Alexey Shved 32
Who’s to blame? Another look at *that* final Panathinaikos play
BallinEurope bets that Dimitris Diamantidis didn’t sleep too well last night. In handling the ball of the final play in Panathinaikos’ 66-64 Euroleague Final Four loss to CSKA Moscow yesterday, former MVP DD was stifled by the Red Army defense and poor PAO fans could only watch time run out on the Greens’ back-to-back title […]
Why Andrei Kirilenko and CSKA Moscow must win the Euroleague
Regular readers of BallinEurope may recall a similarly entitled writeup on Montepaschi Siena on these pages from a long time ago – actually two weeks, but already it *feels* like quite a spell. Contributing writer Enrico Cellini was as surprised as any of us when Olympiacos began Siena’s ejection from the tournament, Facebook-messaging BiE with […]
Team Russia’s first opponent in 2012 Olympic qualifiers: Jetlag (really?)
With months to go before the London Olympic Games, some Russian media sources may already be panicking, based on concerns quoted from Alexey Shved vis-à-vis the FIBA qualifying tournament scheduled for July in Venezuela. The CSKA Moscow guard told Russia-based media service RIA Novosti that “Of course we’ll try. But flying for 15 hours changes […]
Sam vs. the Future: Basketball predictions for 2012
It’s always a good time for some predictions, eh? Sam Chadwick, Ball in Europe’s man in the UK, today dusts off the Official BallinEurope Crystal Ball in looking forward to another year of top-quality basketball in the world’s top competitions. Who does Sammy like in the NBA, Euroleague, college ball and the Olympics? Read on […]
Russian Revolution: Ten teams announce break with Superleague to form new basketball association
In response to a “last straw,” i.e. the Russian Basketball Federation reformatting its season-ending tournament, 10 clubs in the country have announced their withdrawal from the competition and plans to make up a new Russian league. The list includes essentially all the top names in Russian professional basketball and clubs who play Euroleague, EuroCup and […]
Official 2010 BallinEurope mock draft, version 2.0: Round two
BallinEurope today presents round two of our 2010 NBA Draft mockup; there’s a pleasing European accent to the list, with the big Belarusian Artsiom Parakhouski figuring to go in this round (see to whom in this projection and quiver) and the tantalizing possibility of Kevin Seraphin potentially becoming the 12th French player in the NBA. […]
Beyond Vesely: Five European names North America must know for 2010-11
With BallinEurope’s profile piece on Jan Vesely in, today we’re adding a bit of a primer on some other names certain to get increasing mentions in NBA culture from your team’s elimination from the playoffs through to the draft and into the 2010 FIBA World Championships in August/September. NBA fans who want to get in […]
After the Olympics: What's the future of Russia?
Russia, the surprising Eurobasket winner of 2007 (yes, we can now say that it was a surprise) comes from a disappointing performance during the Beijing Olympics. An official 9th place was far below the expectations for a country with one of the strongest leagues in Europe.