Jaka Lakovic signs with Galatasaray Café Crown (who oughta be in Euroleague…)

July 2, 2011

BallinEurope was shocked (and is still simmering a bit) when EL officials announced their nomination of Armani Jeans Milano to the single available “wild card” spot on the league table. Why not a runner-up from a more dynamic association, like the Bundesliga’s Alba Berlin or, best of all, Galatasaray Café Crown?

After all, Galatasaray played for the TBL title in 2011 after a hard-fought season in which the team placed third overall – one spot ahead of perpetual big league contenders Anadoule Efes (a.k.a. Efes Pilsen) – at 22-8. Plus, the EL Final Four will be held in Istanbul and, um, it *is* called the “Turkish Airlines Euroleague,” is it not?

In any case, BiE feels further vindication for the argument today, as the FC Barcelona official website is announcing former Blaugrana player Jaka Lakovic’s signing with the Turkish side.

The Slovenian joins what is seriously resembling a bona fide Euroleague roster, with new additions in Jamont Gordon, Ender Arslan, Cevher Ozer and Furkan Aldemir already on board.

Newly-remolded Galatasaray begins the 2011-12 season playing in the Euroleague Qualifying Rounds; BiE says if there’s any justice, these guys will grab one of those two available spots in the EL … and have something to do with Milano’s elimination, too.

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This post was published on July 2, 2011
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Comments: 6
  1. Biscayne
    13 years ago

    I do not think that Galatasaray should have that wild card cause having 3 teams from a city is a bit overkill but i hope they will prove they are worth an A licence or future wild card through the Qualyfing Rounds and earn their place in this league.
    OT: The only concern about this transfer is that Lakovic is old and i do not think that he can handle 27-33 minutes of playtime 2-3 times a week but of course he will provide the much needed Euroleague experience which somehow seems to be laking in Galatasaray roster.Also Beko Basketball League seems to be on rise with recent transactions and there is good competition on the league with Anadolu Efes,Fenerbahce Ulker,Galatasaray,Banvit,Turk Telekom and Pinar Karsıyaka.

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  2. radallo
    13 years ago

    I’m not so surprised about the wild card given to Milan.

    Only “two” Italian team in the next reg season (please Cantu supporters, pardonne moi!) wouldn’t be fair… Milan failed the post Gallinari-era in EL, that’s true.. but in 2009 they reached the top16 and they have good results in three consecutive years in serieA.

    Milan is a big city (Siena and Cantù are not), Armani puts money…I hope they’ll fill in the arena.

    I agree that Galatasaray will step through the qualifictions.. more doubtfull about Alba Berlin..

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  3. Alen
    13 years ago

    Lakovic is without a doubt able to play for 30 minutes per game. He proved that in Eurobasket 2009 and World cup 2010, where he averagely played around 35 minutes per game! He is still one of the best playmakers in the Europe.

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  4. Biscayne
    13 years ago

    @ Allen i dont think that he played that much last year with Barcelona 1 year might change so much in his age.

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  5. manu02
    13 years ago

    I hope the transfers of Fotsis, Herston, Cook and Bourousis (imminent) to Milano under coach Scariolo make obvious that the argument of this post is moot, maybe even obsolete. Btw, I get the idea of rising new markets etc, but there is something called tradition and history in European basketball. Milano is the winningest team in the history of Italian Serie A, has 3 Euroleague titles along with Eurocup and Korac titles, is funded by Giorgio Armani for years now (so it’s also financially trustworthy) and represents a city and country where basketball has been important (not big or huge, but still…) since World War II. Galatasaray is just a football club with some Champions League money to spare on the basketball team which never gathers more than 1000 fans until recently. There’s a tradeoff between supporting tradition and bandwagoning on fads, and I was pleasantly surprised when Euroleague made the right decision on this one.

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  6. Biscayne
    13 years ago

    @manu02
    Well I agree with you about the Milano getting the wild card but i do not agree with you about ”bandwagoning on fads”. Galatasaray Basketball is on the rise and probably will sell more tickets then Milano or any other wild card nominee just because their gigantic fan base and saying that Galatasaray is just a football club with some Champions League money is kinda ridiculous. In that context then Real Madrid should not be participating in this league because you know they only have football and basketball but mainly football also Barcelona,Olimpiakos and many other club should not have been in this league just because they had different sport branches with THEIR OWN BUGDETS FROM SPONSORS.(also Galatasaray could not participated in the Champions League in the last 4 years and EuroLeague Football in last 2 years so saying they have spare money from champions league is just non sense.). Additionally saying that Galatasaray is a team which never gathers more than 1k fans until recently is absurd knowing the fact that Efes and Fenerbahçe in their regular Turkey League matches did not have more than 2k-3k people but this figure changes in Euroleague matches,derby matches and the Turkey League Play Off matches which proves that Galatasaray may and will have the same rise but having 3 clubs from one city is making scheduling the matches harder and as it says it is EUROleague so it should have at least one team from every part of Europe and Milano is great to compliment that.

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