Team Turkey 89
Fearless predictions: 2010 FIBA World Championship, day two
Whither Spain? In yet another example of “that’s why they play ‘em on paper,” the mighty Spaniards went down thanks to a French attack led by Nicolas Batum (14 points on 4-of-9 shooting, two rebounds, two blocks and one awesome jam), Andrew Albicy (!) and Mickael Gelabale (!!!) and brutal fourth-quarter shooting “highlighted” by three […]
Non, Nando, non! (or, key games in the 2010 FIBA World Championship)
When is a game-winning shot not a game-winning shot? When you’re playing in a FIBA tournament! Just ask Nando de Colo. In Eurobasket 2009, Team France took its undefeated streak into the final game of pool play with Greece. In a hard-fought contest, de Colo burned Nikos Zisis for an outside two with 0.2 seconds […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 5.0
Right. It’s time for the final edition – pending Nenad Krstic’s prospective suspension by FIBA – of BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings. Now that Team USA has had it out with Spain and Greece, we can see the picture a little more clearly heading into the tournament tipping off Saturday. There’s a clear […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 4.0
BiE was waiting for a result from last night’s Brazil-Argentina game in Spain before preparing this week’s edition of the official BallinEurope 2010 FIBA World Championship Power Rankings. Now that those numbers are in, the long-awaited list may be unveiled; who’s hot and who’s not? In BiE’s opinion, readings off the lay lines of the […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 3.1
While nearly everybody (perhaps too many, in BiE’s opinion) await the final shape of Team USA’s roster going into the 2010 FIBA World Championship, a bunch of other teams spent the weekend making statements. Said statements could take the shape of confirmation of awesomeness (Spain), reminders of “hey, we still exist” (Brazil), and red-alert level […]
Sunday roundup: Serbia, Germany, Greece, Tall Blacks win
A few exhibition games between national teams were played this weekend as the Istanbul Cup and the Love Cyprus Basketball Tournament wrapped with some interesting clashes, indeed. In Turkey, Team Serbia emphatically demonstrated that they should be discussed among the 2010 FIBA World Championship elite by decisively beating the home team in an 83-70 win. […]
Spain, Turkey post big wins in FIBA World Championship warmup games
Team Spain showed why it’s such a threat to take the 2010 FIBA World Championships yesterday by dispatching Lithuania with ease, 97-76. Lithuania enjoyed its biggest lead of the game at 8-4 in the third minute of play, but Spain’s subsequent 26-8 run capped by five points from Ricky Rubio put the defending champs up […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 3.0
All right, now everything about the 2010 FIBA World Championship is coming into focus! For example, now we know how good the relatively unknown Lithuanian squad will be – because they beat Slovenia after having to come back and go overtime against the Czech Republic. Um, and Argentina showed they’re awesome by … blowing a […]
Turkiye’ye hosgeldiniz, Rolando Blackman!
In advance of the 2010 FIBA World Championship, Team Turkey has announced the addition of a new assistant coach: long-time Dallas Maverick and Italian league titlist Rolando Blackman. Blackman last coached with Team Germany for the 2002 Worlds and was tempted into coming out from behind his desk in the Mavericks front office to do […]
Power rankings (already updated): 2010 FIBA World Championship
See, BiE secretly knew this would happen … you break down, make a few fearless predictions online and bam! The inconvenient fact of a loss – two losses in fact, one particularly egregious – goes down and you suddenly have to rework the whole damn post on 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings. In the […]
Presque deja vu: FIBA U20 European Championship Men pits Greece vs. France
In a (sort of) repeat of the 2009 final, the 2010 FIBA U20 European Championship Men final game will pit France against Greece in Zadar tonight. France got past Spain 86-83 in yesterday’s thriller in Croatia, while the host nation’s team lost to the Greeks a bit earlier, 71-56. Team France gave its U20 roster […]
Omer Asik officially becomes a Chicago Bull
Though the Chicago Bulls couldn’t sign any of the so-called “Big Three” free agents this summer, they have come to terms with their 2008 second-round draft pick, Team Turkey’s shot-swatting Omer Asik, signing him to an approximately $1 million per year deal. And the Bulls have also reportedly extended an offer sheet to J.J. Redick. […]