Kolossos Rhodes 11
Batiste buzzer-beater not quite enough; Olympiacos tops Panathinaikos, 78-77
As though Greece didn’t have enough problems on the weekend already, the latest Olympiacos-Panathanikos clash also ended in a bit of controversy yesterday evening. In short, the visiting Greens trailed throughout the game, digging themselves as much as a 20-point hole. However, Mike Batiste and Ioannis Bourousis helped bring PAO back in the second half […]
Greek Cup final set for Sunday; Greece playoff schedule P.O.’s Bobby Brown
Just in case you were wondering, there will in fact be a 2011 Greek Cup awarded after all. Those two monster clubs, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, will meet on Sunday to award the prize after months of delay and some strange behind-the-scenes decision-making. (Surely BallinEurope’ll be posting video of the typical fan shenanigans on Monday, so […]
Greek basketball in 2010-11: Worst season ever?
While Olympiacos continues to chase history in a story that will be continued tonight against Kolossos Rhodes while seemingly on the way to another memorable finals clash with rival Panathinaikos, some are not so positive about the current state of Hellas’ game. Sport.gr writer Costas Papantoniou gives a rundown of what he calls “the worst […]
Greek League wrap: Olympiacos perfect, Panathinaikos breaks records against Panellinios, AEK relegated
Despite playing without Vassilis Spanoulis and Theo Papaloukas, Olympiacos kept its date with the history books in easily defeating Iraklis Thessaloniki last night in front of a mostly empty stadium, 83-44. The Reds thus conclude the EΣAKE regular season at 26-0, becoming the first team ever to do so and the first to go undefeated […]
Curtis Stinson, formerly of Split, Aris, wins D-League MVP: What does it mean?
The tweet from Draft Express rang out at 4.30am CET and posed quite the complex question. To wit: “What does Curtis Stinson – a guy no team in the NBA or Europe has any interest in – winning MVP of the D-League, say about the D-League?” Such consternation clearly comes from one with an encyclopedic […]
The Top 100 Teams in Europe: Now with new formula!
You have commented and BallinEurope has heard. Thanks in large part to the proddings and machinations of a somewhat indignant Y. (BiE’s man in Lithuania), we’ve reworked the formula to determine the official Top 100 Teams in Europe list. Not to go into any boring detail, but Y. was kind enough to install somewhat arbitrary […]
Team Greece's FIBA World Championship preliminary roster announced: No Papaloukas, still scary
The preliminary Team Greece roster of 17 players has been announced and, despite the notable exclusion of Theo Papaloukas, the 2006 FIBA World Championship silver medalists are bringing quite the squad to the 2010 edition of the competition. EΣAKE’s two most celebrated franchises are naturally well-represented, with six Panathinaikos players and five from Olympiacos making […]
The take on would-be Heaters Patrick Beverley, Robert Dozier
BallinEurope is syndicated! Well, sort of. Surya Fernandez, he of fellow ESPN TrueHoop Network blog Hot Hot Hoops, recently asked for some scouting-esque notes on a pair of EΣAKE players drafted by his favored Miami Heat in 2009. What’s the BiE book on Patrick Beverley and Robert Dozier? Click here to find out. And whereas […]
Red alert: Heating-up Sofoklis goes off in All-Star Game
Look out, upcoming Olympiacos opponents: Big Sofo is just starting to heat up. After a marginal season in Euroleague play up in the early going (BiE is blaming it on that H1N1 the big man contracted in the autumn), Sofoklis Schortsanitis turned in his peak Euroleague performance of 2009-10 a week and a half ago, […]
Welcome to Greece, Marcus Haislip!
Though apparently nothing official is in place, Marcus Haislip appears to be heading for Panathinaikos just days after getting waived by the San Antonio Spurs. The Associated Press reports that the acquisition was publicly announced at the Kolossos Rhodes game yesterday (a blowout 92-60 win by PAO, incidentally), but no official from the Euroleague, Greek […]
Europe's top 12 basketball team names
The worst thing about NBA basketball? That’s easy: The team names! What with the rapid franchise movement and just incomprehensible obsession with the uncountable noun, American professional basketball is simply bogged down with names that are mostly laughingly displaced (e.g. Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Memphis Grizzlies), generic (e.g. Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Hornets, Phoenix […]