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2012 Olympic basketball: The perspective from Spain on the gold-medal game (plus really specific Official Fearless Prediction™)
The Liga Endesa official website editorial staff today attempts to answer the question on the mind of USA-detractors and underdog-backers, i.e. “¿What must happen for Spain to win Olympic gold?” Below runs an extrapolation of the article, featuring eight bits of advice of varying degrees of difficulty, plus BallinEurope’s own ever-lovable Official Fearless Prediction™ on […]
2012 Olympic basketball: Rising and falling stock after the first round
While we’re a little ways away from actually awarding medals for 2012 Olympic basketball, the first round showed international hoops fans quite a lot. Though the fat lady hasn’t sung yet, reputations have changed over the past five games to cause some individual and/or teams losses beyond these Olympics. BallinEurope today takes a look at […]
Seven (or eight) games on which 2012 Olympic basketball will turn
BallinEurope’s Official Fearless Predictions™ for 2012 Olympic basketball will be posted tomorrow, but with the 2012 Olympics opening ceremonies taking place tonight and the men’s competition tipping off on Sunday, BiE got out the virtual calendar to make time for the following seven (or eight) games, matches that should fundamentally shape the greater 30-game picture, […]
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, […]
Why Andrei Kirilenko and CSKA Moscow must win the Euroleague
Regular readers of BallinEurope may recall a similarly entitled writeup on Montepaschi Siena on these pages from a long time ago – actually two weeks, but already it *feels* like quite a spell. Contributing writer Enrico Cellini was as surprised as any of us when Olympiacos began Siena’s ejection from the tournament, Facebook-messaging BiE with […]
How good is Nikola Vucevic? Very.
Not long ago, BallinEurope handed out mid-season grades for NBA players representing The Continent; rookie Nikola Vucevic was awarded a solid 3 out of 5 – a 3.5, really, if only this self-imposing grading system weren’t so harsh. BiE assessed that “subjectively speaking, Vucevic has been particularly impressive for the surprisingly impressive Philadelphia 76ers; if […]
Magic-Lakers-Nets three-way blockbuster trade: Why wouldn’t this work?
Ever since the Los Angeles Lakers’ dreary loss to the Orlando Magic last Friday and straight through to yesterday’s brickfest in a loss to the Indiana Pacers, this fan’s thoughts are turning to – OK, now nearly obsessed with – making a trade to shake things up. First and foremost, BallinEurope feels for Pau Gasol. […]
Real Madrid wins 81-80 on clutch shot by Nikola Mirotic (or, Sheesh, more good news for Chicago Bulls fans?)
With an league-best 13-3 record, all signs pointing to a deep run in the NBA playoffs and a pleased-as-punch fan base that has long forgotten about the non-acquisition of Dwight Howard, it’s not like the Chicago Bulls need more positivity. Regardless, BallinEurope’s gonna give it to them; as it turns out, their brightest European prospect […]
The Eurocentric 2011-12 NBA Eastern Conference preview (plus Official Fearless Predictions™)
While basketball lovers are getting something of a Christmas gift this season in the December 25 NBA opening day – BiE says “something of” there because this belated debut is kinda like your parents saying, “Well, we’ll just give you your birthday gift at Christmas.” When your birthday’s in October – BallinEurope would like to […]
NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs: The Eurocentric View
With the NBA playoffs starting today, BallinEurope takes another brief look at the matchups drawing our attention for the next 137 months or so. Unlike the Western Conference half of the bracket, Eastern teams are disappointingly low on European players stocking their rosters. No matter: We’ve still got the FIBA Bulls and the Big Z […]
And the Oscar (Robertson) goes to: Basketball Movies in 2010
So the envelopes have been opened and the celebratory parties in Tinseltown have yet to truly begin as Hollywood’s version of the NBA All-Star Weekend draws to a close. BallinEurope spent most of the weekend flipping between the ACB, NBA, “Black Swan” and “The Kids are All Right,” and is thus in perfect mindset to […]
Cartoon Dirk takes his talents to “Cleveland”
Last Sunday in the ‘States, prime-time animated program “The Cleveland Show” ran its take on the NBA All-Star game. Chief among the player cameos was that of Dirk Nowitzki, who gets to do lots of stuff about how he doesn’t speak English so good. Nowitzki was joined by Lebron James (really), Shaquille O’Neal (no surprise […]