BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Episode number (sexy and) 17 of the Taking the Charge podcast series is now online. Admittedly, BallinEurope and heinnews deviate a bit from the Continental hoops with this show’s emphasis on Asia. However, our return interview with Jon Pastuszek of China-based NiuBball is certain to be of interest to any fan worth his/her salt. Get the lowdown on the progress of a number of notables playing in or coming from the big country, including:

• Tracy McGrady, he who wanted to increase the potency of his brand with the Qingdao Eagles;

• Now three-year CBA veteran Stephon Marbury;

• Gilbert “Agent Zero” Arenas (and yeah, BiE’s still using that moniker under the believe that, when one prolifigates one’s own nickname, one is stuck with it forever);

• Quincy Douby, formerly of Rutgers, the Sacramento Kings and UCAM Murcia, who recently set the CBA record with 75 points in a single game;

• Charles Gaines, who contributed a 60-point, 29-rebound performance for the opposition in Douby’s record effort; Continue Reading…

A breakout year from Team Slovenia’s Goran Dragic with the Houston Rockets deserves a look – and some embedded YouTube clips. Today, Sam Chadwick takes that look on BallinEurope.

Developing in the cool climate of Ljubljana, Slovenia, Goran Dragic’s rise to basketball success was a game of waiting. After a Slovenian league championship in the 2007-08 season the San Antonio Spurs took notice and drafted the point guard 45th overall by the same team who has regularly and successfully stashed draft picks in Europe for years waiting for the right time to sow the crop: Ryan Richards, Tiago Splitter, David Bertans, Tony Parker, Luis Scola and even Manu Ginobili.

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Rubio-ooooooooooooooo!

“Teams survive on TV money, season-ticket revenue and luxury suites. They don’t care about the upper decks. They care about getting fat checks in March and April for the following season, then banking that money for a few months and collecting interest on it. They care about getting us to pay for a spring’s worth of playoff tickets up front even though our team might survive only eight days in the postseason. And if they stink, they care about only one thing: creating an illusion of regret.” – Bill “The Sports Guy” Simmons

The statement sounded good, with the general manager apparently committed to landing his hard-to-sign first-round draft pick and thereby soon bring relief to fans of a franchise essentially troubled since its inception.

And then you realize it’s David Kahn talking about signing Ricky Rubio. David Kahn of the long-suffering Minnesota Timberwolves. And you start thinking about what ESPN columnist Simmons so succinctly summarized as the “illusion of regret.”

“The illusion of regret is crucial. It’s the single most important dynamic in the NBA right now. It drives every lottery drawing, every trade deadline and every free-agency period.”

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Though we only have a few hits from the cybersphere this weekend, most of them are quite substantial and well worth a bit of your time on Sunday. Happy reading, everyone!

Oh, Oscar!

Awesome, with a capital *AWESOME* is heinnews’ interview with Oscar Robertson, actually undertaken during the Eurobasket 2009 on the eve of the Big O’s induction into the FIBA Hall of Fame.

If Talk Basket and LRytas.lt are correct, FIBA (and notably Team Russia) are about to bring a whole new meaning to the team “wild cards.” Who has €750,000 to pay for potential glory in Turkey?

The big network, among others, makes it official: Stephon Marbury will sit out season. Of course, everyone should have known this would be the case when not even Olympiacos offered a token €1 million or two. Ah well, this’ll give the fallen Starbury a chance to, you know, really let it all hang out on UStream.TV.

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Freeland: Thrilled about the leg

What was on the mass mind of the interweb this week with regard to basketball this week? Glad you asked! Surfing for seven days resulted in the following finds well worth your time.

Within a week of Jeremy Tyler hype and analysis, how about an actual interview with the lad himself? The Maccabi Haifa official website’s got one and, if nothing else, it shows that Master Tyler has already nearly developed an NBA-level trash-talking ability. A couple of samples: “The combination between me and Devon Jefferson (sic) will be something extraordinary. Every team will be afraid of that combination, including Maccabi Tel Aviv’s big men” and “I’m positive that anyone who will see me play will say ‘Wow, that kid is something special.’”

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Marbury: The man, the myth, the meltdown

Once again for your weekend edification, Ball in Europe presents the weekly column bringing you a capsule summary of, um, well, of how i killed some time this week obsessing over basketball.

Among this week’s highlights: Crying is for losers and Stephon Marbury; Europe makes a great career choice; and Allen Iverson’s best raps ever.

Of course, the biggest story in the hoops universe this week came from inside the asylum – sorry, i mean Stephon Marbury’s apartment. If you haven’t sampled this indescribable product of Generation YouTube, here’s a taste: A clip entitled “Stephon Marbury Crying (Official).”

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Yes, exactly! I was kind of overwhelmed to read that Olympiacos is thinking about Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks to fill the gap that Josh Childress literally ‘tore’ into the team from Athens.

As reported on Eurobasket.com, Childress had surgery yesterday morning in Philadelphia to repair a tear in his abdominal muscle.

This is already the second time this year I have heard of this kind of injury – seems to be the new basketball injury of 2009.

Childress is expected to be out for at least a month, and Olympiacos can’t afford to play without Josh Childress as the Top 16 opens, although Olympicaos looks to be in an easier group, with Tau, Milano, and Prokom from Poland.

The latest rumors around the net were talking about the possibility of Stephon Marbury signing in Milan. But it looked more like a wish of the NBA Free Agent than a real possibility.

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