Minnesota Timberwolves 146
Happy Valentine’s Day from BallinEurope (also Pau Gasol and Ricky Rubio)
BallinEurope wishes readers a happy Valentine’s Day today with an expression from that greatest love of all, namely the love of a fan for basketball. At left is our Valentine’s Day card to you, starring those “Latin lover” types Pau Gasol and Ricky Rubio – a match made in heaven. Or in Spain. (A suitable-for-printing-and-framing […]
Ricky Rubio to Nikola Pekovic for the NBA’s Play of the Day
Here it is: Another one for the Human YouTube Highlight Clip’s collection. From the Love-less Minnesota Timberwolves’ 86-84 victory at the Sacramento Kings last night, Ricky Rubio contributed what the NBA official website is calling “The Play of the Day.” In the third quarter, Tyreke Evans lost the handle, and La Pistola swooped in on […]
Ricky Rubio to Kobe Bryant: “You know you’re getting the silver medal, right?”
Perhaps the most unfairly overlooked aspect in discussions of the difficulties European players face when attempting to adapt to NBA ball is the question of language. Sure, English is the international language of basketball. Sure, there are nearly three times as many English-language students than native speakers. Sure, a great fraction of Europeans grow up […]
Dirk Nowitzki: “Angela Merkel is nice”; “I want to top Sabonis.”
Surely to no one’s surprise, Gazzetta dello Sport gave its prestigious Euroscar Player of the Year Award to Dirk Nowitzki, he of the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks. Clearly the favorite to take FIBA Europe’s equivalent award, the Mav was bestowed with the honor on the same night he collected his bling-bling title ring in […]
La Pistola does it all (in a single play)
Amidst a 93-85 Minnesota Timberwolves victory over the Detroit Pistons, Ricky Rubio produced yet another for the YouTube annals. Just watch. (P.S. How can this guy not be considered the no. 1 candidate for NBA Rookie of the Year?)
Eurocentric NBA highlights, bullets: Parker’s big game; Nuggets top Heat; Deng rules over Celtics; Rubio masterful as ever in first start
BallinEurope gets things rolling on Saturday with highlight clips – okay, some links to online stuff You Should Read as well, but the main point is highlight clips, right? This morning, then, a quick look at some excellent performances turned in in last night’s NBA action from the Continent’s top players. Starring Tony Parker, Luol […]
Oh, Ricky Rubio, you’ve done it again: Double-double, highlight-clip passing against Wiz
The Minnesota Timberwolves enjoyed their first true romp of the 2011-12 NBA season, taking out the hapless Washington Wizards in D.C. yesterday, 93-72. Fans of the league’s most polarizing player (at least here at BallinEurope.com), Ricky Rubio, got their fill as La Pistola produced his best statistical effort yet with a 13-point, 14-assist game against […]
Splitter opines Adelman key to Rubio’s success; Ginobili says “impressive”
Most observers are amazed at the early success of Spanish wunderkind Ricky Rubio in the NBA, but at least a couple San Antonio Spurs are claiming to have known this was destined all along. Tiago Splitter, whose Caja Laboral Baskonia met Rubio’s FC Barcelona many a time since the lad debuted in the ACB at […]
11-for-11: BallinEurope’s Most 11 popular stories from 2011
So 2011 may have been few people’s favorite year personally, European basketball fans have certainly got to be taking solace in the fact that the past 12 months featured a seriously great run of Continental-flavored hoops. To wit, in 2011, we enjoyed: • an exciting round of Euroleague playoffs which included FC Barcelona’s surprising tournament-round […]
Ricky Rubio produces dazzling highlights in debut; Timberwolves lose to Thunder, 104-100
In a game BallinEurope’s been (half-)awaiting for years, Ricky Rubio debuted for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the team’s opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder last night. Though the Thunder won the game 104-100, Rubio impressed with six points, six assists, five rebounds (!), zero turnovers and his first NBA YouTube-worthy highlights. NBA dish no. 1 […]
The Eurocentric 2011-12 NBA Western Conference preview (plus Official Fearless Predictions™)
Okay, after that Xmas distraction, BallinEurope is ready to write up some more stuff about good tidings and cheer*, namely, the start of the NBA season. With hours to go, BiE’s got just enough time to get in the part two of the Euro-centric big-league preview in this brief look at the teams in the […]
Ricky Rubio impresses in debut for Minnesota Timberwolves
Well now, BallinEurope only waited for this for years – even though BiE never thought he’d see it from Minnesota. Last night saw Ricky Rubio’s debut for the Timberwolves in a preseason matchup versus the Milwaukee Bucks and, awesomely enough, contributed a couple of YouTube-worthy moments. (Is it enough to “bring folks back to Target […]