LKL 54
Lietuvos Rytas Dance Team displays sweet routine
For those of you with Facebook accounts, drop everything you’re doing immediately (or perhaps after you get to the end of this post) and check out the Baltic Basketball League page for what could well be the coolest-ever number performed by a basketball dance team. Therein, the Lietuvos Rytas ladies are not only wearing some […]
How many Americans (and foreigners) play in Europe, anyway?
Estonia-based newspaper Õhtuleht yesterday posted results from its number-crunching survey of European basketball, vis-à-vis the number of foreigners – and specifically those carrying US passports – in most Continental domestic leagues. The home country itself is one of the more sparsely-foreigner populated, with just 14 foreign players on eight EMKL rosters or just over 1½ […]
BallinEurope’s completely relativistic 2010-11 All-Star Team (or, What? You’ve never heard of Bambale Osby?)
With most domestic basketball hitting a halfway point and the Euroleague into its second round, BallinEurope today pays tribute to some outstanding individual performances by naming its all-star team. No relative merits or penalties were assessed for the league in which BiE’s all-stars compete, and domination in one league was a top criteria for making […]
Siauliai upsets Lietuvos Rytas, 96-95; David Weaver becomes one-man highlight reel
The big news from Lithuania this weekend? That would be Šiauliai’s 96-95 squeaker of an upset of traditional powerhouse Lietuvos Rytas in LKL play; L.Rytas is now “only” 10-2 in the domestic league, a full two games behind Žalgiris Kaunas. Additionally, the defending back-to-back champs are just 1½ games (or one point) ahead of 9-3 […]
The Top 100 Teams in Europe: Now with new formula!
You have commented and BallinEurope has heard. Thanks in large part to the proddings and machinations of a somewhat indignant Y. (BiE’s man in Lithuania), we’ve reworked the formula to determine the official Top 100 Teams in Europe list. Not to go into any boring detail, but Y. was kind enough to install somewhat arbitrary […]
Introducing the ultimate BiE rankings: The Top 100 basketball teams in Europe
In gearing up to produce another official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings column (it’ll be up here after the draw next week), BiE got to thinking about how unsatisfying the task will be with only 16 teams remaining. After all, BiE regularly has an eye on hundreds of teams and though the Euroleague is clearly cream-of-the-Continental-Crop, […]
Christmas greetings, the Zalgiris Kaunas way
For Christmas this year, Žalgiris Kaunas is offering Christmas greetings in the best fashion Lithuanians know: With basketball, electronic card-style. Head on over to the official website by clicking here to a page that merrily welcomes you with “Žalgiris Kaunas welcomes the approaching winter holidays and gives good cheer!” (“Kauno Žalgiris sveikina su artéjančiomis Žiemos […]
Hungary’s first NBA player/current Phoenix Suns scout Kornel David visits Lithuania
The Pride of Hungarian Basketball was recently spotted in Lithuania, where he was doing scouting work for the Phoenix Suns. Former Žalgiris Kaunas big man/Hungary’s first-ever NBA player Kornél Dávid sat in on the Caja Laboral Baskonia game in Kaunas last week and afterwards granted an interview to Žalgiris radio. (Naturally, Dávid doesn’t give name […]
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: Post-week nine
So Žalgiris gets its coach fired after playing .800 ball through 20 games, Spanish powerhouses lose in Lithuania and Germany, Valencia kills Milano, Efes Pilsen stuns PAO … just another week in Euroleague 2010-11, eh? And after happenings aplenty, it sounds like time for another edition of BallinEurope’s Official Euroleague Power Rankings! Let’s go! Tops […]
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: Post-week seven
Apologies for the tardiness of this column, dear readers, but the Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings are just as fun and informative on Sundays as they are on Saturdays! With four teams through into the Top 16 round and several more on the bubble, who’s cruising and who’s losing? BiE says the two dozen squads […]
Vainauskas: Lietuvos Rytas (still) good enough to get into EL Final Four
Proving once again that, even when no games are being played, there’s never a dull moment in Lithuanian basketball, BallinEurope’s man in Lithuania (whom we know simply as “Y”) reports that a team executive there seems to have a bit of a slippery grasp on hard reality – and it’s not even Vladimir Romanov! Lietuvos […]
Sixty-eight Fearless Predictions™ for 2010-11 Euroleague season
With the EL tipoff game tonight, BallinEurope is feeling devotion … not to mention a rush of Fearless Predictions™ coming on. How crazy can BiE get? You be the judge; here are 68 prognostications on all things Euroleague which you may [laugh uproariously about] ponder. Enjoy the season, everyone! (And sign up for the BallinEurope […]