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Big third quarter boosts L.Rytas to LKL championship win over Zalgiris Kaunas, 80-71
Congratulations go out tonight to Lietuvos Rytas, who decisively won the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) championship over arch-rival Žalgiris Kaunas, 80-71. Thus ends a very bizarre LKL playoffs and, for Žalgiris Kaunas, a revolving door of a season at coach with the final four games seeing the team essentially sort-of led by some combination of […]
Invisible to insane: The six types of basketball team owner
They say that no one has ever bought a ticket to a sports event in order to see an executive but with two weeks of American and European basketball club owners hogging sports page headlines, BallinEurope got to thinking about these moneyed celebrity types who run the teams we watch … and the often disturbing […]
Headless horsemen of Zalgiris go coach-free again tonight
In Lithuania, Žalgiris Kaunas’ bizarre personnel situation, i.e. no official head coach named with a maximum three games remaining in the LKL season, continues. Žalgiris owner Vladimir Romanov spent the weekend *not* officially naming anyone to the position; the role was apparently unofficially filled by guard Marcus Brown in last Thursday’s 83-70 win over longtime […]
Coachless in Kaunas, Žalgiris wins anyway to knot up LKL championship series
Now Žalgiris Kaunas is truly entering into uncharted waters. After canning Darius Maskoliunas earlier this week and watching assistant coach Gvidonas Markevičius stomp out of the organization thereafter, Žalgiris owner Vladimir Romanov sent his team into game four of the Lithuanian national league (LKL) championship series headless – unless you count those two guys looking […]
In the midst of Zalgiris mess, gauntlet thrown by Kaunas mayor
With regard to the current insanity engulfing Lithuanian League Championship participant Zalgiris Kaunas – i.e. its fourth coach this season being suspiciously canned by outlandish owner Vladimir Romanov in the midst of the best-of-five playoff – the city mayor Andrius Kupčinskas yesterday released a statement, which reads in part: “During the LKL finals, a coach […]
Former Eisbären coach for Zalgiris Kaunas?
Lithuanian-language websites Basket News and Kauno Diena are this morning reporting that Zalgiris Kaunas has hired Sarunas Sakalauskas to become the club’s sporting director; the position was apparently filled directly following last night’s Asseco Prokom-Zalgiris match. Though both media outlets claim that the ink is already dry on the contracts, Kaunas owner Vladimir Romanov denied […]
Zalgiris owner: Yes to Delas and Čapin, no to Massey
Could CB Murcia just have received help from a surprising source? Zalgiris Kaunas owner Vladimir Romanov has publicly denied that his team will sign Jeremiah Massey and instead is pursuing a longer-term development plan. This is good news for Murcia fans, as the team has not yet signed the American big man despite the club’s […]
Zalgiris loses to Minsk, drops to 2-6 in tight European-league games; what is happening in Kaunas?
The conversations BallinEurope has with peers in the European basketball blogosphere lately tend to drift toward one team: Žalgiris Kaunas, the hardest luck team in Euroleague basketball. No, wait, strike that. Let’s start over. The conversations BallinEurope has with peers in the European basketball blogosphere lately tend to drift toward one team: Žalgiris Kaunas, a […]
Euroleague Power Rankings: 2012-13 Opening Day Edition
All right, it’s that time again! With hours to go before the 2012-13 Euroleague season tips off, BallinEurope breaks out its first power ratings for the big league. Whereas normally a disclaimer to the effect of “the following ratings are based on current trending only and are not necessarily based on the overall quality of […]
From A.I. to Zalgiris: The top stories in 2009-10 European basketball
As BallinEurope closes the book on the 2009-10 basketball season, it’s time to take stock of the year that was with the clarity of history. Without further ado, let’s retrospect on the top 10 Eurocentric basketball stories of the season.