Baltic Basketball League 24
List of European champions, 2011-12: Final edition
Last week saw the final game in a handful of major European domestic basketball leagues – including Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Serbia – and so BallinEurope offers the final and complete roundup of this year’s champions. And it seems like the season just began … ah, well, onto the 2012 Olympics! (Incidentally, conclusion of […]
List of European champions, 2011-12: Future nearly upon us edition
While Spain, Turkey, France, Germany, Italy and Serbia have yet to crown this season’s basketball champions, most other domestic leagues have, thus allowing us to visualize the makeups of the 2012-13 Euroleague, Adriatic League and (kinda sorta) Eurocup. Newly welcome champions to the BallinEurope include those from Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina (with some disheartening financial […]
List of European champions, 2011-12: End of May update edition
Basketball grinds on in Europe’s three dozen or so domestic leagues and so BallinEurope today updates the “List of European Champions” page. Since last posting, new champs have been crowned in Israel (guess who), Slovenia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Holland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania. Things are progressing meanwhile in Europe’s larger leagues including Spain, Greece, […]
List of European champions, 2011-12: First edition
BallinEurope is officially back from his post-Euroleague Final Four vacation (hey, you can’t blame BiE for enjoying Istanbul for a couple extra days after wall-to-wall b-ball reportage)! How to prove it? Well, here’s this year’s first traditional “List of European champions.” Below runs news on domestic and pan-European champions from across the Continent – from […]
Surprise! With five weeks to play, Lithuanian league reduces playoff tournament
Only in Lithuania? In what is surely perceived of by fans of Lithuanian teams such as Pieno žvaigždės, KK Baltai, Kėdainiai and Juventus as (an unwelcome slap in the face) a controversial decision, LKL officials have decided today (!) to reduce the league’s playoff tournament from eight to six teams. Yesterday, league commissioner Mindaugas Balčiūnas […]
Kobe Bryant vs. Michael Jordan: The visual comparison
Courtesy Baltic Basketball League’s and Facebook user Chamillionaire’s pages, below runs a nice graphic visually comparing the achievements of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, who is often touted vehemently by rabid Los Angeles Lakers fans sometimes bandied about the blogosphere as being on a level with His Airness. And after one glance … well, the […]
The BallinEurope tribute to all-time Euroleague great Marcus Brown
Marcus Brown retired from professional basketball this week as the Euroleague’s modern-era top scorer (with 2,715 total points to his name) and with a CV of success the envy of many. After getting drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1996 and playing sparingly there for a season, Brown jumped the puddle to embark on […]
Career retrospective: Arvydas Sabonis, Hall of Famer
In honor of the legendary Arvydas Sabonis, the man Scottie Pippen once called “The greatest European basketball player ever to play the game,” entering the Basketball Hall of Fame, BallinEurope this morning reruns its career retrospective on the big man’s incredible career. Quite a collection of rare Sabonis footage exists in the collective consciousness of […]
Rumor du jour: Pocius to move to Moscow next season?
Could Martynas “Air” Pocius soon be flying to Russia? Talk Basket today supposes that not only will CSKA Moscow rebuild after a relatively poor season for the Red Army (not surprising), but that new Lithuanian head coach Jonas Kazlauskas is actively pursuing acquiring Pocius’ services for CSKA in the 2011-12 season. Pocius’ obligation to current […]
Video clips: Championships, cheerleaders, Carroll crushes, Barcelona loses (again)
Happy Monday, everyone. To get that week started right, BallinEurope has compiled a healthy-sized video play list at which you may goggle over morning coffee. From all corners of Europe (and Portland, Oregon) came the action last week as the barrage of title-awarding begins on The Continent. • First up: BiE offers congratulations to Žalgiris […]
Arvydas Sabonis: A career retrospective, via YouTube
BallinEurope sends out huge, 7’3” congratulations this morning to all-time great Arvydas Sabonis, finally inducted into the Professional Basketball Hall of Fame alongside luminaries such as Chris Mullin, Dennis Rodman (whoa, that’s still weird), Artis Gilmore, Tex Winter, “Goose” Tatum, Tom “Satch” Sanders, Tara Van Derveer, Herb Magee, and Teresa Edwards. A tribute in the […]
Basketball highlights of the week: Featuring Prigioni, McIntyre, Llull and some jackasses
On a lazy Sunday before the ACB tips off, what better way to wile away a few minutes than checking out some recent video clips? BallinEurope has a half-dozen short vids encapsulating basketball this week from The Continent and ‘States. Enjoy! • Weirdness and excitement in Spanish basketball? You bet! BiE recalls that this was […]