Luol Deng 50
On streetballing and moving the goalposts: An open letter from Patrick Baumann
With the vote on whether to allow Team Britain automatic entry into the 2012 London Olympic Games set to take place on Sunday in Lyons, FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann has released a statement to media regarding the criteria for this decision-making process. Much of the verbiage is along the lines FIBA suddenly demanded of […]
European players in the NBA for 2010-11 (or, Come on, Raptors, sign Primoz Brezec already) [UPDATED]
With NBA teams starting to get warmed up for the regular season tipoff, BallinEurope figured it high time to take stock of the European players prospectively set to take the court in America for 2010-11. In considering the expanded rosters for each of the 30 NBA teams, BiE counted 50 players from The Continent plus […]
Interview: The Man Who Would Save British Basketball
While much of international basketball fandom is anticipating the 2010 World Championship and the powerful teams’ backers dream of glory, one national team is fighting for its very survival against what some feel is an unfair burden placed upon them by FIBA and the IOC: Great Britain. Great Britain held on for their fifth consecutive […]
FIBA’s Baumann frets about British basketball post-2012; Spice reassures
UK-based Sporting Life recently posted an couple of articles regarding the odd state of the national program and which insinuate FIBA’s greater concern with basketball in the country. On Monday, the ‘paper presented a long interview with FIBA secretary-general/International Olympic Committee inspector Patrick Baumann. Among other issues, Baumann spoke at length about what he and […]
Draft profile: Jan Vesely
In tribute to that great international pastime known as “NBA mock drafting,” BallinEurope’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick, periodically takes a look at some of Europe’s prospective high draft picks. Today’s profile features the Czech Republic’s Jan Vesely, a power forward reckoned to be the second European taken in the NBA draft (after Donatas […]
Eurocentric highlights from last night’s NBA action
With 22 NBA teams going at it last night across the ‘States, the official website has a serious compendium of clips collected this morning. Several favorites from The Continent are featured and BiE has compiled this run of videos with which you can kill a good ten minutes of your morning this morning, easily. • […]
The offical BiE NBA 2009-10 European All-Star Team
As one of the popular highlights of the NBA season, everything about the annual All-Star Game is loaded with pomp, hype and (hopefully) fun. No exception was that moment many a basketball fan awaits with gusto and prepares to heartily attack in argument as the naming of the rosters for the teams that will be […]
Betting on basketball: EuroBasket 2009 Group C odds
In our ongoing look at the odds on EuroBasket 2009 (herein presented by Euroleague/Ball in Europe partner SportingBet.com), BallinEurope.com takes a few notes on the current odds and trends in Group C. Group C is the pool which is getting officially overhyped in this tournament as the “Group of Death” sports journalists so often seek […]
Vanderbeken chooses Great Britain over Canada
Team Britain may not be playing EuroBasket 2009 with Luol Deng and Ben Gordon, but at least they’ve got … Jamie Vanderbeken. Vanderbeken’s decision was actually something of a lifetime commitment: The 23-year-old was feeling a bit pressed to choose between his father’s home country of Canada and Britain, due to his Scottish’s mother’s citizenship. […]
Unicaja’s center combo named to Team Great Britain for Eurobasket 2009
Unicaja fans will find something more than a little familiar with Team Great Britain’s big guys in Eurobasket 2009, as both Robert Archibald and the just-acquired Joel Freeland were officially named to the national squad this week. The announcement follows in the wake of Luol Deng’s announcement that he would be taking August off to […]
Doomed Britannia? Deng will not play in Eurobasket 2009
Bad news for fledging Team Great Britain’s Eurobasket 2009 chances: Luol Deng joins former Chicago Bulls teammate Ben Gordon in the “out” category. Deciding that his stress fracture injury has not yet properly healed, Deng decided to sit this one out. Gordon decided as early as last August that he wouldn’t be joining the makeshift […]
Italy back on track; Great Britain close to Poland
The Eurobasket 2009 qualifiers have started really poorly for coach Recalcati’s Team Italy. After four losses in the first five games, the situation was pretty bad but without going for incredible results, Italy is back in the race for Poland.