Team Germany 82
And the Oscar (Robertson) Goes To: Basketball Movies in 2011
Meanwhile, over in Hollywoodland … to no cineaste’s surprise, the silent film The Artist was named “Best Motion Picture of the Year” at the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony. While Tinseltown may have had a decent, if not mind-blowing, twelve months of production in 2011 – as evidenced by Woody Allen taking the “Best Original Screenplay” […]
Shocker (not): FIBA Europe names Dirk Nowitzki player of the year; Navarro, McCalebb runners-up
To no one’s surprise – certainly not BallinEurope’s, in any case – FIBA Europe today announced its men’s player of the year award would go to the longtime Team Germany/Dallas Mavericks superstar. Less than suspenseful, too, were the results of the top five finishers: Behind Dastardly Dirk came Juan Carlos “La Bomba” Navarro, Bo McCalebb, […]
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 […]
Has Dirk Nowitzki retired from Team Germany?
After an incredible 13th year with Team Germany came to an end with its defeat at the hands of Lithuania yesterday, Dirk Nowitzki may be contemplating retirement – in fact, the Germany-based Sport 1 believes it’s a done deal. Though in an interview with the network, Nowitzki stated that “he wanted to ‘see what the […]
Eurobasket 2011 round two: Impressions, links, notes and highlights
With just two days (and one game per team) remaining in 2011 EuroBasket round two, BallinEurope takes a brief look at some issues and trends going down in the tournament – plus links and YouTubes, of course. Read on for quips, quotes and clips. • Importance of remaining games. Of six games left to play, […]
Eurobasket 2011: Scenarios for round three
With one game left to play for the teams of Group E and two for Group F in the 2011 FIBA EuroBasket tournament, BallinEurope takes a brief look at some of the mathematical possibilities for advancement into the knockout stage. Group E • France and Spain have clinched the top two spots in the group; […]
Spain holds off Germany in EuroBasket opener, 77-68
While this writer has left Lithuania (the “day job” calls…), BallinEurope can still provide coverage of EuroBasket 2011, thanks to our old friend Y. He’ll also be tweeting through the games as well, so follow our Twitter account at BiE_basketball as well! It’s the first day of second stage in Eurobasket 2011 in Lithuania, and […]
EuroBasket power rankings, post round one edition
The 2011 FIBA EuroBasket tournament gets things started again today, after the 12 advancing teams get in a couple days’ worth of hard-earned rest. With the dust now settled, BallinEurope takes a look at how the dozen sides look going into the second round of play (numbers in parentheses represent each team’s win-loss record brought […]
Eurobasket opener bullets: Pnini vs. Dirk, Spain's competition, Kanter's rust, more
Hours remain until Eurobasket 2011 tips off here in Lithuania. As a warmup this morning, BallinEurope brings a roundup of some chatter from around the world regarding the big tournament; in ESPN TrueHoop tradition, we’ll bring it bullet-style. • Poor Israel, one of the more unheralded teams in the tournament … not only are they […]
Eurobasket 2011: A brief roundup
On the eve of Eurobasket 2011 (finally), BallinEurope’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick, makes his own version of BiE’s patented Fearless Predictions™ with his own brief take on the tournament contender’s chances. And if you don’t think these prognostications are indeed fearless, just scroll down to the bottom to see who he’s got taking […]
Eurobasket 2011: BallinEurope podcasts, makes Official Fearless Predictions™
As BallinEurope gets ready to hit the road for Lithuania – Panevezys, specifically, where BiE’ll be covering EuroBasket Group A action – there’s just enough time for a shameless plug and Official Fearless Predictions™. Last week, BiE guested on podcasts with the indomitable Freaknick over at the always fun and insightful Euroleague Adventures. We spent […]
Coach Bauermann: Dirk Nowitzki, Team Germany “has work to do”
BallinEurope’s unofficial comrade in schadenfreude, a new website calling itself Lockout Hoops, recently turned us on to a nice YouTube clip of Team Germany in training for the upcoming EuroBasket tournament. In general, the clip is a bit of a lovefest for that face of German basketball, Dirk Nowitzki. High praise is given to the […]