FC Barcelona 363
Notes from the Nike International Junior Tournament, day one
As befits tradition, the 2012 Nike International Junior Tournament is running in parallel with the Euroleague Final Four competition in Istanbul. Eight youth league teams are competing for the grand prize – and, individually speaking, to garner some attention from club scouts as each player’s career burgeons on the big stage. In the bigger picture, […]
Game changer? Pascual hints that Navarro is questionable for Olympiacos match
Euroleague pre-event press conferences are typically pretty blah stuff, with the same old rhetoric about team play, the competitors’ greatness, even matchups, defense wins championships, ad nauseum. However, among FC Barcelona coach Xavi Pascual’s loquacious enthusiasm, the Blaugrana leader did drop in one scintillating note. Said Pascual, “Juan Carlos Navarro’s fasciitis problems have returned. At […]
Bertomeu: Euroleague doesn’t need NBA players, system (Welllllll…)
BallinEurope heads out to Istanbul this morning to join the scene at this year’s Euroleague Final Four and start pumping out four days’ worth of steady reportage, historical stuff, stats, quotes, video, etc. But BiE figured he’d leave you temporarily with some gauntlet-throwing type stuff by EL CEO Jordi Bertomeu. In what became a widely […]
Report: Olympiacos’ Papadopoulos to miss Euroleague Final Four
As though the underdogs of the 2012 Euroleague Final Four needed more obstacles to bar the way to what would be the tournament’s biggest modern-era upset, here’s another. According to Talk Basket, center Lazaros Papadopoulos will not be suiting up for the Reds in the competition. Reports the site: “Papadopoulos hasn’t trained for days now […]
Euroleague trophy comes to Istanbul, makes like a tourist this week
Euroleague officials announced last night that one of professional basketball’s most aspiring-to bits of hardware had arrived in Istanbul last night, Naturally brought to the EL Final Four host city via Turkish Airlines – official sponsor of Euroleague basketball. (Although one assumes that the trophy is the traditional cup-like object held by a TA employee […]
Euroleague Final Four: The video preview
And this week … the Euroleague Final Four! To get things started, BallinEurope presents a roundup of highlight clips from the seasons-that-were of CSKA Moscow, FC Barcelona, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos. (Wow, BiE wonders every time upon looking at that list just how the big league could have ended up with a more scintillating Final Four: […]
Early nominee, Eurocentric buzzer-beater of the year: Juan Carlos Navarro hits half-courter before halftime
Oh, Señor Navarro … you’ve done it again. Long since known as one of Europe’s great clutch players, Juan Carlos produced some more heroics for FC Barcelona yesterday. In the Liga Endesa week 33 game against superpowered rivals Real Madrid, the hosting Blaugrana looked sluggish early and looked to be inevitably suffering from a nine-point […]
CSKA Moscow takes VTB United League title; first in history-making triple crown?
Congratulations go out from BallinEurope to the 2011-12 VTB United League champions – to the surprise of few, CSKA Moscow. The Red Army’s 74-62 victory over Unics Kazan in a rematch of last year’s final represents not only its second VTB championship in three seasons of the league’s existence, but the first title in a […]
Explaining BallinEurope's Euroleague MVP ballot (plus the top 25 for 2011-12, highlight clips)
In the interests of complete transparency – hey, somebody in Hungary should aspire to such – BallinEurope today presents the outcome of a heavy Euroleague basketball-watching habit plus several hours of intense thought: Namely, the five names that went onto BiE’s media representative’s ballot for 2011-12 Euroleague MVP. Since there’s no way the chosen quintet […]
Valencia: Another Title for Another Ex-Yugoslavian?
In the leadup to the 2011-12 Eurocup Final Four tournament beginning on Saturday, Eurosport Turkey basketball commentator Uygar Karaca contributes a series of previews on the remaining quartet entitled “Four Teams, Four Stories” to BallinEurope. Today, Karaca takes a look at Valencia BC. Of course, we have to mention brilliant coaches like Luis Casimiro, Paco […]
Panathinaikos tops Maccabi Tel Aviv, 86-85 to advance; Greens to take on Red Army, history in Istanbul
The 2011-12 Euroleague Final Four field is now filled, as Panathinaikos’ cliffhanger of an 86-85 win against Maccabi Tel Aviv last night sets up a May date with the monsters of CSKA Moscow in Istanbul. (And now, a slight bit of horn-tooting. Note a few Official BallinEurope Fearless Predictions™ made good, i.e. Dimitris Diamantidis as […]
Panathinaikos vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv: Official BallinEurope (and other) Fearless Predictions™
With the last 2011-12 Euroleague Final Four spot to be decided in tonight’s climactic game five between Panathanikos and Maccabi Tel Aviv, BallinEurope takes a look at some recent prognostications by experts and observers – plus a modicum of analysis as to how well some have done. O, and of course, the official BallinEurope Fearless […]