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The official BallinEurope ballot for FIBA Europe Men's Players of the Year: Nowitzki, Navarro and…?
BallinEurope just loves season- and year-ending polls, and every December FIBA Europe offers hoops devotees the opportunity to participate in the naming the Continent’s Players of The Year. And while the winner of the award for 2011 – a.k.a. the Year of Dirk – is surely a no-brainer, the FIBA ballot calls for electors to […]
Final game in Spain for Fernandez, Ibaka, Splitter: Tiago goes for 19, but Real Madrid routs Valencia, 81-64
Big-name NBA refugees Rudy Fernandez, Serge Ibaka and Tiago Splitter will soon be heading back to the ‘States, thus making yesterday’s Real Madrid-Valencia Basket game the last appearance for each in Spain in 2011-12. Fernandez and Ibaka left Los Blancos in quite good position, leading the way to the 81-64 win against the short-handed Valencia […]
Thanks for the memories: Top performances by locked-out NBA players in Europe
BallinEurope bids adieu to the all-too-brief wackiness that was the ENBA: A period of time shorter than Allen Iverson’s career with Beşiktaş, though for a sweet, brief while it seemed like forever … ah, the feeling of a too-fast love affair dragged down by unfeeling reality, leaving only fond memories and bitter tears to … […]
Not exactly “no basketball anymore”: Notes on 34 pan-European games
“No basketball anymore”? Are you serious? The next two days will see some 34 games played out in the top three European basketball competitions: Euroleague, EuroCup and FIBA Eurochallenge. Below, BallinEurope presents some links, highlight clips and like on some of the competing teams starring Igor Rakocevic, Tiago Splitter, D.J. Strawberry and that Williams guy, […]
NBA Nuclear Winter settling in; Twitter bursts with news of player exodus
You know who benefits from the NBA player lockout? Twitter, that’s who. The website has become an endless source of interest as each event/non-event transpires in the NBA lockout soap opera. Minute to minute, commentators, players, pundits and rumormongers pithily weigh in and/or report on the immediate future of professional basketball in America… …and Europe! […]
Tony Parker, Ronny Turiaf star as Asvel Basket tops Valencia in Eurocup opener, 87-78
Here’s more fuel for the fire vis-à-vis American players in Europe: Re-imports Tony Parker and Ronny Turiaf were notables in last night’s Eurocup opening night for Asvel Villeurbanne as the French side overcame 2009-10 champion Valencia Basket. Whoever questions NBA stars’ ability to adapt to the European game may see Parker’s performance of last night […]
Anton Larsen: “One great player to give Denmark hope”?
Denmark is one rarely associated with great basketball; indeed, the men’s national team is ranked no. 111 in the current FIBA standings, putting them well behind basketball powers such as Liberia and Togo. Despite it all, suggests Tom Schad in the Copenhagen Post Online, “Denmark could become world beaters in basketball.” Citing the examples of […]
Sunday bullets: Real Madrid analyzed; Szczerbiak, Boumtje-Boumtje remembered; retro Nike ads return
Lazy Sunday? Great: BallinEurope has just the thing to occupy your time! Below run some quality articles and gawk-worthy YouTubes from the week that was in European basketball and NBA lockout land for your perusal. The bullet-point format is in effect and the show stars Danny Green, Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, Walter Szczerbiak, Spike Lee and Samuel […]
Asvel Villeurbanne 79, Cholet Basket 70; Tony Parker decisive: Hype and highlights
What’s that? You want some Tony Parker videos? Right … in Saturday’s game at Cholet Basket, Parker put in what the league’s official website is calling a “decisive” performance for Asvel Villeurbanne. The locked-out San Antonio Spur went for 19 points, including nine in the fourth quarter in the Asvel victory. The final score: Asvel […]
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 […]
Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar seek to join elites in 2012
It’s perhaps the most famous Euroleague-related trivia question, and this season sees two more players in a quest to join the likes of a noted half-dozen, including some of the game’s all-time greats – would you believe that duo seeking to join this elite are named Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar? The €20,000 question is […]
Welcome back, Tony Parker!
A months-old story finally came to resolution this morning, as Asvel Villeurbanne announced that San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker will be playing for the Pro A team in which he holds a position as director of operations, pending the ending of the NBA lockout. In an official statement, club officials stated that “Asvel Basket […]