Nicolas Batum 66
Parker, Noah, Diot lead big names filling France’s Eurobasket 2011 squad
Twelve players and four backups have been selected to represent France at the upcoming Eurobasket 2011 tournament; gut reaction says that Les Bleus would appear to be one of the favorites to emerge out of Group B in pool play. The group competition will include Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia and Serbia. The 12-man roster is […]
USA 92, World 80 at Nike Hoop Summit; Rivers, Biyombo star
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much for European hoops fans to cheer about at the 2011 Nike Hoop Summit (BallinEurope can’t believe he got up at 4am for the near-drubbing), though the world has now been formally introduced to Anthony “Son of Doc” Rivers and Bismack Biyombo. Team USA won 92-80, though this score belies the fact […]
Fernandez a Blazer through 2012 (yeah, surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre)
Despite the guard’s well-known recalcitrance to continuing with the Portland Trail Blazers, the team has officially picked up a fourth-year option on Rudy Fernandez’ contract thereby theoretically keeping the Spaniard on the Blazer payroll through 2011-12. Trail Blazers GM Rich Cho stated that “there was never a question the Blazers would pick up th eoption […]
The Eurocentric 2010-11 NBA Preview (or How the Hoops World revolves around Europe)
With the 2010-11 NBA season tipping off tonight, BallinEurope marks the occasion in the best way possible: By overrating the league’s Continental players and making a few offhand Fearless Predictions™ in the guise of a preview column. Brief notes and snarky remarks on all 25 NBA teams follow. (Yes, BiE said “all 25.” Since the […]
European players in the NBA for 2010-11 (or, Come on, Raptors, sign Primoz Brezec already) [UPDATED]
With NBA teams starting to get warmed up for the regular season tipoff, BallinEurope figured it high time to take stock of the European players prospectively set to take the court in America for 2010-11. In considering the expanded rosters for each of the 30 NBA teams, BiE counted 50 players from The Continent plus […]
Fearless predictions: 2010 FIBA World Championship, day two
Whither Spain? In yet another example of “that’s why they play ‘em on paper,” the mighty Spaniards went down thanks to a French attack led by Nicolas Batum (14 points on 4-of-9 shooting, two rebounds, two blocks and one awesome jam), Andrew Albicy (!) and Mickael Gelabale (!!!) and brutal fourth-quarter shooting “highlighted” by three […]
Six NBA, three ACB, nine Pro A players among Team France preliminary roster
Vincent Collet has named 18 players to his Team France preliminary roster, including six from the NBA, three from Spain’s ACB and nine from French Pro A ball; in fact, five players played 2009-10 with Pro A championship finalists Le Mans and Cholet. Representing the NBA is quite an impressive core – even without Tony […]
Draft profile: Nemanja Bjelica
Now that the pingpong balls (or computer algorithm or mad scheme cooked up by David Stern, whichever you prefer) have spoken, we can truly let speculation on the 2010 NBA Draft run wild. Following up profiles on the likes of Donatas Motiejunas and Miroslav Raduljica, BallinEurope’s man in the U.K. Sam Chadwick today takes a […]
The Innocents Abroad, Part three: Final report cards on Europe’s NBA rookies and sophs
Fans of European basketball can take great pride in the achievements of its players recent to the NBA. Going into 2009-10, ten players from The Continent were entering their first or second season in the big league; throwing in Brandon Jennings (who BallinEurope will go down forever as believing that the youngster’s lone season with […]
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 […]
Best of the (basketball) net: On the individual tip edition
Sure, everybody’s busy these days, but there’s always quality time for web surfing, right? Right! Below run a few of the stories and videos perused at the BallinEurope.com home office in Budapest this week — mostly themed on Euroball’s outstanding individuals. Enjoy! The official blog of the Portland Trail Blazers takes a look at Nicolas […]
After Eurobasket, the future: Part Two
In part two of Ball in Europe’s look at Europe’s top teams following Eurobasket 2009, Francesco Cappelletti contributes his analysis of present and future for those nations who did not finish in Eurobasket’s top four. Part one, featuring looks at Spain, Serbia, Greece, and Slovenia, may be found by clicking here. FRANCE Absences: Mickael Pietrus, […]