Nar Zanolin 8
Shocker (not): FIBA Europe names Dirk Nowitzki player of the year; Navarro, McCalebb runners-up
To no one’s surprise – certainly not BallinEurope’s, in any case – FIBA Europe today announced its men’s player of the year award would go to the longtime Team Germany/Dallas Mavericks superstar. Less than suspenseful, too, were the results of the top five finishers: Behind Dastardly Dirk came Juan Carlos “La Bomba” Navarro, Bo McCalebb, […]
Latvia, Lithuania on course to co-host 2012 U18 Euros, 2018 FIBA Worlds
Eurobasket 2011 is still a couple of weeks away, but that isn’t stopping the Lithuanian national basketball federation from thinking about the future … and they’ve got a partner in speculation in Latvia. Baltic Course is reporting today that FIBA Europe general secretary Nar Zanolin is seriously considering a bid for the two nations to […]
Vesely named FIBA Europe young player of 2010
[Editor’s note: BallinEurope apologizes for a previous edition of this piece which incorrectly identified Jan Vesely as having rights owned by the Oklahoma City Thunder. This was a grievous error of which you surely need not know details. Rest assured that the infinite number of monkeys formerly ravaging the BiE headquarters are now under control […]
Slovenia to host 2013 Eurobasket by default?
Congratulations, BallinEurope supposes, should go out to the Slovenian Basketball Federation, which seemingly has won the bid to host the 2013 Eurobasket tournament. This slightly bizarre news was run via Slovenian news service this morning: Slovenia is the only candidate to host the 2013 European Basketball Championship. The European basketball championships will expand to 24 […]
Rubio (officially) named FIBA Europe Young Men’s Player of the Year
One more announcement from the FIBA folks today and this one’s surely no surprise: For an unprecedented third straight year, the honor of FIBA Europe Young Men’s Player of the Year goes to Spanish wunderkind Ricky Rubio. Rubio’s win makes Spain two-for-two on FIBA Europe accolades this year and, with Pau Gasol expected to bookend […]
FIBA Europe Young Women’s Player of the Year: It’s Torrens
This story is just in and so congratulations are just going out from Ball in Europe to Alba Torrens, who has taken the first of FIBA’s four annual “player of the year” awards, taking the 2009 Young Women’s Player of the Year. Finishing behind Torrens in the voting were, in order, Louice Halvarrson, Jelena Milovanovic […]
Who's ready for EuroBasket 2011?
While the teams for the Eurobasket 2009 final had yet to be determined on Saturday, the first official step on the road to Eurobasket 2011 was taken with the introduction of the logo (though BallinEurope still much prefers the green-and-gold losing bid) and venues for the next biennial tournament. Members of the press were given […]
Team Spain unleashed … i mean, presented
No matter how the whole Minnesota Timberwolves/DKV Joventut thing works out, the 2009-10 international basketball season will be, to some extent, The Year of Ricky Rubio. Rubio was yesterday officially presented with the FIBA Europe award for 2008 Young Men’s Player of the Year by FIBA Europe secretary-general Nar Zanolin. Aside from bestowing Rubio with […]