Donatas Motiejunas 51
The BallinEurope Summer League Review: On 14 NBA aspirants from the Continent
While so much attention is paid to the upcoming Olympics and warm-up games, a number of European players have quietly gone about their business in the NBA Summer Leagues in Vegas and Orlando. BallinEurope’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick, takes a look at an extended roster’s worth of European ballers’ performances in the Orlando […]
Who can stop Team USA?
This one goes out by request to BallinEurope’s Lithuanian agent Y. … with Team USA coming together to play the Dominican Republic today – with or without Chris Paul – BiE tries to answer the question “Who [if anyone] can beat Team USA?” Good one. A few gauntlets have been thrown by the Americans already, […]
Top 10 plays from PLK playoffs feature lots of Asseco Prokom, Donatas Motiejunas
The PLK season ended on Wednesday in the same fashion as the previous eight seasons: Namely, with Asseco Prokom Gdynia holding Poland’s basketball championship title, as Trefl Spot managed to take the series to seven games but in the end fell 76-68 in the final match. And so the league has released its semi-obligatory “Top […]
Kemzura releases extended Team Lithuania roster: No to Lavrinovic brothers, yes to Kleiza
National head coach Kestutis Kemzura has released his list of 18 candidates who could be suiting up for Team Lithuania in the 2012 Olympic qualifiers and beyond. On paper at least, the selection looks pretty good – particularly compared to the Eurobasket 2011 version of the team which included a single true no. 3 after […]
On the demise of Lithuanian Basketball
BallinEurope is not exactly sure what led our man in Lithuania, the enigmatic Y., to contemplate the fortunes of his country’s national team … but who are we to question a Lietuva hometowner when it comes to basketball? Y. goes back eight years to figure out where things went so terribly wrong and unfortunately finds […]
Euroleague 2011-12: BallinEurope Official Fearless Predictions™ – in haiku form!
Right, then: It’s finally time. The top professional basketball league in the world (Now that bears some thinking about now, dunnit?) tips off its 2011-12 regular season tonight as Žalgiris Kaunas hosts AK47-armed, Teodosic-toting CSKA Moscow. Almost as anticipated as the actual Euroleague opening game is of course another round of BallinEurope’s Official Fearless Predictions™ […]
Euroleague Power Rankings: First of the Season edition
Right, then. With the last teams advancing into the Euroleague two dozen for the regular season and a break in the Kobe-to-Bologna soap opera today, BallinEurope breaks out an old favorite: power rankings! Once again, the BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings are based on current trends, i.e. who’s hot, who’s not. For this edition of the […]
Kestutis Kemzura names 20 to preliminary Team Lithuania roster
Team Lithuania coach Kestutis Kemzura this morning named 20 players to his preliminary squad in advance of the Eurobasket 2011 tournament. The home team will be returning seven players from the side that took bronze in the 2010 FIBA World Championship and including one NBAer – but not Linas Kleiza. Returning from the surprise of […]
Briefs, highlights on European prospects bound for NBA (maybe)
Basketball has needed the “Darkometer” for years, and the innovative duo over at Euroleague Adventures has finally delivered on our collective desire. Check out the introduction to the concept, which seeks to define a handful of would-be NBA draft picks against the utter awesomeness of the Darko Milicic phenomenon, i.e. the unknown quantity-cum-no. 2 overall […]
Euroleague, Eurocup qualifying round bullets
With a nod to TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott, BallinEurope presents a few “bullets” from around Europe in previewing six games’ worth of tonight’s Euroleague and Eurocup qualifying round action. • Hemofarm swingman Marko Sutalo sees the keys to defeating the more experienced (and more American) Alba Berlin as three: Setting the pace, establishing position on offense […]
Robin Benzing: “Nein” to 2010 NBA draft
Add another name to the ever-burgeoning list of quality European players who will *not* be considered for selection in the 2010 NBA Draft: Team Germany/Ratiopharm Ulm forward Robin Benzing. David Hein of Germany-based heinnews is reporting that the 21-year-old Bundesliga sensation pulled himself from contention in 2010 because Benzing “would most likely have been drafted […]
Official 2010 BallinEurope mock draft, version 3.0: The first 15
Though not quite completely settled yet, most devotees have a pretty good idea of the pool for this year’s suddenly distinctly non-European flavored 2010 NBA Draft. BallinEurope’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick, revisits the official BallinEurope NBA Mock Draft once again with updated prognostications for the first 15 choices in round one. 1. Washington […]