Memphis Grizzlies 65
Euroleague MVP for April: Juan Carlos Navarro, of course
To the surprise of few, Juan Carlos Navarro of FC Barcelona was named Euroleague MVP for April; after all, “La Bomba” was The Bomb in March for the Blaugrana. The award was essentially based on a pair of games put in by the one-time Memphis Grizzly against Barça’s no. 1 rivals this season, Real Madrid. […]
The offical BiE NBA 2009-10 European All-Star Team
As one of the popular highlights of the NBA season, everything about the annual All-Star Game is loaded with pomp, hype and (hopefully) fun. No exception was that moment many a basketball fan awaits with gusto and prepares to heartily attack in argument as the naming of the rosters for the teams that will be […]
The Innocents Abroad, Part Two: Assessing the US' Euroleague rookies and sophs
Yesterday, Ball in Europe had a look at about a dozen newbies in the NBA from Europe; today, we’re flipping continents for a brief look at players from the US trying to make it in European basketball. With about one-third of the Euroleague season in the books, how are the first- and second-year Americans faring […]
The Innocents Abroad, Part one: Assessing Europe's NBA rookies and sophs
With the NBA regular season nearly one-quarter finished (yeesh, when did that happen?), Ball in Europe takes a look at the league’s freshmen and sophomores from The Continent. The NBA currently lists over 80 international players on its rosters, with exactly 50 coming from European quarters. About one-fifth of those are recent enough entries to […]
Being Danilo Gallinari (in the NBA)
We all know the NBA needs specialists, and that this is a request asked particularly of non-American players who haven’t the status in the ‘States to claim balls and minutes while they’re newly arrived from Europe. Then, by fighting for minutes against and using smarts beyond the US players, young European players soon present more […]
Dispatch from parallel universe: Iverson, Olympiacos roll into game fours
parallel universe (n.): A universe or space-time continuum that exists alongside ours, and which may possess different physical laws or a different history. – Answers.com dictionary Talk about your critical decisions: I mean, imagine if Allen Iverson had turned down Olympiacos’ mammoth $10 million offer back in August to come play for the Angelopoulos Brothers’ […]
Iverson confirms Olympiacos offer, may yet play in Greece
While on his promotional tour through Europe, Allen Iverson has stated that he did indeed receive a formal offer from Olympiacos this summer, but ultimately declined the offer “due to family commitments.” Greek-language website Red Planet, via Goal magazine, reported Iverson making the statement on Olympiacos’ contract offer after checking out Marc Gasol’s play for […]
Allen Iverson comes to Europe! Sort of…
No, really. Allen Iverson today touches down in Europe to play a little ball. Unfortunately, Iverson hasn’t finagled his way out of a just-signed contract with the Memphis Grizzlies and finally gotten with Olympiacos; A.I. arrives instead to promote his line of Reebok sneakers. But he’ll be playing some basketball, too. As the tour moves […]
Best of the (basketball) net: Never Gonna Give You Up edition
Found in Ball in Europe’s meanderings online this week: A buncha stuff on Eurobasket, the Allen Iverson-in-Memphis deal, and what Ron Artest was doing on September 11th this year. Happy Surfing Sunday! As Eurobasket progresses, the Euroleague page on Facebook has naturally had capsule blurbs on the action posted this week, and a certain team’s […]
Iverson officially a Grizzly, Navarro officially freed
Breaking this fan’s heart was the news that Allen Iverson would officially be forsaking an Olympiacos offer that may or may not have been altogether fictional for the Memphis Grizzlies. Yes, the Memphis Freaking Grizzlies. To make way for A.I. and his reportedly incentive-laden, one-year, $3.5-plus million deal, the Grizzlies withdrew an offer to Team […]
Best of the (basketball) net: Gripes 'n' grievances edition
Welcome to another edition of “Best of the (basketball) net,” i.e. how to kill another week’s worth of office time on the internet. Please enjoy the following stories — a real international mix this week — complements of BallinEurope.com. Israel’s Nimrod Tishman is coming to University of Florida. In another Israel basketball-related piece, the Sacramento […]
Media source claims source says media report on Ricky Rubio wrong
From ESPN.com comes a story of reportage on reportage about reportage on the Ricky Rubio-to-Barcelona story. (So if you include Ball in Europe in on the mix, you’ve got four degrees of separation from the real story whatever that may be. But what the hell, that’s life in the 21st century.) While Spanish-language outlet Marca.com […]