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FIBA Facing World Cup Wild Card Dilemma
Greece’s double-overtime loss to Croatia compounded a problem that has been growing for FIBA since the continental tournament season began. Who gets the four wildcards? Who says you can’t get too much of a good thing? FIBA has four World Cup wildcard slots to award and plenty of willing suitors. Whatever happens, somebody is going […]
Eurobasket 2013: Which NBA players are in, which are out?
Because it’s never too early to start looking ahead to Eurobasket 2013 – wait a minute, there’s only 11 weeks left until tipoff? Definitely not too early, then, to take a look at the formative rosters for the big Continental tournament. While only a few national teams (Croatia and Lithuania among them) have released preliminary […]
It's official: Enes Kanter is the toughest player in the NBA — and possibly the world
The most amazing thing about the dislocated shoulder injury that Turkey’s Enes Kanter suffered last night in the Utah Jazz’ win against the Phoenix Suns last night wasn’t the way TV cameras gave the audience such a prolonged view of the visibly excruciating damage or even the manner in which the Jazzmen held on short-handed […]
Turk Telekom does the — ah, you know…
Posting these things is getting addictive. Here’s the Harlem Shake as interpreted by Türk Telekom:
2012: The year in Euro-centric basketball highlight clips
What say we close out 2012 with a whole bunch of highlight clips? BiE knew you’d be willing. Tomorrow, a list of the most popular BallinEurope stories of the calendar year will be running, but today comes an attempt to encapsulate the past 365 days in European hoops, YouTube style. From Ibaka’s blocks to the […]
On Barack Obama and basketball diplomacy
Note: This piece was first published in February 2012. Hosting dignitaries and politicos from Italy this week, U.S. president/basketball devotee Barack Obama recently gave an interview to the visiting media as well, naturally taking time to praise Italia’s representatives in the NBA. As self-proclaimed scholar of basketball diplomacy – perhaps the only one on the […]
Taking stock of European players in the NBA, 2012-13
BallinEurope will be celebrating NBA Opening Day with lots of stuff centered on the big league; firstly, BiE takes stock of Continental ballers in the ‘States. Taking a look at this year’s roundup, we note that 53 Europeans have been named to NBA clubs’ 15-man roster, just beating the pace of the 52 listed in […]
Monday hangover: It’s all about Fenerbahçe Ülker
BallinEurope had planned this second edition of the “Monday Hangover” to take a wide look at events in Euroleague play and top European domestic leagues, but the headlines vis-à-vis Continental basketball have been dominated by Fenerbahçe Ülker… Talk about your roller-coaster weeks: The Istanbul side entered Euroleague week two as the vogue choice for a […]
American Education: An Associated Press veteran’s takes on five Europeans in NCAA basketball
European, NCAA and youth basketball fans will definitely want to check out episode five of heinnews/ BallinEurope’s “Taking the Charge” podcast series posted today; in short, it’s a ton of information on prospects and the NCAA game courtesy (in the first half) of Jim O’Connell. O’Connell has written for NCAA basketball for the Associated Press […]
Resurrected NBA Europe Live Tour brings Celtics, Mavericks to four countries in October
One of the forgotten casualties of the 2011 player lockout was the NBA Europe Live Tour bringing top teams from North America to Euroleague arenas – and sometimes vice versa. The NBA Europe Live Tour 2011 was cancelled due to the labor issues, but happily EL officials announced at about noon CET today that the […]
Besiktas 80, Anadolu Efes 76: The BallinEurope review of a triple-crown season
Congratulations go out from BallinEurope to Beşiktaş Milangaz, who capped a fascinating whirlwind run last night with an 80-76 victory over Anadolu Efes in game six of the TBL championship series. The Black Eagles may add the trophy to their Turkish Cup and FIBA Eurochallenge title in 2011-12, certainly the most successful – and among […]
Besiktas 81, Anadolu Efes 55: Hawkins leads, Pops dunks – plus 3D fan vid
Hours before the Boston Celtics were putting the Miami Heat on the brink of elimination, Beşiktaş Milangaz was doing the same to 13-time national champion Anadolu Efes in whupping the Euroleaguers, winning 81-55 at the Black Eagles’ nest. In short, Beşiktaş destroyed on the boards, beating the disheartened Anadolu 40 to 20 in the stat. […]