Pero Antic 25
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Report: Olympiacos’ Papadopoulos to miss Euroleague Final Four
As though the underdogs of the 2012 Euroleague Final Four needed more obstacles to bar the way to what would be the tournament’s biggest modern-era upset, here’s another. According to Talk Basket, center Lazaros Papadopoulos will not be suiting up for the Reds in the competition. Reports the site: “Papadopoulos hasn’t trained for days now […]
Euroleague Final Four: The video preview
And this week … the Euroleague Final Four! To get things started, BallinEurope presents a roundup of highlight clips from the seasons-that-were of CSKA Moscow, FC Barcelona, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos. (Wow, BiE wonders every time upon looking at that list just how the big league could have ended up with a more scintillating Final Four: […]
Spartak St. Petersburg: The Hunger of Experienced Rookies
In the leadup to the 2011-12 Eurocup Final Four tournament beginning on Saturday, Eurosport Turkey basketball commentator Uygar Karaca contributes a series of previews on the remaining quartet entitled “Four Teams, Four Stories” to BallinEurope. Today taking a look at one of the two remaining Russian sides, Karaca writes “Zenit St. Petersburg reached its zenith […]
Euroleague Power Rankings: Big Red Machine, Blaugrana Rolling Edition
After a week two loaded with upsets and shocking blowouts, BallinEurope’s Euroleague Power Rankings go through quite a shuffling going into Top 16 round, week three … except of course at the top, where all indications have the championship matchup between CSKA Moscow and FC Barcelona feeling more inevitable than ever. How is your team […]
EuroBasket 2011: Notes, quotes, clips and Fearless Predictions™ for France vs. Spain
Hard to believe it’s almost over … after 19 days of intense basketball competition, the 2011 EuroBasket championship game features a matchup at least a few — including BallinEurope’s U.K. guy Sam Chadwick; props! — had forecast as the outcome. Spain seeks to defend its title against a star-laden France playing in its first-ever title […]
Official Fearless Predictions™: Spain vs. Slovenia, Lithuania vs. FYR Macedonia
Now things are getting interesting. Eight teams remain in EuroBasket 2011, and tonight two will be eliminated from contention for the European championship. These teams will join with the losing teams of Thursday play in a playoff round to determine the all-important no. 5 and no. 6 finishers; this two sides will join nos. 3 […]
Eurobasket 2011 round two: Impressions, links, notes and highlights
With just two days (and one game per team) remaining in 2011 EuroBasket round two, BallinEurope takes a brief look at some issues and trends going down in the tournament – plus links and YouTubes, of course. Read on for quips, quotes and clips. • Importance of remaining games. Of six games left to play, […]
FIBA EuroChallenge capsule previews: Group A
Tomorrow night sees the tipoff of the 2009-10 FIBA EuroChallenge, the third pan-European tournament featuring 32 of The Continent’s up-and-coming and/or smaller-market teams. Over the next two days, Ball in Europe will present a brief primer on each of the groups; first, the basics of Group A.