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Greek media: Fernandez “very likely to return to Europe”; Childress, Pekovic fled violence

July 17, 2010

Fernandez brings more intrigue...

For readers of Greek out there, Sport.gr is running an interesting piece on the subject of available big-name free agents, comparing the ACB to the EΣAKE and Team Spain to Team Greece while taking a hard look at the possibility of top names playing with Panathinaikos or Olympiacos for 2010-11.

Beginning with the premise that in the last 10 years, no Spanish international has ever played Greece’s top league, Sport.gr first blames the relative paucity of the Greek economy in recent years (those Angelopoulos boys notwithstanding). However, as BiE once postulated, entering contract discussions at this time of year is the incipient violence at certain matches – particularly Reds vs. Greens.

Josh Childress recently gave his thorough take on the incident in the Greek League finals to Arizona media, culminating in the punchline “One of my buddies got hit by a bottle full of urine and [feces], basically.”

BiE surmised at the time of the fateful game that the incident might drive away the American players who simply aren’t used to this sort of, um, devotion – does stuff like this happen even in the ‘Hood? – but Sport.gr contends that the championship riot was a fundamental reason in “sending Nikola Pekovic to freezing Minnesota” (“Σύμφωνα, μάλιστα, με πληροφορίες του SPORT 24 ένας από τους λόγους –ίσως όχι ο βασικότερος- που έστειλε τον Νίκολα Πέκοβιτς στην «παγωμένη» Μινεσότα ήταν τα έκτροπα στον τέταρτο τελικό Ολυμπιακός – Παναθηναϊκός στο ΣΕΦ”) as well.

And while Linas Kleiza hasn’t publicly commented on the incident, no one can convince BiE that this was the way the new Toronto Raptor wanted to end his inaugural professional season in Europe:

On the Rudy Fernandez front, Sport.gr reports that a source has informed them via text message: “I do not know which team Rudy will play for next year, but he’s very likely to return to Europe!” (“Δεν ξέρω σε ποια ομάδα θα παίξει του χρόνου ο Ρούντι, αλλά θεωρώ πολύ πιθανή την επιστροφή του στην Ευρώπη!”)

Team Spain head coach Sergio Scariolo also believes Fernandez will be coming back to Euroleague basketball: “I spoke with him a week ago,” said the coach, “and he said only that he wants to leave the NBA and return to Europe.” Scariolo seems to think Fernandez’ real choice comes down to one between Panathinaikos, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Fernandez also confirmed that he’d been contacted by Panathinaikos officials about playing there; back in the ‘States, the Spanish national reportedly handed his current bosses a wish list of five teams for which he’d like to play in the NBA: the New York Knicks, Miami Heat (imagine that), Boston Celtics, and New Jersey Nets.

On the Continent, clubs associated with Fernandez have included Real Madrid, Caja Laboral Baskonia, and his reportedly preferred FC Barcelona in addition to the top Greek teams.

Thanks to reader Mika for the tip on this story!

Jul 17, 2010ballineurope
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This post was published on July 17, 2010
Pekovic to Minnesota, Kleiza to Toronto nearly there; Diaw staying in CharlottePresque deja vu: FIBA U20 European Championship Men pits Greece vs. France
Comments: 5
  1. Mika
    15 years ago

    Did you know that Olympiacos probably has to move to a new arena because of what they did at SEF? It has been reported that the owners of SEF want to have them kicked out of the arena because they refused to promise that no more damage would be done to the arena, which is considered the nicest in Greece.

    Olympiacos will probably move to the Helliniko Arena, but they will have to restore the 6,500 seats that the Greek Basketball Federation removed from it for maintenance reasons. Otherwise they would lose their Euroleague contract for failure to maintain a 10,000 plus arena. So they would have to spend a lot of money to get Helliniko back to it’s normal 15,000 capacity.

    Also, Helliniko has limited parking and does not have lounges, VIP areas, luxury boxes, private suites, big concession areas, restaurants, big training areas, etc. all like SEF has. So the club would have to spend millions of dollars to add all of those to the arena. Also they would lose the access to the huge amphitheater SEF has and the volleyball team areas.

    So that gives you an idea what the fans have cost Olympiacos. They already have had to pay for all the repairs to SEF. The interesting thing about it is that SEF always had the lower tier of seats removed, except for one on the right side of the court, for expensive tickets. But the rest were always removed for security reasons. They had to start removing them since all the problems with the fans back in the 90s. The lower tier around the track area. So the fans were always far away from the court and never near the players.

    At Helliniko, the arena was built specifically with basketball in mind and the seats are right on the court. So if the hooligans did anything at Helliniko they would literally be right next to the players and could EASILY make it onto the court, unlike at SEF where they had a distance barrier between them. So at Helliniko, which is the most modern “NBA like” arena in Greece and maybe in all of Europe, the derbies could potentially be much more dangerous.

    ReplyCancel
  2. Os
    15 years ago

    @Mika: Wow, serious food for thought there. Maybe this explains why Oly basically asked Childress to leave: so they could spend his millions on arena refurbishment. Crazy.

    ReplyCancel
  3. ninja 650 lady
    15 years ago

    How does donating money to a foster house help them?

    Sent from my Android phone

    ReplyCancel
  4. Mika
    15 years ago

    http://dimemag.com/2010/07/rudy-fernandez-tells-portland-to-send-him-home/comment-page-1/#comment-256364

    Obviously, Rudy Fernandez is doing everything he can to return to Europe. He’s just like Vassilis Spanoulis. He wants absolutely nothing to do with the NBA.

    ReplyCancel
  5. radallo
    15 years ago

    Here it is the announcement
    http://www.nba.com/2010/news/08/18/rudy-fernandez-blazers.ap/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt2

    …destination Barça??

    ReplyCancel

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ballineurope
15 years ago 5 Comments EuroLeague, More, NBA/NCAAACB, Boston Celtics, Caja Laboral Baskonia, EΣAKE, FC Barcelona, George Angelopoulos, Greece, Josh Childress, Linas Kleiza, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Nikola Pekovic, Olympiacos, Panagiotis Angelopoulos, Panathinaikos, Phoenix Suns, Real Madrid, Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Scariolo, Spain, Team Greece, Team Spain, Toronto Raptors
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