Claudio Sabatini 14
Quiz: The NBA- and Euro-centric year in basketball, 2011-12
Quick! Before those memories of basketball championships European and NBA fade completely, take a brief look back at the season that was – one crazy one on The Continent that began with Tony Parker, Ty Lawson and Mehmet Okur playing over here and concluded with titles taken by King James and Emperor Spanoulis. Get out […]
Incredibile! Back-to-back buzzer-beaters bring Banco Sardegna Sassari into semifinals
What’s that? You haven’t been watching the quarterfinal round of the Italian League’s playoffs? No problem: BallinEurope’s man in Italy, Enrico Cellini has – and he posts today about just what you’ve been missing, namely two cliffhanging, nail-biting finishes that finished off Virtus Bologna. (Ironically and mournfully, BiE notes Bologna’s elimination as dated the same […]
Revealed: The EuroChallenge championship curse
Winning the EuroChallenge title is a good thing, right? After all, it’s typically the first Continental trophy to display on the mantelpiece and the champions label wins the club to right to play in the more prestigious (and more big-bucks) Eurocup competition the following season. Well, Uygar Karaca may convince believers otherwise. In the first […]
Kobe Bryant: Virtus Bologna contract negotiation “was not a hoax”
Italy-based Corriere de Bologna, via Sky News, is today looking back nostalgically at those crazy days of the NBA player lockout – seems like forever ago, doesn’t it? – in quoting from an interview given by Kobe Bryant in Italian vis-à-vis the long flirtation Virtus Bologna and president Claudio Sabbatini carried on with the Los […]
What might have been: Virtus Bologna’s Sabatini still claims deal made with Kobe
Sheesh, some people really don’t have the word “quit” in their vocabulary; one of these is surely Virtus Bologna owner Claudio Sabatini, the relentless pursuer of Kobe Bryant during the NBA lockout … and beyond, it seems. According to Corriere della Sport via Sportando, Sabatini still can’t get the L.A. Laker off his mind. Runs […]
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 … […]
Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar seek to join elites in 2012
It’s perhaps the most famous Euroleague-related trivia question, and this season sees two more players in a quest to join the likes of a noted half-dozen, including some of the game’s all-time greats – would you believe that duo seeking to join this elite are named Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar? The €20,000 question is […]
Stood-up Claudio Sabatini writes Barack Obama re: Kobe, NBA lockout
Italy-based Gazzetto dello Sport reports on a couple of developments – or perhaps more appropriately “non-developments” – in the Kobe-to-Bologna soap opera. The first bit is easy to define: Kobe Bryant, it appears, won’t be playing for Virtus Bologna anytime soon. As the basketball world awaited the well-publicized ultimate conference call between Virtus president Claudio […]
Sabatini on Kobe-to-Bologna: “It’s now his choice.”
The individual wheeling-and-dealing epic of the NBA lockout may be close to done … but Kobe Bryant might be a European basketball for just one game. The current story from Virtus Bologna president Claudio Sabatini, via the club’s official website, is that two offers were extended to the Los Angeles Laker in yesterday’s efforts to […]
Revisiting the odds: Which NBA players will come to Europe for 2011-12?
After another couple weeks of speculation, hype and quotage, it’s time for BallinEurope to revisit the odds: specifically speaking, the odds on NBA players coming to play ball on The Continent in 2011-12. Once again, should note that these lines are offered at no bookmaker service and are completely arbitrary (which is to say mostly […]
Kobe Bryant to Virtus Bologna: The plot thickens
While Kobe Bryant reportedly has refused any offer from Italian club Virtus Bologna that does not entail him (theoretically) playing with the team for the entire 2011-12 season, Bologna management appears to be clearing a path to make such a signing possible. The big news in this direction early this week is twofold: Firstly, Virtus […]
Kobe Bryant coming to Italy: Bologna or baloney?
While all that Kobe Bryant-to-Beşiktaş Cola Turka talk may be long dead, the Los Angeles Lakers star could well be closer to playing in Europe than you think. After Bryant reportedly responded to offers from Virtus Bologna with “Let’s talk,” the club has organized a conference call for this evening with Bryant’s agent Rob Pelinka […]