LNB 44
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 […]
Round-up: Siena take Supercoppa, fight in Lithuania, Nanterre and Strasbourg squeeze out wins
Four Euroleague teams returned to domestic action on Tuesday night. In Italy, Montepaschi Siena took the Supercoppa, while there were league wins for JSF Nanterre and Strasbourg IG in France. Lietuvos Rytas also won in the LKL but their victory at Juventus was marred by a brawl. After a one and done display in the […]
Cinderella story in France as no. 8 seed JSF Nanterre wins LNB title, 2013-14 Euroleague spot (theoretically)
BallinEurope’s favorite European domestic-league champion this season? It’s gotta be JSF Nanterre, yesterday’s crowning of whom as French LNB kings has surely guaranteed who will be the underdog of all underdogs for the 2013-14 Euroleague season. Backing into the playoffs on a three-game losing streak to squeak in by dint of tiebreaker with a regular-season […]
Evan Fournier on the difference between dream and goal
Whoa, this guy Evan Fournier’s got some confidence, eh? Just months after the 19-year-old parlayed his 2011-12 LNB Best Young Player award into a no. 20 overall NBA Draft selection by the Denver Nuggets, surprising many observers and pundits. But Fournier wasn’t surprised at all, according to Eurohoops.net. The ‘Hoops have got Fournier quoted as […]
Euroleague 2012-13: An attempt to deduce the composition (plus Official Fearless Prediction™)
Yesterday, the basketball-centered bit of the Twitter universe was centered in two real-life locales: New York City and Barcelona. Topics in play were the falling of ping-pong balls in New York City and Euroleague’s incipient decision on the construction of Euroleague 2012-13. Hopefully, BallinEurope will get something together on the former later, but for now, […]
On the Road to London: Zinedine Zidane, Yannick Noah ♥ Tony Parker
Now available online at YouTube and DailyMotion – not to mention embedded below – is episode three of the short documentary series “On the Road to London” featuring Team France in the runup to the 2012 Olympics. Le troisième épisode is entitled “La Star,” which might perhaps be best translated as “Tony Parker: The Love […]
National Cups: Real Madrid ends 19 years of futility; Beşiktaş, Chalon take first-ever titles; Montepaschi Siena continues dominance
Congratulations go out from BallinEurope today to a quartet of national Cup holders in Real Madrid, Beşiktaş Milangaz, Chalon-sur-Saone and Montepaschi Siena. The former three victories are set to be particularly noted in club annals: Real ended a 19-year drought while Beşiktaş and Chalon both bagged their first-ever championships in their respective national cup tournaments […]
Posters absoluts & Monsterdunken: The Eurocentric slam dunk of 2011 – plus 25 others
Before BallinEurope signs off for 2011, let’s give a late Christmas gift to the dunkaholics out there, shall we? Below runs a collection compiled through the year featuring dunks by Europeans, on Europeans or perhaps simply in Continental games. The first 20 will listed by competition, followed the top five runners-up and the champion jam […]
Ooh la la! D-League champ Dar Tucker prepares for LNB dunk contest, French-style
What’s the difference between American and European dunk contests? The preparation! Check out this LNB-produced video of former New Mexico Thunderbird/current Aix-Maurienne player Dar Tucker, who could achieve a rare double championship on December 30 when the French league’s all-star festivities go down. Early this year, Tucker repeated as champion of the NBA D-League dunk […]
NBA Nuclear Winter settling in; Twitter bursts with news of player exodus
You know who benefits from the NBA player lockout? Twitter, that’s who. The website has become an endless source of interest as each event/non-event transpires in the NBA lockout soap opera. Minute to minute, commentators, players, pundits and rumormongers pithily weigh in and/or report on the immediate future of professional basketball in America… …and Europe! […]
Turiaf debuts for Asvel Basket in 92-77 loss to SLUC Nancy
For those of you wondering about Ronny Turiaf’s debut with Asvel Basket, well, it was a bit of a mixed bag of results on Sunday. After resolving insurance issues, the locked-out New York Knick started for Asvel as Tony Parker’s side hosted defending LNB champions/ Euroleague team SLUC Nancy. Turiaf looked good enough in his […]
Euroleague Power Rankings: November edition
With two Euroleague games in the books for each team and something of an overall picture developing, BallinEurope unleashes the November edition of its ever-“popular” power rankings for the two dozen squads. For reference, edification and jollies, the preseason edition of the ‘rankings may be seen here. Once again, advisories in effect: These ratings are […]