Nikola Pekovic 76
Frank answers to four burning Euroleague questions
He’s back! Emerging out of hiding (or perhaps digging himself out of work with youth squads plus Italian-language sports media) is BallinEurope’s man in Italy, Francesco Cappelletti. As the season progresses, Cappelletti will be opining as to what really went down in a week’s worth of Euroleague matches. Today, four key themes that will be […]
Nikola Pekovic: Best tattoo in the NBA – no, the Universe
Media day in the NBA gave a lot of newbies, unknowns and ubiquitous presences (see coverage of Miami Thrice schmoozing at right) alike the chance to know and be known. Minnesota Timberwolves fans and players alike are well enthusiastic about their new addition Nikola Pekovic, who’s already generating hilarious quotes from his teammates with just […]
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 […]
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 […]
Greek media: Fernandez “very likely to return to Europe”; Childress, Pekovic fled violence
For readers of Greek out there, Sport.gr is running an interesting piece on the subject of available big-name free agents, comparing the ACB to the EΣAKE and Team Spain to Team Greece while taking a hard look at the possibility of top names playing with Panathinaikos or Olympiacos for 2010-11. Beginning with the premise that […]
Pekovic to Minnesota, Kleiza to Toronto nearly there; Diaw staying in Charlotte
News from the NBA free-agent market this morning says that the Minnesota Timberwolves and Toronto Raptors are both reckoned to be closing in on officially incorporating a pair of big names from The Continent. The Associated Press is reporting that Timberwolves GM David Kahn soon hopes to be reporting the official signing of Nikola Pekovic, […]
Panathinaikos destroys Olympiacos, 73-54: Going to YouTube for answers
More than a shocker and well into slap-in-the-face territory was game one of the EΣAKE championship series, where hometown Panathinaikos took care of all business in dispatching Olympiacos, 73-54. Though BallinEurope did not see the match and knows empirically that games should never be judged on the stat line, one number still stands out like […]
Free Darko, already: Eyjafjallajokull conspires to keep Milicic in America
For perhaps the first time since he was drafted at no. 2 overall by the Detroit Pistons in the 2003 NBA Draft, Darko Milicic’s picture is in newspapers across the world. Of course, the location is far from the safe confines of a basketball court and the Associated Press piece instead captures the beleaguered baller […]
Kahn reiterates: Rights to Rubio are untouchable
Minnesota Timberwolves general manager David Kahn reiterated his bold stand on the team’s overall no. 5 NBA draft pick, Spanish wunderkind Ricky Rubio, to the Minnesota Star-Tribune last night. To wit: Rubio is untouchable in this off-season. The move by the man they sometimes call KAAAAAAAAAAAAHN prompted Star-Tribune writer Jerry Zgoda to collect quotes on […]
Beyond Vesely: Five European names North America must know for 2010-11
With BallinEurope’s profile piece on Jan Vesely in, today we’re adding a bit of a primer on some other names certain to get increasing mentions in NBA culture from your team’s elimination from the playoffs through to the draft and into the 2010 FIBA World Championships in August/September. NBA fans who want to get in […]
Fantasy tips from the Euroleague boss: Final week
Hello everybody, greetings from the Euroleague Basketball headquarters! This is Javier Gancedo of Euroleague.net, in what possibly will be my last SportingBet Fantasy Challenge column this season. If you want to keep me on the page in the fantasy off-season, make some noise! Start a riot! Go to Budapest and demonstrate in front of Os […]
War of words in leadup to Partizan-PAO
Okay, so it’s not exactly a *war* of words per se, but if the quotebook filling up over at the English-language version of Serbia’s Blic magazine is any indication you needn’t waste time telling Euroleague-eliminated Panathinaikos they’ve got nothing to play for or that the Black-and-White will have an easy time of it at Pionir. […]