Greece 147
Strike! (Maybe.)
Perhaps not such a merry Christmas for Greece, then: Due to continuing conflict between ESAKE and the Greek players union (PSAK), play in the country’s top league may be stopped as of January 1. Issues in play in the dispute include salary concerns, support for amateur ball, television rights and limits on non-European players. Talk […]
Morning Eurohoops News: November 27
Good morning, basketball world! BallinEurope presents its morning briefing with five items for your perusal, including trouble in Cyprus, Noah sailing in for a jam, and the state of Britain’s wheelchair basketball team. Enjoy and, like they say in the ‘States, thank the gods, it’s Friday! • FIBA and Eurobasket.com in international incident? As attempts […]
New Playboy Belser makes quick impact in Finland
Don’t look now, but the balance of power in Finland’s top league may have shifted a bit with the arrival of Corey Belser from Aris Thessaloniki to the excellently named Honka Espoo Playboys of Finland’s Korisliiga. Belser first appeared on international scouts’ radar in his days playing for the University of San Diego, culminating in […]
Dispatch from parallel universe: Iverson, Olympiacos roll into game fours
parallel universe (n.): A universe or space-time continuum that exists alongside ours, and which may possess different physical laws or a different history. – Answers.com dictionary Talk about your critical decisions: I mean, imagine if Allen Iverson had turned down Olympiacos’ mammoth $10 million offer back in August to come play for the Angelopoulos Brothers’ […]
The Greek League explained
Trying to give more oomph and interesting themes to a league dominated by Panathinaikos and Olympiacos ever since 1992, the Greek Federation opened the doors to a third non-European player per team in a move aimed to achieve a better balance between those teams whose goals are merely to challenge by only attempting toapproach the […]
Alba Berlin vs. Maroussi BC: A Tale of Two Nations
The plot thickens … as marvelous underdog Maroussi continues its dark-horse run into the Euroleague’s field of 24, the pressure would all appear to be on Alba Berlin, last year’s sensation. A nice microcosm of two differing basketball programs is provided by the game as well, although Bundesliga’s propensity for welcoming non-German players is well-known. […]
Best of the (basketball) net: Calm Before The Perfect Storm edition
The pickings for basketball-related news online this week were a tad slim, with that inevitable last-weeks-of-August malaise that conquers Europe annually and sends the entire continent on holiday really settling in. Ah well, Eurobasket 2009 tips off in a couple weeks, followed by national leagues awakening, and Euroleague/NBA isn’t that far off, really. In the […]
FIBA U20 Championship Men: Hotel buffet-side coverage
Going on this week is the FIBA U20 European Championship Men and hard-working sports reporter David Hein of heinnews is live in Rhodes to cover the action. From the heinnews website, then, comes reportage of basketball action in … the hotel buffet area?
L.A. ain't the Answer, A.I.: Come to Europe!
I’ve been waiting to talk trash to my NBA-supremacist friends ever since the announcement in April of an imminent deal between free agent Allen Iverson and Olympiacos: Ha! That’s what you get for trying to make a Hall of Fame stud sit on the bench for some second-rank team in the ‘States! Think Europe’s top […]
FIBA U19 World Championship wraps up; Greece silver, Croatia bronze
The ninth FIBA U19 World Championship closed out on Sunday with Team USA taking the big prize in the biannual contest. Greece can take pride in giving the Americans an excellent run for top spot on the podium, mounting a nice second-half comeback that fell short in an 88-80 loss.
Roster rule changes in Serbia and Greece
Good news and bad news, definition and redefinition of “foreign player” ruled the basketball headlines in Serbia and Greece last week. While the reigning basketball federation of the latter expanded the number of roster slots available to non-EU players from two to three, Serbia not only limited the number of foreign players allowed on team […]
Cabezas the savior and Childress homesick (or not?)
With the NBA playoffs at full speed in the conference finals, the playoffs in various European domestic leagues are in their decisive phase, too. And the nerves of players and fans are on edge right now, as you can see through our short notes on what has happened during the past few days.