LegaBasket 9
Ben Ortner- Carpe Diem or Nothing
When a big name arrives, someone has to pay the price. For one man on Reyer Venezia’s roster, he’s all too used to not being the go to guy but Nicolò Origgi found plenty of cause for Ben Ortner to take heart from the role he has so often played. As we bid farewell to […]
Cold blood, hot hands
With the Italian, and indeed European season as a whole, nearly over Nicolò Origgi looks at the men teams turn to when the game is on the line. Across Lega Basket, there are a few heads you know will be turned to when it’s time for that final push. They are the closers, the guys […]
The strange case of the Swiss jersey
Switzerland has a unique way of recognising the players who take all the shots and Nicolò Origgi reckons it could be fun if applied elsewhere. Here he looks at the Italian league players who deserve a jersey all of their own Even the most die-hard basketball junkies might not know that in Switzerland each team’s […]
Esteban Batista – The goalie in the middle
With the Italian finals tipping off on Saturday, Nicolò Origgi has found a player he can relate to well. Like Esteban Batista, he’s got some experience between the sticks, and the Reyer Venezia man is looking to climb to the top with the ball in his hands over the next couple of weeks Just as […]
Aaron Craft – The last of a dying breed
Aquila Trento have quickly become the story of the summer, sweeping Dinamo Sassari and routing Olimpia Milano en route to the Serie A finals. Nicolò Origgi looks at how a new arrival this season with an old-school mindset is proving the driving force behind Trento’s remarkable run to the championship series In a basketball increasingly […]
The Balkan pearl of Sicily
It may be Final Four week here on BiE but Nicolò Origgi is keeping an eye on a story in domestic action that merits your attention Italian Lega A has looked all but unpredictable since the glory days of Mens Sana Siena, with the exception of the 2014/2015 season that saw Dinamo Sassari knocking out […]
Did nobody check the calendar?
Bold, foolhardy, or just plain foolish? Emmet Ryan is perplexed by the decisions of leagues in Italy and Spain to go up against Euro 2016 with two of their biggest games of the season While Olimpia Milano claimed the Serie A title with a comeback win in Game 6 against Reggio Emilia, the Italian national […]
Varese coach rips shirt, gets suspended
Olimpia Milano recorded a 105=97 win over Varese in Legabasket but the story of the day wasn’t the scoreboard. Gianmarco Pozzecco, the coach of Varese and no stranger to theatrics, got enraged following a technical foul call against his team for a foul on former Cleveland Cavalier Samardo Samuels. Watch Pozzecco channel his inner Hulk […]
Round-up: Nanterre perfect, Siena can shoot, Neptunas fall in OT
Reigning champions Nanterre maintained their perfect start in France. In Italy, Montepaschi Siena showed they won’t lose many games for lack of shooting and in the VTB United League it was a heartbreaking debut for Lithuania’s Neptunas. They were the Cinderella story of European Basketball last year but JSF Nanterre has begun the 2013-14 LNB […]