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Pop Quiz: The Euro-/NBA-centric year in basketball
Just because the NBA Draft is over, the big league is heading toward a lockout, and the top European teams are thick into the wheeling/dealing of off-season acquisitions with an eye to 2011-12, that’s no reason to forget your history. Were you paying attention this season? Test your knowledge with the official BallinEurope 2010-11 season-ending […]
Basketball weekend: Tournaments in Germany, (probably) Italy ending; Eurobasket Women starting
The 2010-11 professional basketball season may effectively be over this weekend, with a final championship series game scheduled in Germany tonight plus a possible elimination game in Italy happening on Sunday. But no worries: the end of club play means the beginning of summertime national-team tournaments, starting with the 2011 FIBA Eurobasket Women competition. In […]
Bo McCalebb might play for Team FYR Macedonia, will not attend training camp
Montepaschi Siena point guard Bo McCalebb is currently pursuing the Serie A title with his team, but folks in his alma mater town are already looking forward to Eurobasket 2011. Earlier this week, the New Orleans Times-Picayune spoke with the former UNO baller about the possibility of again playing with the FYR Macedonia national team, […]
Donatas Motiejunas declares for draft; BallinEurope revisits prospect
One of last year’s projected top five selections in the NBA Draft has declared instead for the 2011 edition of the world’s biggest hoops talent lottery: Big man Donatas Motiejunas deferred in 2010 because “really felt like he needed another year of international ball before he was ready for the NBA” … so how has […]
NBA Western Conference Playoffs: The Eurocentric view
Rumor has it that across the ocean, this basketball league called the NBA is about to begin its playoffs. With the 2010-11 regular season behind us, BallinEurope takes a present-and-future look at the playoff-bound Europeans in the American league series by series, together with musings, meanderings, YouTube clips and those Fearless Predictions™. Today: the Western […]
Déjà vu in Ukraine? Proposed role models for Fratello’s new team
When Mike Fratello arrives to head up his national team coaching gig in Ukraine, he won’t see too many familiar faces beyond Sasha Volkov. Volkov played for the Czar’s Atlanta Hawks for a couple seasons way back when; unfortunately, Volkov hasn’t actually played ball at any level since year 2000. Coupled with the fact that […]
Top 100 teams in Europe: Week of upsets edition
While NBA fans were mostly talking about Blake Griffin and Carmelo Anthony last week, the buzzword around Europe last week was “upset.” Seemingly from end to end, Continental leagues saw their respective mighty – if not fall – at least stagger from a blow dealt by a lower seed. Real Madrid lost to new no. […]
Vassilakopoulos: Full steam ahead on Mediterranean League
BallinEurope admits to having felt a great deal of skepticism when the rumors of a new major pan-European (and now -Asian! But more on that momentarily) basketball association were first announced; day by day it seems, however, that the Mediterranean League comes closer to reality. The prospective league could potentially involve teams from nine nations, […]
Top 100 Teams in Europe: After the cups, then what? Edition
The dust – and in Germany, the glass – has settled on a week of Cup tournament action throughout The Continent, so it’s time for BallinEurope to crunch the numbers in compiling the weekly Top 100 Teams in Europe list. But, ran the first question, what relative weight should be prescribed for these games for […]
February Madness: Rounding up the cups, serving up some highlights
Can it all be over so quickly? February Madness peaked this weekend in Europe, with several domestic cup tournaments being played out and celebrations aplenty. BallinEurope this morning provides a rundown of the action – and, naturally, video clips. Without further ado, then, let’s look in on the insanity. • To no one’s surprise, Spanish […]
It’s Kemp, not Lafayette, to replace Iverson at Beşiktaş
A day after Oliver Lafayette failed a team medical test, Beşiktaş Cola Turka officials have announced the transfer of Marcelus Kemp from Virtus Bologna to occupy the roster spot left vacant by the injured Allen Iverson. Kemp has played professional basketball in Italy since playing four years with the University of Nevada Wolf Pack and […]
Marco Belinelli … for threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Just before halftime in Milwaukee, pride of Italy-in-New Orleans Marco Belinelli put in the NBA’s top play of the night – no really, it made the “ESPN Sports Center Top 10 Plays of the Night,” the sole basketball clip amid a squall of college (American) football madness – with his insane buzzer-beater against the Bucks […]