December 31, 2007
So this is it – 2007 will be officially over in a few hours. But what happened in 2007? I could try to go through the whole year now but I want to summarize what the interesting, funny and sometimes even sad stories that we covered here on BallinEurope since late September 2007.
- It all started with one topic which is kind of important to European Basketball:" How to get a passport of an European country". We had several examples, starting with J.R. Holden having an American and a Russian passport. But why is it so important? I am sure I don’t have to explain this to our experts but some might just be wondering. Since almost every league has a restriction on how many foreign, esp. American players can be on a team, having an European passport just multiplies your chances to play on a Euroleague team. You don’t take up a foreign spot – it is a as simple as that
- Next interesting story: with all the "old" NBA stars like Reggie Miller or Charles Oakley thinking about a comeback in the NBA’s off season one guy, who also wanted to play in the NBA again, got a one game contract in Finland: Scottie Pippen
- One of the top stories on BallinEurope was the switch from some NBA players to the Euroleague – first was Sarunas Jasikevicius – guys like Lynn Greer followedÂ
- Our first official event we went to as BallinEurope was the NBA LIVE tour in Rome. It was really nice to follow the Boston Celtics and the Toronto Raptors. It was obvious that the Celtics will have an impact on the NBA with the BIG 3, but nobody thought the impact would be that huge – nice move by David Stern to bring that team over to Europe. It was also fun to meet some people from the media – like Michael Grange from the Globe and Mail
- What would be a cool and entertaining blog without some hot girls? We where lucky to combine Basketball with some hot girls like Ilaria Capponi, who played first division basketball in Italy and also got third place for Miss Italia
- This is where our "battle" with Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell started – somehow it never ended – I whish I could talk to Sam soon in person..
- I told you that European passports are a nice thing to have – Spanish newspapers found out too
- After Chris Webber told us that he is "an NBA guy" and not interested in Olympiakos’ money, Marc Jackson joined Olympiakos
- We also tried to make a top-10 list of the best NBA players ever to play in Europe – as you can see in the comments some people did not agree
- How do you know that our blog is a European blog? Some people say you can see it in the logo, some people might say because of the content – We think this makes us European – posting naked girls without censoring. BAD Europeans!
- One thing people love on BallinEurope: Euroleague fantasy league talks – it all started with this post
- Also on BallinEurope: A French guy saying that "being French sucks!"
- Until there is a global league, the discussion, what European basketball is like and how much better (or even if) the NBA is better will go on – Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach from Italy explained what European basketball for him is like
- Any suggestions for the "picture of the year 2007"? This was the "06" winner – Euroleague and NBA
- This was how we started the Euroleague season: asking 24 journalists to write a short summary on their team of the Euroleague – what a success! People even asked us how much money we gave these people to write them. I can promise you – they did it just for "the love of the game"
- By know we all know that Delonte Holland had to leave Virtus Bologna – but it all started much earlier – I am sure some Virtus’ people wished they could see into the future..
- Who makes the most $$$ or EUROS in Europe – here is the Top 10- list for Basketball salaries in Europe
- One more thing about asking the 24 journalists about the Euroleague teams: "100% of the experts will lose a bet if CSKA doesn’t reach the Final Four" As of now CSKA is the team with the best record in the Euroleague – we have true experts I guess
- Another thing where you can see that some things can be said in Europe – but Americans don’t like that at all
- We also did some live blogging – it started like that – thanks to the CoverItLive tool it looks very professional now
- I whish I saw that game – headline: "How to lose a close game"
- If you still doubt that people like our Fantasy posts – just read this
- Should I mention the Kerry Gibson story? Well, it is definitely worth reading – hence even his mom posted a comment on our blog!
- I almost forgot Euroleague TV – it wasn’t working to well in the beginning – but hey, they just started and it is the best thing to have now – if you are interested in Euroleague basketball. One thing they might want to improve – this commentator
- Marco Belinelli started with 37 points in the NBA’s summer league for the Golden State Warriors. Now – nothing is going on for him – it is that bad that even Italians tell us they don’t like his style – things can change quickly I guess
- 5 overtimes in Berlin – even US media outlets talked about that event
A lot more happened since we started this blog in September 07 – but one thing will stick out for me – BallinEurope’s meeting in Spain. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the whole BallinEurope crew – even though we paid too much money for a dinner 🙂
Have a good start for 2008 – 75% of the people think this will be a good year! OK – 75% of the Germans.
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This post was published on December 31, 2007
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