Real Madrid 381
Coach Messina “going to Disneyland” (possibly on Kobe’s helicopter)
From Italy, BallinEurope’s Enrico Cellini has quotes from a conference attended by one of the nation’s finest-ever coaching minds, Ettore Messina, and collected a few thoughts from the new Los Angeles Lakers assistant on living in L.A., Kobe Bryant’s transport and going to Disneyland… After earning a status as one of the most successful coaches […]
The Gallinari Dilemma: So good you don’t want to get addicted
Sportswriter Enrico Cellini joins the BallinEurope team officially today with his thoughts on the tricky difficulties Emporio Armani Milano and its mastermind Sergio Scariolo may be facing in assimilating quite probably the top player in Italian professional basketball, Danilo Gallinari. Coach Sergio Scariolo recently won a European championship with the Spanish national team. He then […]
Real Madrid launches “Operation Marc Gasol”
And the plans of European basketball teams for signing NBA players just keep getting more ambitious and/or outlandish as Real Madrid executives and media are discussing “Operation Marc Gasol.” While plans to ink the Memphis Grizzly-cum-free agent to play for the Whites until the lockout lifts are not necessarily in the works, Spain-based Marca.com today […]
Rudy Fernandez and the “Canasta Imposible”
Here’s an early entrant into any unofficial “ACB Play of the Year” contest. In what would otherwise merely appear as a single-line entry in play-by-play writeups amidst Real Madrid’s 20th consecutive regular-season victory, an 81-67 victory over Blusens Monbus, Rudy Fernandez hit a “canasta imposible” in the third quarter for three points plus a foul […]
Euroleague 2011-12: BallinEurope Official Fearless Predictions™ – in haiku form!
Right, then: It’s finally time. The top professional basketball league in the world (Now that bears some thinking about now, dunnit?) tips off its 2011-12 regular season tonight as Žalgiris Kaunas hosts AK47-armed, Teodosic-toting CSKA Moscow. Almost as anticipated as the actual Euroleague opening game is of course another round of BallinEurope’s Official Fearless Predictions™ […]
The BallinEurope tribute to all-time Euroleague great Marcus Brown
Marcus Brown retired from professional basketball this week as the Euroleague’s modern-era top scorer (with 2,715 total points to his name) and with a CV of success the envy of many. After getting drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1996 and playing sparingly there for a season, Brown jumped the puddle to embark on […]
Ilyasova: I want to stay with Anadolu Efes; Real Madrid wants to keep Rudy
Spain-based TuBasket today has some scintillating sound bites regarding Ersan Ilyasova, the Milwaukee Bucks forward who signed a contract containing the now just-about-requisite NBA out clause with Euroleague squad Anadolu Efes, and Real Madrid’s top-paid player Rudy Fernandez. Leading off the story is Ilyasova’s line “I want to stay [with] Anadolu Efes. I hope FIBA […]
Euroleague Power Rankings: First of the Season edition
Right, then. With the last teams advancing into the Euroleague two dozen for the regular season and a break in the Kobe-to-Bologna soap opera today, BallinEurope breaks out an old favorite: power rankings! Once again, the BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings are based on current trends, i.e. who’s hot, who’s not. For this edition of the […]
Euroleague Qualifying Round: Galatasaray, Spirou Basket fill final two spots
Well, at least BallinEurope got one of ‘em right… In Vilnius, it wasn’t so pretty or high-scoring, but Galatasaray used a couple of scoring runs and outlasted Lietuvos Rytas to become the third TBL team in the 2011-12 Euroleague season in its first-ever bid in the big league … by the way, does this make […]
Top salaries in European basketball, 2011-12
Kudos and thanks to BallinEurope reader Agent, who recently crunched some numbers for basketball fans vis-à-vis the top salaries in European basketball for the 2011-12 season. In case you’re wondering why some top NBA names are seriously considering jumping the puddle, check out the findings below. Using euros as the currency, and figuring for net […]
Career retrospective: Arvydas Sabonis, Hall of Famer
In honor of the legendary Arvydas Sabonis, the man Scottie Pippen once called “The greatest European basketball player ever to play the game,” entering the Basketball Hall of Fame, BallinEurope this morning reruns its career retrospective on the big man’s incredible career. Quite a collection of rare Sabonis footage exists in the collective consciousness of […]
Profile: Nikola Mirotic, future Chicago Bull (?)
BallinEurope’s man in England, Sam Chadwick, today takes a look at the recent performance and future prospects of one of his new favorite players (What can BiE say? Chadwick’s a Chicago Bulls fan): No. 23 overall 2011 NBA draft pick and current Real Madrid basketballero Nikola Mirotic. Name: Nikola Mirotic Born: Montenegro Country: Spain Club: […]