Italy 172
My chat with Francesco (or, WTF is up with Montepaschi Siena?)
Whilst watching the Efes Pilsen-Montepaschi Siena game with horror fascination last night – probably somewhere around the Ferdinando Minucci ejection – BiE couldn’t help but wonder what Francesco Cappelletti, this website’s man in Italy, thought of it all. Seriously. Montepaschi came into the game having looked strong in Euroleague competition this season thus far; with […]
European Basketball Calendar: February 2010 (first half)
And now for the public-service portion of Ball in Europe … at no cost to you runs a somewhat comprehensive of the basketball action going down for the first two weeks of February; schedule information is provided for top leagues in Spain, France, Germany, and Italy, together with international leagues and FIBA competitions. This calendar […]
Meneghin, Peterson in New York to talk Team Italy
Italian Basketball Federation president Dino Meneghin, along with Dan “The Coach” Peterson, will reportedly be taking in the New York Knicks-Toronto Raptors game at Madison Square Garden tonight; tomorrow, they’ll be meeting with el guapo himself, NBA Commissioner David Stern. Unfortunately, reportage – even Italian-language – on this trip to America is scanty, but according […]
European basketball calendar: January 2010
Emerging from the holiday season, we happily find a month packed with wall-to-wall basketball on The Continent. Below is a partial calendar filled with listings for matchups in a handful of Europe’s larger domestic leagues and international club competitions for men and women. We’ll post updated versions of this schedule as time allows and blanks […]
Being Danilo Gallinari (in the NBA)
We all know the NBA needs specialists, and that this is a request asked particularly of non-American players who haven’t the status in the ‘States to claim balls and minutes while they’re newly arrived from Europe. Then, by fighting for minutes against and using smarts beyond the US players, young European players soon present more […]
Travis Best lands with Martos Napoli
Whoa, 90s flashback! On Friday, Serie A club Martos Napoli announced the signing of 37-year-old Travis Best, perhaps best known for his play with Larry Bird’s Indiana Pacers, the NBA championship-contending team of 1999-2000. Best was a first-round draft choice of the Pacers in 1995. The point guard stuck with Indiana until 2002, when he […]
Help! Reader needs tickets to AJ Milano game!
BallinEurope yesterday received the following email and today we’re appealing to fellow readers for help: Dear Os, I really enjoy your website and read it every day from Israel. I will be in Milan this coming week and I have been trying to get tickets for a League game AJ Milano on Sunday December 6. […]
Just how good is Montepaschi Siena, anyway?
Poring over some Sporting Bet odds and lines on Lega Uno basketball reveals a stunning amount of continued domination from Montepaschi Siena. Not only is Ferdinando Minucci’s team a 4/15 favorite to take the Italian title, they’re also an incredible 3/10 favorite to once again (again!) go undefeated at home. So the question to our […]
Stefano Mancinelli packing up for the 'States
In the wake of the “chaos in Bologna” that has seen financial difficulties and league rules sink Fortitudo Bologna into Italy’s LegaDue, at least one player may realize his hoop dreams. Along with the relegation, Fortitudo released all players from their contracts with the team, leaving potential ocean-jumpers like Stefano Mancinelli. Rumor has it that […]
Noah with France for Eurobasket AQRs? Oui et non
Supporters of Team France are still holding their collective breath, as their national team yesterday officially announced that oui, Joakim Noah is still practicing with the team in preparation for EuroBasket, but non, no word had been given by Noah’s Bulls on whether the NBA team would allow Noah to play in the EuroBasket additional […]
Monday’s cigarettes
It’s playoff time throughout Europe and that’s no reason to slow down our output, but to come up with another Monday morning roundup of the most interesting stuff collected from around the web.
Bad news from Italy
Bad news from Italy. Much worse than that from France (Pau Orthez) or Germany (Giessen). Fortitudo Bologna has gone down to Legadue. It seems incredible, but such is the unhappy end to a desperate season, only the tip of the iceberg from an era characterized by a slow descent since “Emir” Giorgio Seragnoli left the […]