Dallas Mavericks 127
Peja Stojakovic: The BallinEurope tribute
Just days ago, Peja Stojakovic appeared to be a viable free agent for an NBA team with roster holes, a still-deadly long-range assassin at the age of 34, a 19-year veteran with gas enough in the tank for late-game daggers and smart D, a prototypical European baller with an American championship pedigree. “Couldn’t he drain […]
The official BallinEurope ballot for FIBA Europe Men's Players of the Year: Nowitzki, Navarro and…?
BallinEurope just loves season- and year-ending polls, and every December FIBA Europe offers hoops devotees the opportunity to participate in the naming the Continent’s Players of The Year. And while the winner of the award for 2011 – a.k.a. the Year of Dirk – is surely a no-brainer, the FIBA ballot calls for electors to […]
Final game in Spain for Fernandez, Ibaka, Splitter: Tiago goes for 19, but Real Madrid routs Valencia, 81-64
Big-name NBA refugees Rudy Fernandez, Serge Ibaka and Tiago Splitter will soon be heading back to the ‘States, thus making yesterday’s Real Madrid-Valencia Basket game the last appearance for each in Spain in 2011-12. Fernandez and Ibaka left Los Blancos in quite good position, leading the way to the 81-64 win against the short-handed Valencia […]
Not exactly “no basketball anymore”: Notes on 34 pan-European games
“No basketball anymore”? Are you serious? The next two days will see some 34 games played out in the top three European basketball competitions: Euroleague, EuroCup and FIBA Eurochallenge. Below, BallinEurope presents some links, highlight clips and like on some of the competing teams starring Igor Rakocevic, Tiago Splitter, D.J. Strawberry and that Williams guy, […]
Anton Larsen: “One great player to give Denmark hope”?
Denmark is one rarely associated with great basketball; indeed, the men’s national team is ranked no. 111 in the current FIBA standings, putting them well behind basketball powers such as Liberia and Togo. Despite it all, suggests Tom Schad in the Copenhagen Post Online, “Denmark could become world beaters in basketball.” Citing the examples of […]
Ilyasova: I want to stay with Anadolu Efes; Real Madrid wants to keep Rudy
Spain-based TuBasket today has some scintillating sound bites regarding Ersan Ilyasova, the Milwaukee Bucks forward who signed a contract containing the now just-about-requisite NBA out clause with Euroleague squad Anadolu Efes, and Real Madrid’s top-paid player Rudy Fernandez. Leading off the story is Ilyasova’s line “I want to stay [with] Anadolu Efes. I hope FIBA […]
Eurobasket opener bullets: Pnini vs. Dirk, Spain's competition, Kanter's rust, more
Hours remain until Eurobasket 2011 tips off here in Lithuania. As a warmup this morning, BallinEurope brings a roundup of some chatter from around the world regarding the big tournament; in ESPN TrueHoop tradition, we’ll bring it bullet-style. • Poor Israel, one of the more unheralded teams in the tournament … not only are they […]
Coach Bauermann: Dirk Nowitzki, Team Germany “has work to do”
BallinEurope’s unofficial comrade in schadenfreude, a new website calling itself Lockout Hoops, recently turned us on to a nice YouTube clip of Team Germany in training for the upcoming EuroBasket tournament. In general, the clip is a bit of a lovefest for that face of German basketball, Dirk Nowitzki. High praise is given to the […]
Greatest of all-time: Yugoslavia or Spain?
An interesting exchange of tweets went down last Friday (yes, minus points for untimeliness, but on another job BallinEurope thought deep into the matter all weekend) between HoopsHype/ESPN Deportes writer Jorge Sierra and Team Australia/Milwaukee Bucks big man Andrew Bogut. Things started innocuously enough, with Sierra plugging a Spanish-language piece he’d written for Deportes: “An […]
Update from the North: 2011 Nordic Championship roundup
From Sweden, sportswriter/broadcaster Magnus Dahlborn checks in with BallinEurope today to give us reportage on the recently completed Nordic Championship tournament, which saw the title awarded to undefeated Team Finland. Due to the tragic events in Norway, a sombre feeling overlay the past weekend when the Nordic Championships between national teams from Sweden, Finland, Norway, […]
Dirk Swish: Entrepreneurs turn iconic basketballer Nowitzki into icon
File this one under “What’s Next”: It’s called the “Legendary Icon” (but you’ll surely be forgiven if you think of it as the “Dirk Swish”) and if a two-man team of Dallas entrepreneurs has its way, their icon will have you forgetting all about the Jumpman. The icon – and concomitant T-shirt – based on […]
Nowitzki: “Not exceptional” in the NBA Finals
No matter how you feel about Dirk Nowitzki’s place in NBA history vis-à-vis “Top 10” lists and whatnot, yesterday’s interview in Der Spiegel will certainly put him among the all-time greats in terms of humility. In the interview, which touches on subjects including Barack Obama, race relations in the NBA, and the upcoming 2011 Eurobasket […]