ACB 227
The official BallinEurope ballot for FIBA Europe Men's Players of the Year: Nowitzki, Navarro and…?
BallinEurope just loves season- and year-ending polls, and every December FIBA Europe offers hoops devotees the opportunity to participate in the naming the Continent’s Players of The Year. And while the winner of the award for 2011 – a.k.a. the Year of Dirk – is surely a no-brainer, the FIBA ballot calls for electors to […]
Tweets Matt Walsh: “Happy to be staying in Murcia!”
From the Gotta Love Twitter Department, news about the Liga Endesa’s UCAM Murcia. Tweeted Matt Walsh just past noon today: “Officially signing for another month with an option for rest of the season!!! Happy to be staying in Murcia!!” The well-traveled Walsh was apparently convinced to stay in Spain – the eighth country in which […]
Final game in Spain for Fernandez, Ibaka, Splitter: Tiago goes for 19, but Real Madrid routs Valencia, 81-64
Big-name NBA refugees Rudy Fernandez, Serge Ibaka and Tiago Splitter will soon be heading back to the ‘States, thus making yesterday’s Real Madrid-Valencia Basket game the last appearance for each in Spain in 2011-12. Fernandez and Ibaka left Los Blancos in quite good position, leading the way to the 81-64 win against the short-handed Valencia […]
Parting shots, part one: Okur throws dagger; Splitter near double-double; D-Will’s jersey retired (no, really)
A few players returning to the NBA made expected final appearances with their European clubs last night as the mass departure to the ‘States begins. BallinEurope runs down a handful of individual performances from Adriatic League, Eurocup, and FIBA Eurochallenge games. • Big shot of the night, NBA-related or no, was certainly Mehmet Okur’s three-point […]
Thanks for the memories: Top performances by locked-out NBA players in Europe
BallinEurope bids adieu to the all-too-brief wackiness that was the ENBA: A period of time shorter than Allen Iverson’s career with Beşiktaş, though for a sweet, brief while it seemed like forever … ah, the feeling of a too-fast love affair dragged down by unfeeling reality, leaving only fond memories and bitter tears to … […]
Serge Ibaka brilliant vs. Spirou, at Zaragoza; says “I wish I could stay, but…” (Highlights!)
The BallinEurope reverse jinx works again … two days after BiE posted (via Tu Basket) that perhaps folks in Real Madrid land weren’t too happy with Serge Ibaka’s performance for Los Blancos, the no-longer locked out Oklahoma City Thunderer became the block machine again against Spirou Charleroi on Thursday with five swats added to 12 […]
Welcome to Spain, Matt Walsh!
Well-traveled ormer Miami Heat/Union Olimpija swingman today announced his CV will be adding a stint at an eighth country via Twitter. Tweeted Walsh this afternoon: “Back to work!! Just signed with Spanish acb team Murcia!!! South of Spain here I come!!!” After some time in his rookie season as an undrafted player with the Miami […]
Serge Ibaka disappointing; Real Madrid to get another chance at LaMarcus Aldridge in January?
When Real Madrid signed locked-out Oklahoma City Thunder blocksmith Serge Ibaka, he figured to be the missing piece to a puzzle the Spanish side’s been seeking for a few seasons now: A swatting specialist with speed, defensive skills and the proverbial tremendous upside. Today, Spain-based Tu Basket reveals that, prior to Ibaka signing with Real, […]
Not exactly “no basketball anymore”: Notes on 34 pan-European games
“No basketball anymore”? Are you serious? The next two days will see some 34 games played out in the top three European basketball competitions: Euroleague, EuroCup and FIBA Eurochallenge. Below, BallinEurope presents some links, highlight clips and like on some of the competing teams starring Igor Rakocevic, Tiago Splitter, D.J. Strawberry and that Williams guy, […]
NBA Nuclear Winter settling in; Twitter bursts with news of player exodus
You know who benefits from the NBA player lockout? Twitter, that’s who. The website has become an endless source of interest as each event/non-event transpires in the NBA lockout soap opera. Minute to minute, commentators, players, pundits and rumormongers pithily weigh in and/or report on the immediate future of professional basketball in America… …and Europe! […]
Real Madrid takes revenge on Unicaja Malaga, 96-80; wild finish avoided
Last March seems far away, doesn’t it? It probably feels like yesterday to fans of Real Madrid and Unicaja Malaga, though, for that’s when the two teams clashed in ACB play last season to produce one of the craziest, most dramatic endings in Liga Endesa history – and had commentator Oscar Cuesta going viral with […]
European vocation: News, highlights on Deron Williams, Christian Eyenga, Khadeem Lattin, more
The movement from the U.S. to Europe within the basketball world is still in motion, and so BallinEurope presents a quintet of stories (and highlight clips) involving American players from the NBA level to prep schools playing abroad.