EuroLeague 174
It’s David Blatt for Maccabi Tel Aviv
Forget about American players making good in Europe: David Blatt is simply one of the top head coaches on The Continent, and the Team Russia miracle worker has just added another gold star to his resume in “coming home” to Maccabi Tel Aviv on a three-year contract. Blatt has some huge shoes to fill in […]
Top 10 reasons Americans should watch the ACB finals
Yes, yes, BallinEurope realizes that U.S. basketball fandom is currently enraptured with the NBA Championship, if only to determine just which team y’all hate more. But still: A true roundball supporter wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to tune into some top-level ball, would you? As Pete Mickeal once put it, “Hey, there’s a world outside […]
A look at Gilil/Gilboa's stunning Israeli championship win
In an upset some are calling “history-making” while others (okay, Pini Gershon) grouse about the Israeli league playoff format, Galil/Gilboa pulled off the big upset away over Maccabi Tel Aviv, 90-77. This marked the second time in three years that Maccabi lost in the single-game final after having taken the previous 36 of 37 national […]
Amadou, Dylan Page, Nsonwe-Amadi lead Roanne over Orleans, 78-71, and into French semis
Entente Orleanaise will probably not be returning to the Euroleague for 2010-11 season as the 45ers were bounced from the LNB tournament by EuroChallenge final four team Chorale de Roanne last night, 78-71. Buoyed by the home support at Vacheresse Hall, Roanne quickly took the lead and expanded the advantage to as much as 16 […]
Business as usual in Lithuania: Romanov sound bite, L.Rytas signs Newley
What was that about the fat cat singing…? Followers of Lithuanian basketball this season were no doubt immensely let down by Žalgiris Kaunas owner Vladimir Romanov’s superbrief post-game press conference after his coachless team’s defeat in game seven of the LKL championship series. Lasting approximately 12 seconds, the entire “conference” with media representatives consisted of […]
Invisible to insane: The six types of basketball team owner
They say that no one has ever bought a ticket to a sports event in order to see an executive but with two weeks of American and European basketball club owners hogging sports page headlines, BallinEurope got to thinking about these moneyed celebrity types who run the teams we watch … and the often disturbing […]
Statistically dominant Tiago Splitter wins ACB MVP award
Congratulations to Tiago Splitter, who, to the surprise of extremely few, took home the ACB MVP title for 2009-10. Statistically, Splitter dominated the Spanish League while leading the ACB “playing ranking value” over 27 of the league’s 34 weeks. He ended up ranking first in ranking points per game (at 21.2, he blew away second-place […]
Romanov "addresses the challenge of curbing the blogger" in LKL Championship game five
Well, it wouldn’t be the 2010 Lithuanian Basketball League championship without the daily Vladimir Romanov story in advance of the next game, the third consecutive in which Žalgiris Kaunas will play without an official head coach. Apparently, the Žalgiris owner made the trip over to Vilnius with the team’s sports director Šarūnas Sakalauskas to watch […]
Dreaming of a Euro-centric 2011 NBA Draft
Here at Ball in Europe we (sometimes) like to do things a little early, and I mainly have one thing on my mind about this year’s NBA draft: Namely, next year’s NBA draft. Since watching the Euroleague third-place game between Partizan Belgrade and CSKA Moscow, I can’t help but think that, because of his decision […]
Childress' choice: Atlanta Hawks to make qualifying offer
Start worrying, Olympiacos fans. Atlanta Hawks-centric TrueHoop Network blog Hoopinion this morning confirms that the Birds will indeed make a $4.8 million qualifying offer to Josh Childress, which would allow the team to hold the current Red’s NBA rights, should he choose to return to the league but not Atlanta. On Childress’ part, the Yank-made-good-in-Europe […]
The ACB point guard of the year is … c'mon, like you don't know
Yet another anticlimactic accolade has been bestowed upon Ricky Rubio for the 2009-10 season, as Spain’s ACB League yesterday officially crowned The Human YouTube Clip/defending back-to-back FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year as Point Guard of the Year. It’s the second such nod for Rubio, who also received the award for the 2007-08 season […]
With new Turkish law, will Efes Pilsen be tossed aside like an empty can?
Teams all over Europe are fighting off economic realities and in some cases are installing desperate plans to keep their clubs afloat. But Turkey’s most celebrated team, Efes Pilsen Istanbul, may soon be closing due to public health legislation. A bill currently being mulled over by Turkish legislators would make sweeping changes to alcohol and […]