Arvydas Sabonis 50
Oregonians, did you vote Sabonis?
While Election Day went on throughout America, the city of Portland was treated to a nice shadow campaign, propagated by individual(s) unknown. Riffing on former Trail Blazer Chris Dudley’s campaign for governor of Oregon, some basketball aficionados in the state crafted a bit of a samizdat poster for Lithuanian citizen Arvydas Sabonis to rule govern […]
Remembering the other two Dream Teams of 1992
On this day of 1992 Team USA’s well-deserved induction into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame, BallinEurope again takes the opportunity to remember those other two squads competing in the Barcelona Games whose impact on an international level was almost as great and whose impact at home was inestimable. What the Dream Team gave to […]
Hope for the future: Young Lithuanians crush Russia, 90-61, take U18 European title
Congratulations go out this morning to the Lithuania under-18 team, which capped an undefeated romp through the 2010 FIBA U18 European Championship with a 90-61 crushing of Russia in Vilnius. A crowd of 13,000 – the all-time record for a youth game in Europe – contributed their efforts as 13th man. While not much is […]
The Greatest Basketball YouTube Ever (or, YouTube as a force for online democracy)
(Please excuse BallinEurope’s more personal tone today; trust me, i have as healthy a loathing for usage of the first-person in sports blogging as you no doubt do. On the other hand, it is called *You*Tube.) When i was coming of age in the Cold War 1980s, there wasn’t one basketball universe but rather two […]
The 35 Greatest Basketball YouTubes of All-Time: Nos. 16-20
BallinEurope brings another five pages on YouTube you’ll be wanting to bookmark as the 35 Greatest Basketball YouTubes of All-Time countdown continues. As always, the rules used in creating the masterwork of minutiae may be found here. And today’s first clip needs no introduction, but BiE’ll give one anyway. To wit: 20. The worst foul […]
A brief YouTube history of Žalgiris Kaunas vs. Lietuvos Rytas
Friday will see the Baltic Basketball League final four tip off, while the Lithuanian Basketball League starts up its own domestic tournament next Wednesday, April 28. At this point, both seem once again inevitably headed to a final confrontation of those superpowers of Lithuanian ‘ball, namely Žalgiris Kaunas and Lietuvos Rytas. In the BBL, the […]
Euroleague All-Decade Team: The official BallinEurope ballot
The waffling is over! After a couple of weeks of mulling over the field of 50 candidates for ten spots on the Euroleague All-Decade Team, the final decision has been made (and whoo, was that painful) and the ballot submitted. The following, then, is how the official BallinEurope ballot for the 2010s all-stars, along with […]
Best of the (basketball) net: Read all about it edition
Another Sunday, another of BallinEurope’s “Best of the (Basketball) Net” column. Lots of interesting stuff hit the interwebs this week, with tons of material for you to read – and that increases by literal volumes should you take our first item to heart… • Could this be the basketball-related post of all-time or just in […]
Is Dirk Nowitzki really the greatest European NBA player ever?
“When it’s all said and done Dirk will end up being the greatest European basketball player to ever play in the NBA, if he isn’t already.” So ran the tangential line from within a story at Bleacher Report entitled “A New Decade: A New Future.” Though this contention is taken for granted in the U.S., […]
The case for Arvydas (or, Come on, Sports Guy, keep him in the pyramid!)
Here I was, all set to expend some writing energies on analyzing the 2010 FIBA Worlds groups until distracted by an actual print column from Bill Simmons, he of ESPN.com, a main man of yours truly – though I could’ve sworn he’d opted out of the magazine gig a few months back. No matter, this […]
Review: "The Book of Basketball" by Bill Simmons
The only good thing about getting a nasty flu? Easy: Lots of time for reading monster tomes like Bill Simmons’ “The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy”. Thanks to a sentinel from the legion of The 2009 Killer Viruses, i was able to knock down all 697 pages of this thing […]
Dream Team Europe: The all-time European basketball team
Involved in yet another chat with yet another basketball enthusiast yet one more time about the all-time greatest basketball team, i quickly realized that any discussion of the topic never extends beyond the borders of the United States of America. And while the list of Greatest NBA Players of All-Time basically writes itself – Jordan, […]