Olympiacos 295
2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament Preview: FYR Macedonia
The 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men tips off in Venezuela on Monday. Until then, BallinEurope takes a look at the four European squads competing in turn. Today, an assessment of those Eurobasket 2011 darlings, FYR Macedonia. Roster: Pero Antic (Olympiacos); Gjorgi Chekovski, Todor Gechevski (MZT Skopje); Vlado Ilievski (Lokomotiv Kuban); Aleksandar Kostoski […]
“What has happened here?” The best Euro-centric buzzer-beaters of 2011-12
In clearing out the virtual desk of 2011-12 basketball season stuff, BallinEurope today presents this compilation of the year’s top Euro-centric buzzer-beaters. The requirements to make the list were two: the primary player in the buzzer-beater most be of European nationality or the shot must take place in a game featuring European teams; and the […]
Bonus stat: Professional clubs sending most players to 2012 Olympics
From among the preliminary rosters of European team still remaining in contention for the 2012 Olympic Games, who do you suppose are the most represented professional clubs? While most wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Euroleague finalists CSKA Moscow and Olympiacos lead the way with seven and six players, respectively, check out the interesting roster […]
Quiz: The NBA- and Euro-centric year in basketball, 2011-12
Quick! Before those memories of basketball championships European and NBA fade completely, take a brief look back at the season that was – one crazy one on The Continent that began with Tony Parker, Ty Lawson and Mehmet Okur playing over here and concluded with titles taken by King James and Emperor Spanoulis. Get out […]
Olympiacos wins! Olympiacos wins! Olympiacos wins! (a.k.a. *The* European basketball story of 2011-12)
Let’s put this into perspective. The last time Olympiacos took the Greek national title, they were led by David Rivers and Dragan Tarlać. Vassilis Spanoulis was 15 years old and not near professional club play. Dejan Bodiroga was in the middle of his career and Mirsad Turkcan had just turned 21. Across the pond, Lebron […]
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, […]
Red reign forecast? Olympiacos on brink of Greek title after beating Panathinaikos, 84-72
Olympiacos shrugged off both history and the Dimitris Diamantidis-Mike Batiste duo last night in taking game three of the Greek League championship series over rivals Panathinaikos, 84-72. With a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series, the Reds are poised to take its first domestic league title since 1997; historians will of course note that ’97 […]
Ramunas Siskauskas: The BallinEurope video tribute
On Monday, European basketball great Ramunas Šiškauskas announced his retirement from the game: A story that was noteworthy enough for even North Korean sports fans to be notified. In his official statement, Šiškauskas said that he’d “made my choice in the middle of the season. It was not connected with anything specific – I just […]
The BallinEurope All-American Euroleague team (also all-Russian, -Greek and -former Yugoslavian teams)
Now here’s an argument starter for you … with much debate perpetually going on among European basketball fans vis-à-vis the influence of American and/or NBA players on the Euroleague, BiE decided to take a look back at the 2011-12 season in hopes of drawing some comparison on an individual, player-by-player level. Below, then, runs four […]
On Olympiacos Euroleague championship: From crises emerge heroes
European basketball fans know that history was made with Olympiacos’ stunning victory in the 2012 Euroleague championship. And so BallinEurope contributor, the self-proclaimed hoops history junkie Uygar Karaca looks back with perspective on the title bid, reaching all the back to the Great Depression of 1929 through the collapse of the Soviet Union and into […]
Taxi ride in the aftermath: Three Russians, a Turkish driver and the question why
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a YouTube clip worth? Even at tenfold the still image, the figure probably still wouldn’t be high enough for the Tolstoyesque level of descriptive prose necessary to capture the insanity that was the final, say, 12 minutes of the 2012 Euroleague championship final between […]
Live chat: CSKA Moscow vs. Olympiacos for 2012 Euroleague championship
Hard to believe it’s open us — this season just flew by, it feels like, but nevertheless the beginning of the end tips off in about 40 minutes. Can Olympiacos win the biggest must-win of all to complete their amazing run? Or will CSKA Moscow, a team of destiny even before signing Andrei Kirilenko, earn […]