LKL 54
Media blackout: Zalgiris Kaunas refuses Lietuvos Rytas reporters accreditation
Here’s one way to address biased media coverage, though BallinEurope wonders if it might not also be labeled “akin to censorship.” In what appears to be an effort to take away some of the newspaper’s power to report on their age-old rivals, Žalgiris Kaunas has this morning announced the extreme measure of refusing to speak […]
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: October update
Got the vitriol brewing? All right, then, with BallinEurope now caught up on some preseason basketball viewing, it’s time for another edition of BiE’s Official Euroleague Power Rankings. Just one quick note for irritated fans (we’re looking at you, Olympiacos, Žalgiris and Lietuvos Rytas backers): Remember that these rankings are first totally subjective and secondly […]
Official BallinEurope Euroleague Power Rankings: The preseason
Since BallinEurope’s Official Power Rankings were so, um, popular during the FIBA World Championships, today we’re kicking off the same schtick for the upcoming Euroleague campaign. The rules, again: These rankings are basically purely subjective (at this point; once the games are played, actual wins and losses will be figured in) but are based loosely […]
How it feels to be a Lithuanian fan
Last Tuesday in the 2010 FIBA World Championship, Team Lithuania completed a huge comeback to defeat the heavily-favored Spain 76-73 – just another win on the way to the tournament round, albeit an exceedingly exciting one, right? Wrong. BallinEurope’s man in Lithuania, known in this space since last year’s LKL championship series insanity as Y., […]
Prospect Dovydas Redikas signs with Lietuvos Rytas over Žalgiris Kaunas: Here’s why
A number of players from Team Lithuania’s 2010 European Championship U18 squad have been moving on the market lately, but few have caused disquiet among Žalgiris fans as Lietuvos Rytas’ recent acquisition of SG Dovydas Redikas out of Marciulionis Academy. Tournament MVP Jonas Valanciunas is already officially with Lietuvos Rytas, and his all-tournament teammate Deividas […]
List of 2009-10 European basketball champions
League play is now accelerating to a close all over The Continent, and BallinEurope’s “List of European Champions” page gets more updates. Most men’s domestic leagues have completely closed up shoppe for 2009-10, but BiE has also listed a few details on where other leagues stand at present; links are provided where possible. If no […]
Homage to the Killer: BallinEurope’s video tribute to Arvydas Macijauskas
Reader AM recently noted his disappointment with BiE lately due to this website’s non-reportage on the recent premature retirement of 30-year-old Arvydas Macijauskas on Wednesday. At the time BiE heard the news, the story had already been well reported on dozens of other websites and so passed on writing something up. However, AM is right […]
Business as usual in Lithuania: Romanov sound bite, L.Rytas signs Newley
What was that about the fat cat singing…? Followers of Lithuanian basketball this season were no doubt immensely let down by Žalgiris Kaunas owner Vladimir Romanov’s superbrief post-game press conference after his coachless team’s defeat in game seven of the LKL championship series. Lasting approximately 12 seconds, the entire “conference” with media representatives consisted of […]
Big third quarter boosts L.Rytas to LKL championship win over Zalgiris Kaunas, 80-71
Congratulations go out tonight to Lietuvos Rytas, who decisively won the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) championship over arch-rival Žalgiris Kaunas, 80-71. Thus ends a very bizarre LKL playoffs and, for Žalgiris Kaunas, a revolving door of a season at coach with the final four games seeing the team essentially sort-of led by some combination of […]
Romanov "addresses the challenge of curbing the blogger" in LKL Championship game five
Well, it wouldn’t be the 2010 Lithuanian Basketball League championship without the daily Vladimir Romanov story in advance of the next game, the third consecutive in which Žalgiris Kaunas will play without an official head coach. Apparently, the Žalgiris owner made the trip over to Vilnius with the team’s sports director Šarūnas Sakalauskas to watch […]
Headless horsemen of Zalgiris go coach-free again tonight
In Lithuania, Žalgiris Kaunas’ bizarre personnel situation, i.e. no official head coach named with a maximum three games remaining in the LKL season, continues. Žalgiris owner Vladimir Romanov spent the weekend *not* officially naming anyone to the position; the role was apparently unofficially filled by guard Marcus Brown in last Thursday’s 83-70 win over longtime […]
Coachless in Kaunas, Žalgiris wins anyway to knot up LKL championship series
Now Žalgiris Kaunas is truly entering into uncharted waters. After canning Darius Maskoliunas earlier this week and watching assistant coach Gvidonas Markevičius stomp out of the organization thereafter, Žalgiris owner Vladimir Romanov sent his team into game four of the Lithuanian national league (LKL) championship series headless – unless you count those two guys looking […]