Team Spain 199
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: […]
Spain takes U20 European title, Nikola Mirotic tourney MVP, notice served
Congratulations go out from BallinEurope this morning to Team Spain, winners of the FIBA U20 European Championship with an 82-70 win over Italy to cap an undefeated run through the tournament. In so doing, notice has been served to the world that Espana has apparently produced yet another generation of ballers to someday soon act […]
Coming to Europe: The top five most influential American players of all-time
With seemingly no end in sight to the NBA lockout situation forthcoming, BallinEurope has to admit to enjoying the schadenfreude of the situation … just a bit. Even more exciting than the day-to-day speculation as more and more players from the big league consider their Continental options are the possibilities for the future: History has […]
Basketball weekend: Tournaments in Germany, (probably) Italy ending; Eurobasket Women starting
The 2010-11 professional basketball season may effectively be over this weekend, with a final championship series game scheduled in Germany tonight plus a possible elimination game in Italy happening on Sunday. But no worries: the end of club play means the beginning of summertime national-team tournaments, starting with the 2011 FIBA Eurobasket Women competition. In […]
Pau Gasol: “A bit distracted,” “A bit exhausted” in Lakers-Mavs series
For the Spanish-language ‘site Marca.com, Los Angeles-based sportswriter Jesús Sánchez recently got some quality face time with Pau Gasol – enough to fill three columns’ worth of stories. The key news for those looking ahead to the summer, a group that certainly includes Lakers fans and those cynical about the possibility of the NBA actually […]
Ricky Rubio: An object of faith
Of all the European players who have come down the NBA Draft pike, none – no, not even Darko – has been as polarizing as one Ricard “Ricky” Rubio Vives. And why such derision on both sides of the Ricky Rubio question? Since when has anyone outside the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area cared so damn […]
Remember this name, NBA Draftniks: Nikola Mirotic
Despite his impressive performance at the FIBA U20 European Championship and a nice 14-point seven-rebound performance in the 2010 Nike Hoop Summit game, Nikola Mirotic hasn’t fully captured the imagination of international basketball media types until just about three months ago with Real Madrid. In was in week 13 of the ACB when then coach-Ettore […]
British Basketball: What they're saying on the eve of The FIBA Decision
If it hadn’t been for all the personality-cult stuff surrounding a certain King James, the fateful FIBA committee vote scheduled for Sunday would more rightly be known as “The Decision”: In Lyons this weekend, the final determination will be made as to whether Team Britain receives for the 2012 London Games the traditionally-granted automatic qualification […]
NBA in London: High production values, sellout crowds, and Mikhail Prokhorov of course
The Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets played the first of their London twinbill last night, capturing the imaginations of observers from both sides of the Atlantic to various degrees. In advance of game two (or game 62/63, depending on how you look at it), BallinEurope brings you some bullets’ worth of highlights, factoids and […]
Omer Önan: TBL second only to ACB
Team Turkey/Fenerbahçe Ülker guard Ömer Onan makes a few declarations in this morning’s Today’s Zaman, summing up well the current state of TBL and Turkish international ball. “[ACB] aside,” opines Onan, “in Turkish basketball, we have long surpassed important European domestic leagues, including the Italian and Greek leagues. In these countries, only one or two […]
El Meridiano shocks Real Madrid, 78-67: Reason for panic?
It may be slightly foolish-bordering-on-irresponsible to lament the woes of a traditional powerhouse that’s currently 5-2 overall and (at least for a few more hours) leads the ACB table, but hey. What’s up with Real Madrid? Yesterday saw Ettore Messina’s 4-0 Madrid visit 0-4 El Meridiano Alicante, perhaps too expectantly thinking “win.” Knee-jerk reactions from […]
Euroleague, Eurocup qualifying round bullets
With a nod to TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott, BallinEurope presents a few “bullets” from around Europe in previewing six games’ worth of tonight’s Euroleague and Eurocup qualifying round action. • Hemofarm swingman Marko Sutalo sees the keys to defeating the more experienced (and more American) Alba Berlin as three: Setting the pace, establishing position on offense […]