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EuroBasket 2011: Notes, quotes, clips and Fearless Predictions™ for France vs. Spain
Hard to believe it’s almost over … after 19 days of intense basketball competition, the 2011 EuroBasket championship game features a matchup at least a few — including BallinEurope’s U.K. guy Sam Chadwick; props! — had forecast as the outcome. Spain seeks to defend its title against a star-laden France playing in its first-ever title […]
Eurobasket 2011 round two: Impressions, links, notes and highlights
With just two days (and one game per team) remaining in 2011 EuroBasket round two, BallinEurope takes a brief look at some issues and trends going down in the tournament – plus links and YouTubes, of course. Read on for quips, quotes and clips. • Importance of remaining games. Of six games left to play, […]
Get ready, Chester: Artest planks in L.A., prepares visit to U.K.
You’d better steel yourselves in Chester and beyond, folks, for none other than Ron Artest, a.k.a. Metta World Peace, arrives on Thursday. And though according to his publicist Courtney Barnes in an ESPN Los Angeles piece, “There’s no deal in place for him to play,” World Peace-watching will certainly be a popular spectator sport through […]
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 […]
Beşiktaş Cola Turka eschewing Kobe for Kevin Durant?
Turkey-based news outlets are this morning reporting that Beşiktaş Cola Turka, a.k.a. Deron Williams’ new and Allen Iverson’s former team, is setting its sights on Kevin Durant as Kobe Bryant has not yet responded to overtures from the big-thinking TBL club. Turkish news outlet Milliyet stated that Durant’s agent Aaron Goodwin met with Beşiktaş president […]
“It is a fact”: Bits and bites on Deron Williams, Beşiktaş, NBA lockout
With BallinEurope temporarily stationed in the USA, the business-as-usual machinations of top European clubs and preparations of national teams for Eurobasket 2011 threaten to be lost in a squall of speculation about the NBA lockout – of which amazingly little progress is being seen, by the way. And so, BiE has a few bulleted thoughts, […]
Artest agent: No on Britain, Finland; maybe on Israel, Russia, Greece, Turkey…
After capturing the blogosphere’s attention with yesterday’s reportage of Ron Artest, a.k.a. Metta World Peace, looking to options in the British Basketball League in case of an extended NBA player lockout, ESPN Los Angeles went straight to the horse’s mouth – or the horse’s agent’s mouth – to learn the truth. Said agent David Bauman […]
A dunking ninja in America: Clips, comments on Jan Vesely’s draft night
On NBA Draft night, surely no European player – not even the mysterious (to the American market) Enes Kanter – drew as much notice as no. 6 overall Jan Vesely. In a serious case of instant fame injection, the Czech big man leapt into the collective consciousness thanks to a post-draft smooch and the resulting […]
Hold the tweets: Rubio already has deal in place with Timberwolves?
Is “The Decision II” forthcoming? The “flashy styled,” “baby-faced” Ricky Rubio, of whom ESPN yesterday reported was to be rethinking his incipient deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, may already be committed to playing in the NBA for 2011-12. The Worldwide Leader this morning (CET time) posted something of a backtrack from yesterday’s story, which fueled […]
Ricky Rubio to stay in Barcelona for 2011-12 after all?
For all those who figured Ricky Rubio to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the 2011-12 season was a done deal, well, think again. ESPN.com is today reporting the Rubio and his agent are in fact willing to discuss staying on with new ACB champions FC Barcelona. On his NBA deal (or lack thereof), Rubio stated in […]
Dastardly Dirk versus The Big Z: Who deserves a ring more?
The two have played a combined 1,837 regular-season NBA games, scoring over 33,750 points while nabbing more than 14,500 rebounds over 24½ full seasons. Each has rewritten the franchise record books of the team for which he spent the overwhelming majority of his career. Each has been underrated for much, if not all, of his […]
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 […]