2012 Olympic Games 87
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 […]
Report: Panathinaikos to sign Team China’s Ailun Guo
Panathinaikos’ wild offseason is apparently not over yet. Previously linked with Yi Jianlian, Sun Yue and Dejun Han, the Greens may finally be ready to sign with a Chinese player (and perhaps gain a nice foothold in that lucrative basketball market): Namely, Ailun Guo of the Liaoning Dinosaurs. According to Bball Headlines, Dinosaurs front office […]
Houston can wait: Real Madrid reportedly offer Sergio Llull extension through 2019-20
The Houston Rockets may have thrown $2.5 million away if Real Madrid reportedly has its way: According to Spain-based sports news outlet Marca, Sergio Llull has been offered a six-year contract extension with an option year from the Euroleague club. While some have speculated on a scenario in which the Spaniard might join the Rockets […]
BC Khimki appeals for return of Vitaly Fridzon’s stolen bronze medal
In the days of the Cold War, a certain type of story would inevitably circulate in American newspapers after the Olympic Games were over; you made have heard it more recently about, say, North Korean athletes. The claim was always that, due to poor performance in such-and-such an Olympics, the sportsmen and –women in question […]
Rudy Fernandez flop set to go viral?
In hopes that the Rudy Fernandez flop in the Spain vs. USA gold-medal game goes viral, here’s a soon-to-be-meme of ol’ Rudy demonstrating his skills in the video game medium courtesy Ali Traore. Brilliant stuff. And for comparison’s sake, here’s the actual melodramatic-unto-artistic flop itself, which as Beckley Mason of ESPN TrueHoop notes “was worthwhile […]
Epic win by Team USA begets epic Facebook fail
Oops … this is the problem with social media, eh? Shortly after the US’ 107-100 win over Spain for the gold medal in 2012 Olympic basketball, the folks running the FIBA Facebook page uploaded the below image and caption (see below the break), inducing nearly 300 comments along the line of “FAIL” within a half-hour. […]
US NBA stars beat Spain to take gold
(via AFP) The United States Dream Team of NBA stars captured their second Olympic men’s basketball gold medal in a row and the 14th overall for America by beating Spain 107-100 in Sunday’s final. The US multi-millionaire lineup of NBA elite claimed their fifth crown in the past six Olympics, improving to 62-since revamping the […]
USA 59, Spain 58 after 20 minutes: Notes and such
Here we go … Team USA vs Spain for the gold! What more needs to be said? The first hype pushed at 4pm on the NBC broadcast: Kobe vs. Pau! (Clearly, BiE’s in touch with the American broadcasters…); Kobe is 1-0 in Olympic Games, doesn’t want to lose to Pau, doesn’t want to lose at […]
Russia 81, Argentina 77: Alexey Shved leads way to team's best Olympics finish of modern era
Though Team Russia didn’t quite reach the lofty heights BiE had forecast, a hearty congratulations go out to the team today for its 81-77 win over Argentina to take the 2012 Olympics bronze medal in its best showing of the post-Soviet Union era. Wire report runs below.
2012 Olympic basketball: The perspective from Spain on the gold-medal game (plus really specific Official Fearless Prediction™)
The Liga Endesa official website editorial staff today attempts to answer the question on the mind of USA-detractors and underdog-backers, i.e. “¿What must happen for Spain to win Olympic gold?” Below runs an extrapolation of the article, featuring eight bits of advice of varying degrees of difficulty, plus BallinEurope’s own ever-lovable Official Fearless Prediction™ on […]
On the achievements of Team USA, 2012 edition
From the pages of the Christian Science Monitor, BallinEurope this morning brings not exactly an argument-starter about Team USA 2012 vs. The Dream Team, but an interesting perspective to what this squad has achieved after a 20-year history of the relatively unloved Dream Teams II and III, the Nightmare Team and the “B Team”. BiE […]
Australia 83, Russia 74: Opals outgun EuroBasket Women champs for bronze medal
Congratulations go out from BallinEurope this evening to Team Australia, which took its fifth consecutive Olympic medal by topping Eurobasket Women 2011 winners Russia in the 3rd-place game tonight, 83-74. Already going in without six-time EuroBasket/Olympic medalist Maria Stepanova, Team Russia soon found itself shorthanded when starting center Natalia Vieru racked up three fouls in […]