Eurobasket 2009 96
Fearless predictions: 2010 FIBA World Championship, day two
Whither Spain? In yet another example of “that’s why they play ‘em on paper,” the mighty Spaniards went down thanks to a French attack led by Nicolas Batum (14 points on 4-of-9 shooting, two rebounds, two blocks and one awesome jam), Andrew Albicy (!) and Mickael Gelabale (!!!) and brutal fourth-quarter shooting “highlighted” by three […]
Non, Nando, non! (or, key games in the 2010 FIBA World Championship)
When is a game-winning shot not a game-winning shot? When you’re playing in a FIBA tournament! Just ask Nando de Colo. In Eurobasket 2009, Team France took its undefeated streak into the final game of pool play with Greece. In a hard-fought contest, de Colo burned Nikos Zisis for an outside two with 0.2 seconds […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 5.0
Right. It’s time for the final edition – pending Nenad Krstic’s prospective suspension by FIBA – of BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings. Now that Team USA has had it out with Spain and Greece, we can see the picture a little more clearly heading into the tournament tipping off Saturday. There’s a clear […]
Interview: The Man Who Would Save British Basketball
While much of international basketball fandom is anticipating the 2010 World Championship and the powerful teams’ backers dream of glory, one national team is fighting for its very survival against what some feel is an unfair burden placed upon them by FIBA and the IOC: Great Britain. Great Britain held on for their fifth consecutive […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 3.1
While nearly everybody (perhaps too many, in BiE’s opinion) await the final shape of Team USA’s roster going into the 2010 FIBA World Championship, a bunch of other teams spent the weekend making statements. Said statements could take the shape of confirmation of awesomeness (Spain), reminders of “hey, we still exist” (Brazil), and red-alert level […]
Love Cyprus Tournament: Greece tramples Russia, Croatia survives Germany
From the four-team Love Cyprus Basketball Tournament, Team Greece has sent a loud and clear message to the international hoops world: Fear us. Team Hellas utterly torched a seemingly competitive Russia in a 101-63 laugher last night as one heck of an announcement to the 2010 FIBA World Championship field. Greek national sport media praised […]
Power ratings: 2010 FIBA World Championship
August is here and it’s full speed ahead for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey later this month. In coming weeks, we’ll be seeing the national teams competing in the tournament playing warmup games all over the planet – indeed, some have already begun play. With the last few big names having declared “yea” […]
Nowitzki won’t play in 2010 FIBA Worlds, will play in 2011 Eurobasket
Cross yet another internationally-known name off the list for participation in the 2010 FIBA World Championship: Dirk Nowitzki today announced in a good news/bad news kind of way that he would not be playing for Team Germany in this summer’s tournament but that he will be suiting up for next year’s 2011 Eurobasket competition. Nowitzki […]
FIBA’s Baumann frets about British basketball post-2012; Spice reassures
UK-based Sporting Life recently posted an couple of articles regarding the odd state of the national program and which insinuate FIBA’s greater concern with basketball in the country. On Monday, the ‘paper presented a long interview with FIBA secretary-general/International Olympic Committee inspector Patrick Baumann. Among other issues, Baumann spoke at length about what he and […]
Summer vacation? Gallinari out for Italy, Batum in for France
Another big name gets crossed off the list of stars to be playing international basketball this summer, as Danilo Gallinari stated yesterday he wouldn’t be suiting up for Team Italy in 2011 Eurobasket qualifiers after all. Despite some high-profile meetings during this season with Dino Meneghin and other luminaries of the Italian national team, Gallinari […]
Weekend video wrap: El Classico, Nike Hoop Summit, EL Women final, BBL Cup
For The Continent, quite a bit of important basketball action went down this weekend. In the ‘States, the best of Team USA faced off against the world in the Nike Hoop Summit game; in Spain, arguably the two best women’s teams on the planet meet for the FIBA Euroleague Women final; the German domestic league […]
Rubio (officially) named FIBA Europe Young Men’s Player of the Year
One more announcement from the FIBA folks today and this one’s surely no surprise: For an unprecedented third straight year, the honor of FIBA Europe Young Men’s Player of the Year goes to Spanish wunderkind Ricky Rubio. Rubio’s win makes Spain two-for-two on FIBA Europe accolades this year and, with Pau Gasol expected to bookend […]