BBL 47
Club profile: The Solent Kestrels
Joining Ball in Europe as a contributor is Sam Chadwick, a youth-team assistant coach and aspiring sports journalist/head coach (so call ‘im the BiE intern, then) based in Great Britain. Sam’s home team is the British Basketball League division three team Solent Kestrels, his favorite team is Unicaja Malaga (“as Joel Freeland plays for them […]
Beko BBL Cup quarterfinal pairings set
One country that did not hold a national cup tournament last weekend was Germany; thanks to a Sunday draw, however, we now know the pairings for the upcoming Beko Basketball League Cup semifinals. Based on the draw held in Frankfurt, quarterfinal pairings will feature Brose Baskets Bamberg vs. BG Göttingen and Deutsche Bank Skyliners vs. […]
State of the nations: European basketball organizations today
While not interested in passing definitive judgment, we think it would be useful and fair to take a look at the European basketball panorama. There will be no ratings or rankings here, just a snapshot of what the most important ballin’ countries offer us. Ten years into the third millennium, it’s common to hear repeated […]
Own a piece of German basketball history for just €150,000
You want to give her a Valentine’s Day gift she’ll always remember? Here’s an idea: Spring for the entire grandstand and stadium offices of the Bundesliga Basketball League’s now-defunct Köln 99ers. Forget the dining-room set: These leftovers from Cologne’s hoops team include 3,100 seats and a bonus platform tower (“for technology and media,” we’re told). […]
European Basketball Calendar: February 2010 (first half)
And now for the public-service portion of Ball in Europe … at no cost to you runs a somewhat comprehensive of the basketball action going down for the first two weeks of February; schedule information is provided for top leagues in Spain, France, Germany, and Italy, together with international leagues and FIBA competitions. This calendar […]
Unglaublich: Nice dunks from the Bundesliga All-Star dunk contest
The BBL held their All-Star Game festivities over the weekend. In the showcase game, the South overcame the North behind MVP Chris Ensminger of Telecom Baskets Bonn, who … ah, I hear ya: Get to the dunk contest. Right, then. A couple of videos of high-flying jams to show you, then.
Köln 99ers fight insolvency, think big future with "Team Germany"
Rarely does the future of one club seem so dreary yet so promising at the same time as with German first division club Köln 99ers. The 99ers’ main investor Jürgen Wollny said the 2006 BBL champions are dangerously close to filing for insolvency just 14 months after the Hamburg businessman saved the club at the […]
Economy causes Alba "no" to 10m euro budget
German BBL clubs have until Sunday to submit their financial paperwork for licenses for next season. The biggest news so far has defending champions Alba Berlin saying they will not increase their budget for 2010 to 10 million euros as they had hoped. Berlin have long talked about increasing their budget from the current estimated […]
The BallinEurope playoff round-up
As the playoffs are running across Europe, BallinEurope will give you some regular updates about series in the different countries and the stories that you don’t read in the box scores.
"Nowitzki era has not been used"
Remember Ademola Okulaja? In terms of college basketball, he is probably the most known German professional basketball player ever. He was on a North Carolina team with players like Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Ed Cota, Shammond Williams and Makhtar N’Diaye and was named MVP of the Tar Heels in his senior year. Right now Ademola […]
Relegation is not that obvious (Part 2)
After having analyzed the situation in France, I’ll take a closer look at the relegation and promotion process this year in Germany. And as you will see, this is even more complex than the situation in France.