Friday Cigarettes

Better late than never !

• It’s hard to compete with Adam Hess, the new blogger sensation. Matt Nielsen is the second blogger for Euroleague.net and though he made a nice try, now we’re expecting stories about speedos and yoghourts. You’ll do better next time !

• Andrei Kirilenko is an impostor ! Or at least he is not the first Russian who played in an NBA All-Star Game. That’s what I learnt reading Russian website Sport Express. If you wanna know more, read the amazing story of Tom Meschery. I mean Tomislav Nikolayevich Mescheryakov.

• Speaking of former NBA players, I heard William Avery just signed with Greek contenders AEK Athens. This guy was a lotto pick 8 years ago…

• Another one who could well end up being a lottery pick is Spanish forward Victor Claver. He kinda proved he could dunk earlier this season. Well now he showed he was more than a simple dunker.

• Another Spanish phenom (again !) is making a name for himself and it’s a difficult name. Sergio Llull is the 3rd PG for Real Madrid but for sure it did not prevent him from almost winning the NBA Europe Live Tour game against Toronto by himself.

• Is it just me or the American analysts are starting to be more enthusiastic about Europlayers than we actually are ? In an Insider article for ESPN, David Thorpe apparently wrote Luis Scola and Juanca Navarro would make the Top 3 of the Rookie of the Year vote. Sergio, one of our most faithful readers, could not believe his eyes : “Considering this is supposedly one of the best draft classes in the last decades, and the lukewarm reception that another vet like Garbajosa received last year, this is a pretty big deal! Also they’re only ranked below Durant, which looks like a fair assessment to me (kudos to Mr. Thorpe)… the times they are a-changin’ ?”

• Oh I couldn’t speak about European prospects without mentioning Daniel Hackett. Daniel is the son of a former NBA player and plays for USC but as crazy as it sounds, he also plays for the Under 20 Italian national team (he grew up in Italy, his player was playing pro ball there). After Nick Young left for the NBA, Hackett might have thought it was his time to shine. But that could not happen in a team where the freshman point guard is named OJ Mayo. It was reported this week that Mayo punched threw a hard elbow at Hackett. Mayo had his issues in the past. But another report states that Daniel Hackett is not “un angelo” either.

• Chicago’s Thabo Sefolosha was nicknamed “the giraffe” when he was a kid. Didn’t that happen for every pro player but Earl Boykins ?
• Sometimes hitting 3 pointers to force overtime just isn’t enough.That’s what Ivory Latta and Milan Gurovic (fast forward to 4′32) experienced those last few days. And it was not a first time for Gurovic…
• Last but not least, Danilo Gallinari told us this week that if he were a fan, he would be one of those crazy ultras. I’m sure he didn’t mean crazy like that. With their team down and after a few contested whistles, Scafati (D1 - Italy) fans started throwing everything they had in their pockets on the refs. It was decided after the game that Scafati would lose the game by 20-0 and instead of earning zero point for a loss, they would actually lose 1 point after the incidents. Because of that the team lost 4 spots in the Italian rankings. They’re now 14th out of 18.