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First half report cards for European players in NBA
At the halfway point of the crazy fast 2011-12 NBA season, BallinEurope flexes the university professor muscles a little bit this morning with midterm assessments of individual performance by the big league’s Continental Players. We’ll be using the European grading system, with 5 being the top score possible and 1 the lowest; the Americans may […]
And the Oscar (Robertson) Goes To: Basketball Movies in 2011
Meanwhile, over in Hollywoodland … to no cineaste’s surprise, the silent film The Artist was named “Best Motion Picture of the Year” at the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony. While Tinseltown may have had a decent, if not mind-blowing, twelve months of production in 2011 – as evidenced by Woody Allen taking the “Best Original Screenplay” […]
Ricky Rubio: Closet Justin Bieber fan?
BallinEurope’s man in Italy, Enrico Cellini, passed along this delicious clip uploading to YouTube just today. As Ricky Rubio nonchalantly exits the bus and into the facilities in advance of the Rising Stars Challenge making up part of this weekend’s NBA All-Star festivities, observers may notice the, um, quite stylish backpack slung over one shoulder. […]
Ratiopharm Ulm: “We wanted Jeremy Lin two years ago”
How do you say “Linsanity” auf Deutsch? BallinEurope supposes that the vocabulary term isn’t quite so necessary in Germany but, according to officials at one Bundesliga club, the phenomenon just might have been visible in Europe last season. Back in 2010, few observers of the NBA Summer League had an eye on the NBA’s current […]
Currently under (slight) renovation: BallinEurope.com
BallinEurope is changing – but only slightly. After a long period of static design and linkage, BiE finally managed to find some time to add a few tweaks that will hopefully augment the whole reader-experience, social-networking thing. First, a bit of sad news for some. The image-based logo featuring cartoon Ramunas Siskauskas tipping off against […]
Bundesliga roundup: Dirk Bauermann calls head doctor for Bayern Munchen; playoff squeeze tightens; budget woes of Eisbaren Bremerhaven
From the land of Dirk – Nowitzki and Bauermann, that is – David Hein reports on a few happenings in Germany’s top division of basketball. Read on to find out about Bayern Munich considering shrinks; an ever more cluttered playoff picture; the completion of the Top Four German Cup field; and Bremerhaven watching more and […]
Kobe Bryant: Virtus Bologna contract negotiation “was not a hoax”
Italy-based Corriere de Bologna, via Sky News, is today looking back nostalgically at those crazy days of the NBA player lockout – seems like forever ago, doesn’t it? – in quoting from an interview given by Kobe Bryant in Italian vis-à-vis the long flirtation Virtus Bologna and president Claudio Sabbatini carried on with the Los […]
Serbian Cup final: Partizan Belgrade domination continues
Speaking of national cups, Serbia’s tournament also went down this weekend, with Partizan enjoying a 64-51 win over Red Star Belgrade. Win the win, the perpetual Euroleague side once again reasserted its supremacy back home and are on a title run longer than Montepaschi Siena’s. BallinEurope’s man in Serbia, Marko Savkovic, analyzes the keys to […]
National Cups: Real Madrid ends 19 years of futility; Beşiktaş, Chalon take first-ever titles; Montepaschi Siena continues dominance
Congratulations go out from BallinEurope today to a quartet of national Cup holders in Real Madrid, Beşiktaş Milangaz, Chalon-sur-Saone and Montepaschi Siena. The former three victories are set to be particularly noted in club annals: Real ended a 19-year drought while Beşiktaş and Chalon both bagged their first-ever championships in their respective national cup tournaments […]
Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Beşiktaş vs. Banvit today in Turkish Cup final
Today sees the culmination of the Turkish Cup with a stunning finals matchup between Beşiktaş Milangaz – who took out Euroleague Top 16 side Galatasaray on Thursday – and the TBL’s fourth-place Banvit. Key to the former’s success in reaching the Cup match was BallinEurope fave Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who contributed an insane double-double in the […]
Searching for Milos Vujanic (or, Where have all the sharpshooters gone?)
In Serbia, it’s Korac Cup time, leading BallinEurope’s Marko Savkovic to contemplate changes in European basketball since the days of Milos Vujanic; specifically, new expertise on defense and subsequent de-emphasis of raining three-pointers. Savkovic tells us who to seek out in the 2012 tourney in terms of long-ball shooting while name-dropping Drazen Petrovic, Magic Johnson […]
Weekly roundup of Germany’s Beko BBL; plus Tony Gaffney’s sick halfcourt shot
Via the Shameless Plug Department, BiE advises readers looking to catch up on German basketball to check out BallinEurope contributor David Hein’s weekly English-language roundup of Bundesliga play – replete with highlights, natch. Featured this week are blurbs on Brose Baskets Bamberg’s nice run, Bayern München’s abysmal road play and a sick shot from halfcourt […]