Sofoklis Schortsanitis 65
Top 10 reasons why BallinEurope loves the Barcelona-Olympiacos final
How thrilled is BallinEurope to see tonight’s Barcelona-Olympiacos final? Let us count the ways… 10. Both teams earned the trip with tough semifinal wins. Against CSKA Moscow, Barcelona played smart while deploying Europe’s best defense in 2009-10 against a much bigger Red Army team; Olympiacos truly gave everything in overcoming plucky Partizan Belgrade. The result: […]
Olympiacos vs. the flu, part II: Teodosic questionable for Euroleague final [UPDATED]
With one game left to play in its Euroleague season, Olympiacos has only to face the same old enemy that has dogged their exceptional 2009-10 season. No, BiE’s not talking about Barcelona here or even home-country rivals Panathinaikos, but rather a flu bug. Olympiacos coach Panagiotis Giannakis stated on Saturday that, “After the game with […]
Euroleague Final Four head-to-head matchups: Partizan Belgrade vs. Olympiacos
Whoa, the Final Four starts in two days? Almost unbelievable. But enough digression! Yesterday, BallinEurope presented a brief position-by-position rundown of Friday’s FC Barcelona-CSKA Moscow game. Today, a consideration of the late game, Partizan Belgrade vs. Olympiacos. Similarly to the early game, Partizan-Olympiacos also features a matchup between classic plucky underdog versus season-starting prohibitive favorite. […]
Sofoklis philosophizes in brief Euroleague interview
“Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.” – Sophocles BallinEurope would be highly remiss if i didn’t turn you onto the Euroleague’s official interview with one of the main men ‘round this ‘site, Sofoklis Schortsanitis. Somewhat disappointingly, it’s fairly standard stuff, though Big Sofo does offer some insight into stopping the Partizan game, […]
Euroleague games four highlight clips, starring Rubio, Belgrade fans and a buncha Reds
You want YouTube highlight clips? We’ve got your YouTube highlight clips right here. In recapping last night’s Euroleague action action action (BallinEurope is applying the Spike Lee recite-dialogue-thrice method to denote the excitement), who better to start things than The Human YouTube Clip himself, Ricky Rubio? This first clip is entitled “Sergio Llull vs. Ricky […]
Red alert: Heating-up Sofoklis goes off in All-Star Game
Look out, upcoming Olympiacos opponents: Big Sofo is just starting to heat up. After a marginal season in Euroleague play up in the early going (BiE is blaming it on that H1N1 the big man contracted in the autumn), Sofoklis Schortsanitis turned in his peak Euroleague performance of 2009-10 a week and a half ago, […]
The Frank Euroleague Roundup: Top 16, week five
With one more week of Euroleague play to go before the field of viable contenders officially shrinks again, Ball in Europe contributor Francesco Cappelletti wraps the round that was in the big league. In this week’s roundup, Signor C. laments Montepaschi Siena’s fate, Sergio Scariolo’s precarious position and the reason Olympiacos might yet give Barca […]
The Frank Euroleague roundup: Top 16, week two
It’s time for the look back at the wacky Euroleague week that was with Francesco Cappelletti. This week, BallinEurope’s man in Italy examines messing with rotations in Olympiacos and Unicaja; praises Partizan for the potential blueprint win over FC Barcelona; and chides the narcissistic defending champions for their shameful general laziness. No instant replay, Partizan […]
Argument starter: The top 100 dunks of all-time
Now this one’ll keep you busy for a while. Though it seems much of the blogosphere has been resting up through the holiday, YouTube fanatics are doing business as usual. Over at the video sharing site, user Ilkkan23 earns admiration, respect and straight-out awe for his composition entitled “Top 100: Best Dunks Ever.” Much viewing […]
Europe's top national teams of the 2000s
After taking a look at the European players of the decade and top professional teams of the decade, BallinEurope today turns attention to the national level. Which teams from the 2000s will we still recall fondly in years to come? Below are listed eight key national squads from the passing ten-year span, the unforgettable basketball […]
The 10 Commandments of Fantasy Basketball
After another week of fantasy (American) football in which i could only ask, “What the hell happened (again)?” i ascended the mountains here – OK, so in Budapest that should be “gently sloping Buda hills,” but you get the idea – to seek help from a higher power. As it turns out, David Stern wasn’t […]
Olympiacos shows something, gets posterized often against Cavs
Well, Olympiacos may not have put up too much of a fight against the Cleveland Cavaliers last night in a 111-94 defeat while Baby Shaq lost the individual battle against Daddy Shaq, but together the teams made one heck of a highlight clip. That O’Neal-James combination already looks pretty OK, n’est-ce pas? (Video below the […]