NBA 550
Olympiacos wins! Olympiacos wins! Olympiacos wins! (a.k.a. *The* European basketball story of 2011-12)
Let’s put this into perspective. The last time Olympiacos took the Greek national title, they were led by David Rivers and Dragan Tarlać. Vassilis Spanoulis was 15 years old and not near professional club play. Dejan Bodiroga was in the middle of his career and Mirsad Turkcan had just turned 21. Across the pond, Lebron […]
Serge Ibaka will even block your access
Tweet of the day? That’s an easy one. Wrote Twitterer Keaton Eberly, “Dang, he blocks everything.” Who’s “he”? Team Spain/Oklahoma City Thunder force in the middle Serge Ibaka, of course. I mean, look at what the Iblaka did to the image Eberly posted with Instagram – and this after amassing 20 in five games against […]
Brose Baskets Bamberg GM: Tibor Pleiss injury not serious
As reported on BallinEurope earlier today, prospective Oklahoma City Thunderer/current Brose Baskets Bamberg big man Tibor Pleiss was knocked out of Sunday’s Bundesliga playoff game with Artland Dragons with a knee injury. Heinnews has just reported, however, that, according to team GM Wolfgang Heyder, an MRI examination showed that “Fortunately there was nothing torn and […]
The BallinEurope All-American Euroleague team (also all-Russian, -Greek and -former Yugoslavian teams)
Now here’s an argument starter for you … with much debate perpetually going on among European basketball fans vis-à-vis the influence of American and/or NBA players on the Euroleague, BiE decided to take a look back at the 2011-12 season in hopes of drawing some comparison on an individual, player-by-player level. Below, then, runs four […]
NIJT wrap: Lietuvos Rytas takes title; plus, BiE’s nine European (and one Chinese) prospects to watch
Congratulations this afternoon go out to the Lietuvos Rytas junior team, which handled home team Fenerbahçe Ülker in the championship game of the 2012 Nike International Junior Tournament. Before something of a sedate crowd (perhaps folks here are a bit sedate and/or hungover after last night’s city-rocking goalless match – hey, it’s football – in […]
Kirilenko on playing for Utah Jazz, CSKA Moscow: “It’s hard to compare”
Amid a crowd of athletes well-versed in jockspeak, Andrei Kirilenko is a breath of fresh air. Though no controversy-stirrer on the Charles Barkley level (and who is, really, aside from Sir Charles himself), Kirilenko is personable, patient, friendly and fluent in two languages in the interview milieu. Kirilenko arrived late to “open media” session after […]
D-Will meets with Prokhorov in Istanbul, snaps in-game pic of Kirilenko
As has been widely reported, a big powwow in Istanbul is currently going on while the 2012 Euroleague Final Four plays out: The meeting of the minds (and money) features Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, team general manager Billy King and prospective free agent Deron Williams. While Prokhorov checks out his former charge Andrei Kirilenko […]
Bertomeu: Euroleague doesn’t need NBA players, system (Welllllll…)
BallinEurope heads out to Istanbul this morning to join the scene at this year’s Euroleague Final Four and start pumping out four days’ worth of steady reportage, historical stuff, stats, quotes, video, etc. But BiE figured he’d leave you temporarily with some gauntlet-throwing type stuff by EL CEO Jordi Bertomeu. In what became a widely […]
Kobe Bryant and ESPN reporters talk Gallinari’s D, throw around the A-word
A quickie: Here’s some commentary by/story-telling about Kobe Bryant, a few ESPN-affiliated reporters, and
Danilo Gallinari: Steve Kerr “hasn’t played basketball for too long”
Did Danilo Gallinari really flop in the final minute of his Denver Nuggets’ recent loss to the Lakers while Ramon Sessions hit a key three? Or did Pau Gasol foul Gallinari on the pick? If the latter is true, why was there no call? After words to the American media to the effect of “It […]
Jack Dawson loves Rose (Derrick Rose, that is) in “mashup Titanic hilarant”
In the early 1900s, a disaster for thousands of unsuspecting voyagers to America and the trans-Atlantic travel industry in general; roughly one hundred years later, a disaster for millions of Chicago Bulls fans and (by the looks of Tuesday’s chumping at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers) the team’s 2012 playoff hopes in general … […]
Marco Belinelli: Don’t call me Kyle Korver
BallinEurope’s man in Italy, Enrico Cellini, today gives us a few choice quotes from Italy’s man on the New Orleans Hornets, Marco Bellinelli. In an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport weekly, Bellini decries the relative drawing power of his NBA compatriots Danilo Gallinari and Andrea Bargnani as opposed to himself; plus, there’s a further […]