Yes, it’s finally Final Four week again. European basketball fans have waited a full year to get these feelings back again. And to start the week, well, here we go for some nice stories from around the globe.
- This is what I call a big-time comparison. Thank you, Mike de Courcy from the Sporting News.
- Derrick Rose played basketball at Chicago’s Simeon High, where he won two state championships. He played offseason ball with Mean Streets Express and won the prestigious Peach Jam tournament. He then spent one year at the University of Memphis, where his team was a few seconds away from winning an NCAA title. This led him to the NBA, where at 20 he led the Chicago Bulls to the playoffs and became the league’s rookie of the year. Danilo Gallinari turned professional in Italy at age 15, signing with a team in the Italian second division. His obvious talent quickly got him snatched up by the powerful club Armani Jeans Milano. In 2007-08, he was a consistent double-figure scorer in Italy’s Serie A as well as the continent-wide Euroleague competition. This led him to the NBA, where at 20 he battled back injuries and eventually averaged 6.1 points for the lottery-bound New York Knicks. Two paths, one destination. A simple question: Which seems more effective?
- Our friend Gruebler started his own Blog this weekend, unfortunately only in German. If you understand Goethe’s language, I can only highly recommend you read his thoughts.
- Watch a story about Bruce Bowen and his team, playing in the French 2nd division back in 1995.
- In-The-Game gives a fantastic statistical analysis of the playing styles of the Euroleague Final Four participants.
- If you are interested in following the Nike International Junior Tournament in Berlin, europeanprospects.com has a preview on the various participating teams.
- Chuck Eidson scores 41 in the Baltic League finals for his team Lietuvos Rytas against Zalgiris Kaunas and earns the MVP trophy.
- CSKA Moscow has officially confirmed that they have some financial trouble and that the budget will be reduced by 15-20% next season. Head Coach Ettore Messina, a target of several NBA teams, can decide if he wants to stay with the team after the season, as his contract expires this summer.
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