoops, YouTube style.

From Ibaka’s blocks to the return of Ricky Rubio, from a stunner in Istanbul to a double miracle in Italy, from the US to the Continent and back again, BallinEurope’s got your highlights right here… Continue Reading…

This one goes out by request; BallinEurope buddies the Hoop Doctors have put together their clip of the Top 10 Game-Winning Shots for the 2011-12 season.

European basketball fans will note Team England’s Luol Deng at no. 10 and incoming Anadolu Efes guard Jordan Farmar figuring in at no. 9, but clearly this one should be labeled “game-winners of the 2011-12 *NBA* season”; BiE rectifies the oversight by placing The Continent’s top example – in six languages, no less – below the Doctors’. And for more from last season on this side of the Atlantic, BiE’s playlist can be found here.

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In clearing out the virtual desk of 2011-12 basketball season stuff, BallinEurope today presents this compilation of the year’s top Euro-centric buzzer-beaters. The requirements to make the list were two: the primary player in the buzzer-beater most be of European nationality or the shot must take place in a game featuring European teams; and the buzzer-beater must take place at the end of a quarter, i.e. no shot-clock buzzer-beaters considered.

Greater weight was given in consideration to the relative importance of the win earned with the highlight shot. Keeping one’s team alive is more important than YouTube glory, after all.

And on with the list. Firstly, honorable mentions go to:

• Travis Diener for Banco di Sardegna Sassari against Fabi Shoes Montegranaro on April 15. Sassari would go on to win in overtime, 79-77, and continue in a successful season which had them ultimately placing fourth in the Serie A. Unfortunately for the purposes of this post, not quite a buzzer-beater.

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2011-12: The year of Spanoulis?

1. The 2011-12 Euroleague season:
a) was one of the greatest ever
b) was the greatest ever
c) proved Jordi Bertomeu’s contention that “we don’t need NBA imports to be a top-quality competition”
d) was awesome, but man, i’m jonesing. When does the season start?

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Okay, okay, BallinEurope’s gonna do the traditional thing … congratulations out to the Miami Heat and its clear MVP Lebron James for their 2012 NBA Championship win. James’ triple-double in the decisive game five appropriately capped a playoff run during which he fought off criticism and doomsayers as much as the Oklahoma City Thunder.

As for the Continent’s representatives in the NBA’s final game of this too-quick, madcap season … Ronny Turiaf earns his first ring after joining Miami with 21 games left to play; Le Bleu saw court time in 13. The three minutes he played in last night’s game five were his first in the series, but kudos nevertheless. BiE can’t help but wonder how long it’ll be until Turiaf’s balling here full-time in Europe…

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Be afraid, be very afraid … Sergio Scariolo has released a list of 13 players from which he’ll craft his Team Spain for the 2012 Olympic Games. To no one’s surprise, the prospective gold-medal game side will choose from a baker’s dozen which includes five who played NBA ball, six Euroleaguers and two guys from Valencia who played in the Eurocup.

The list includes: Jose Calderon (Toronto Raptors); Juan Carlos Navarro, Victor Sada (FC Barcelona); Sergio Rodriguez, Sergio Llull, Felipe Reyes (Real Madrid); Rudy Fernandez (Denver Nuggets); Rafa Martinez, Victor Claver (Valencia BC); Fernando San Emeterio (Caja Laboral Baskonia); Pau Gasol (Los Angeles Lakers); Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzles) and Serge Ibaka (Oklahoma City Thunder).

Not bad, eh? And now we can speculate as to who might be the odd man out. This might be the toughest decision Scariolo has to face until met with the challenge as to how to cover Kevin Durant and Lebron James when both are on the floor for Team USA…

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Because it’s easy, because it’s there (on YouTube), because the Serge Ibaka Army is threatening to take over NBA fandom and because, well, even curmudgeons like BallinEurope might start admitting that, yes, perhaps the “NBA’s next Golden Age starts now.”

So here it is. From amidst a hard-fought Miami Heat game two win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA championship series, a guy who will inevitably be entered into discussions of greatest shot blocker of all-time rejecting in turn two guys who’re already drawing comparisons with legends, highlight clips. I-blocka!

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Besiktas introduces Deron Williams: It seems like so long ago...

Beşiktaş’ season, like any power in club hoops, began in the summer. All they did to top last year’s high-profile signing of the ultimately marginal Allen Iverson was ink Deron Williams, a franchise guard at his peak, to the biggest contract in European basketball with an NBA out-clause when the player lockout was to be settled.

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In his first media appearance since the Chicago Bulls were eliminated from the NBA playoffs by the Philadelphia 76ers, Joakim Noah assessed his chances of suiting up for Team France in the 2012 Olympics.

“Still a little sore” from his most recent ankle injury, Noah stated from Los Angeles that “I’m not quite ready. I will discuss all this with [national team coach Vincent] Collet. For now, it’s necessary that I focus on rehabilitation.”

Putting something of a more positive spin on things, Noah went on that state that “I prefer to stay positive and tell myself that time is on our side. We’ll see how it turns out. We’ll know more in two or three weeks […] when I can join the French team. The Olympics is also a goal in my season, but I want to return to France in shape. I want to be there, but at 100%.”

The NBA club has not given word on whether Noah will be discouraged or prohibited from playing in the Olympics.

For Les Bleus in FIBA Eurobasket 2011, Noah contributed a team-high 8.0 rebounds per game over the tournament to go with 9.0 ppg and 0.9 spg.

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Tweet of the day? That’s an easy one. Wrote Twitterer Keaton Eberly, “Dang, he blocks everything.”

Who’s “he”? Team Spain/Oklahoma City Thunder force in the middle Serge Ibaka, of course. I mean, look at what the Iblaka did to the image Eberly posted with Instagram – and this after amassing 20 in five games against the Los Angeles Lakers…

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