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Eurobasket 2011: BallinEurope podcasts, makes Official Fearless Predictions™
As BallinEurope gets ready to hit the road for Lithuania – Panevezys, specifically, where BiE’ll be covering EuroBasket Group A action – there’s just enough time for a shameless plug and Official Fearless Predictions™. Last week, BiE guested on podcasts with the indomitable Freaknick over at the always fun and insightful Euroleague Adventures. We spent […]
Coach Bauermann: Dirk Nowitzki, Team Germany “has work to do”
BallinEurope’s unofficial comrade in schadenfreude, a new website calling itself Lockout Hoops, recently turned us on to a nice YouTube clip of Team Germany in training for the upcoming EuroBasket tournament. In general, the clip is a bit of a lovefest for that face of German basketball, Dirk Nowitzki. High praise is given to the […]
Must-see EB: Ten Eurobasket round one games to watch
Just the weekend remains before European basketball (and by extension, NBA) fans get to enjoy some tremendous high-level hoops competition in the 2011 Eurobasket competition. Despite the seeming overload of underdogs – full-on 14 of the 24 teams in the tournament are ranked 34th or lower in the official FIBA rankings – the first week […]
Eurobasket 2011: London and/or Joel Freeland prepares
How does BallinEurope contributor Sam Chadwick’s basketball career fit in with that of Joel Freeland, Portland Blazers draft pick in 2006 and current Team Britain/Unicaja Malaga player? Read on to find out, together with an assessment of Freeland’s recent performance in the London Invitational Tournament. (And requisite YouTube clip!) In the summer of 2007, I […]
Profile: Davis Bertans, San Antonio Spurs draft pick
BallinEurope’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick, feels a little bad about a slightly harsh assessment given to Davis Bertans on this website and so today takes a broader look at the current Union Olimpija forward and second-round 2011 draft pick. Name: Davis Bertans Country: Latvia Club: Union Olimpija Position: SF/PF Height: 6’11” (2.10 meters) […]
Yi gods! Jianlian throws it down over Barac, Croatia
The posterization of last weekend? Well, would you believe it involved Yi Jianlian on the offensive side? Truth is, Team China didn’t have much to celebrate vis-à-vis their participation in the London Invitational Tournament – even losing to theretofore winless Britain – but at least Yi made the highlight reel in his team’s 30-point blowout […]
Eurobasket 2011 Power Rankings: First take
As just nine days remain until Eurobasket 2011 tips off in Lithuania, BallinEurope today takes a look back at the performances of the two dozen teams slated to compete in the big tournament and deploys some good old power rankings – and lotsa highlight clips from friendlies and tourneys played throughout The Continent. Once again, […]
Latvia, Lithuania on course to co-host 2012 U18 Euros, 2018 FIBA Worlds
Eurobasket 2011 is still a couple of weeks away, but that isn’t stopping the Lithuanian national basketball federation from thinking about the future … and they’ve got a partner in speculation in Latvia. Baltic Course is reporting today that FIBA Europe general secretary Nar Zanolin is seriously considering a bid for the two nations to […]
Portland says goodbye to Hall of Famer with Arvydas Sabonis Day
It might have been the last look Portland Trail Blazers get of one of their greatest big men in a good long time and as this is written, Arvydas Sabonis is most likely back in his home country of Lithuania. Last week saw Sabas receive his final honor as an NBA player at his induction […]
NBA players to Europe: Pekovic, Seraphin, Parker, Boozer, more
Nikola Pekovic will be back in Europe to play with Partizan Belgrade as the NBA lockout drags on, just the latest of names from the big league to be jumping to The Continent for 2011-12. BallinEurope takes a brief look, bullet-style, at the progress of some other players coming over below. An even briefer summary: […]
Get ready, Chester: Artest planks in L.A., prepares visit to U.K.
You’d better steel yourselves in Chester and beyond, folks, for none other than Ron Artest, a.k.a. Metta World Peace, arrives on Thursday. And though according to his publicist Courtney Barnes in an ESPN Los Angeles piece, “There’s no deal in place for him to play,” World Peace-watching will certainly be a popular spectator sport through […]
Greatest of all-time: Yugoslavia or Spain?
An interesting exchange of tweets went down last Friday (yes, minus points for untimeliness, but on another job BallinEurope thought deep into the matter all weekend) between HoopsHype/ESPN Deportes writer Jorge Sierra and Team Australia/Milwaukee Bucks big man Andrew Bogut. Things started innocuously enough, with Sierra plugging a Spanish-language piece he’d written for Deportes: “An […]