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The 20 best (Eurocentric) dunks of 2010
Retrospective time comes again to BallinEurope! But hey, who doesn’t like an excuse to watch a bunch of air-raising slam dunks? Following are 20 of the best dunks pulled off in Europe, by Europeans or on Europeans; whether historically significant or not, all have one thing in common: That awesomeness inherent only in a proper […]
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: Regular-season halftime
BiE still can’t claim to totally understand what’s going on in Euroleague basketball in 2010-11 (Real Madrid lost by how many? To *who*?) but at least some of the cream is rising to the top. This latest edition of the official BallinEurope power rankings should probably wait ‘til after some key games over the weekend […]
Euroleague week three talking points, part II
Five Euroleague games are to be played tonight, each bearing a number of scintillating storylines – well, okay, maybe not the nearly history-bereft Cholet-Lietuvos Rytas matchup, but you get the point. For your perusal, then, a few factoids, bites of information and videos in the leadup to tonight’s action. Enjoy the games, and best of […]
The Frank Euroleague roundup, week two
Francesco Cappelletti’s regular column with BallinEurope is back as our man in Italy takes a look at the after-effects of Euroleague week two action. This time out, Francesco sees European basketball history returning to the old days on the Continent while Balkan squads fight economic problems but dispatch Western European teams anyway. And early on, […]
Frank answers to four burning Euroleague questions
He’s back! Emerging out of hiding (or perhaps digging himself out of work with youth squads plus Italian-language sports media) is BallinEurope’s man in Italy, Francesco Cappelletti. As the season progresses, Cappelletti will be opining as to what really went down in a week’s worth of Euroleague matches. Today, four key themes that will be […]
Sixty-eight Fearless Predictions™ for 2010-11 Euroleague season
With the EL tipoff game tonight, BallinEurope is feeling devotion … not to mention a rush of Fearless Predictions™ coming on. How crazy can BiE get? You be the judge; here are 68 prognostications on all things Euroleague which you may [laugh uproariously about] ponder. Enjoy the season, everyone! (And sign up for the BallinEurope […]
NLB wrap: Zagreb bests Radnicki, Buducnost upsets Partizan, CEZ Nymburg no. 1
The first week of play in the Adriatic League (a.k.a. the NLB Liga ABA) was capped yesterday with KK Zagreb’s 82-76 home-opener win over Radnički despite an amazing performance by Michael Lee – and just check out who’s atop the standings. Lee, a two-sport star at St. Bonaventure who was with the Hungarian league’s Albacomp […]
Robin Benzing: “Nein” to 2010 NBA draft
Add another name to the ever-burgeoning list of quality European players who will *not* be considered for selection in the 2010 NBA Draft: Team Germany/Ratiopharm Ulm forward Robin Benzing. David Hein of Germany-based heinnews is reporting that the 21-year-old Bundesliga sensation pulled himself from contention in 2010 because Benzing “would most likely have been drafted […]
Donatas Motiejunas pulls out of 2010 NBA Draft; BallinEurope waits for 2011
So much for that potential lottery pick: Lithuanian big man Donatas Motiejunas, perhaps after having seen his stock drop off a bit in the past couple of months, has announced he’ll pull his name from 2010 NBA Draft contention. Motiejunas’ agent Herb Rudoy explained to ESPN thusly: “Donatas really felt like he needed another year […]
“We are here to work”: Opening up the post-Euroleague semifinal quotebook
Since last night’s games ended, it’s been a blur of press conferences and meetings for us here in the press section at the Euroleague Final Four … so here’s another round of wit ‘n’ wisdom from the men guiding and playing the games. On winning “Yesterday, we played beyond our limits. My players gave everything. […]
Euroleague Final Four head-to-head matchups: Partizan Belgrade vs. Olympiacos
Whoa, the Final Four starts in two days? Almost unbelievable. But enough digression! Yesterday, BallinEurope presented a brief position-by-position rundown of Friday’s FC Barcelona-CSKA Moscow game. Today, a consideration of the late game, Partizan Belgrade vs. Olympiacos. Similarly to the early game, Partizan-Olympiacos also features a matchup between classic plucky underdog versus season-starting prohibitive favorite. […]
Ryan Richards declares for 2010 NBA Draft (plus, a personal plea)
It’s official: Great Britain’s 1991-born Ryan Richards has declared for the NBA Draft: According to UK-based Basketball 24/7, the British power forward/centre currently playing for Swiss first-division club BBC Monthey (on loan from the ACB’s Gran Canaria 2014) will enter this year’s NBA Draft. Unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me understand why he […]