Pete Mickael 24
Barcelona takes Euroleague title, 86-68
It’s official: FC Barcelona is the no. 1 team in Euroleague 2009-10. Powered by Final Four MVP Juan Carlos Navarro’s 21 points and playing ranking of 23 plus some swell defense again from Pete Mickael (who got BallinEurope’s vote for Final Four MVP), Barcelona controlled the game throughout and Olympiacos was unable to ever close […]
“We are here to work”: Opening up the post-Euroleague semifinal quotebook
Since last night’s games ended, it’s been a blur of press conferences and meetings for us here in the press section at the Euroleague Final Four … so here’s another round of wit ‘n’ wisdom from the men guiding and playing the games. On winning “Yesterday, we played beyond our limits. My players gave everything. […]
Must-see YouTubes: Highlights from the Euroleague Final Four semifinals
While BallinEurope attempts to awaken after one intense basketball evening, we present a compedium of clips from the games last night. Those of us on press row last evening, as the Olympiacos-Partizan game went into overtime were of a single-minded opinion. To wit: “Those folks in the ‘States don’t know what they’re missing.” In that […]
Fifteen minutes with CSKA Moscow and FC Barcelona
Ah, open interview day! BiE just got back from the open 15 minutes granted media by the Euroleague with the players of each team. The boys from FC Barcelona and CSKA Moscow – particularly the outstanding Pops Mensah-Bonsu; more on this momentarily – generously gave of some time after practice to take questions from eager […]
Euroleague Final Four head-to-head matchups: CSKA Moscow vs. FC Barcelona
With the Euroleague Final Four mere days away, the giddiness increases at the prospect of figuring that, yes, without hyperbole, basketball fans could well be getting a complete slate of four classic games. While FC Barcelona and Olympiacos are the heavy favorites (and, ahem, BallinEurope.com’s teams predicted to make the finals at the beginning of […]
Everything you've always wanted to know about Barcelona vs. Unicaja (in English)
On Saturday, perhaps the marquee matchup on the ACB slate – if for historical significance only – will be the FC Barcelona vs. Unicaja match. The league’s official website has quite the extensive collection of facts ‘n’ figures about this match and the 15-year record of meetings between these two clubs, of which BallinEurope attempted […]
Source: Messina sighted in Bologna; Sanikidze coming to Madrid?
BallinEurope is the recipient of a nice bit of hot gossip this morning, for which we’d like to thank our anonymous-by-request source. The source tipped BiE off to a sighting of Ettore Messina in Bologna. According to the source, Messina “wasn’t carrying any shopping bag … just a mobile phone.” So perhaps Messina (last seen […]
¡Barcelona vs. Madrid today! ¡Rubio! ¡Llull! ¡Navarro! ¡Pete Mickael! ¡Ante Tomic! ¡ACB playoff positioning at stake! ¡Messina’s nightmare continues!
“It’s like a nightmare, isn’t it? It just keeps getting worse and worse.” – Tom Cruise as Vincent Lauria, The Color of Money “I’ll be back.” – Arnold “The Governator” Schwarzenegger, any number of movies Here they come again: For the eighth time this season, Real Madrid attempts to defeat the beast that is 2009-10 […]
The Frank Euroleague roundup: Top 16, week two
It’s time for the look back at the wacky Euroleague week that was with Francesco Cappelletti. This week, BallinEurope’s man in Italy examines messing with rotations in Olympiacos and Unicaja; praises Partizan for the potential blueprint win over FC Barcelona; and chides the narcissistic defending champions for their shameful general laziness. No instant replay, Partizan […]
Best of the (basketball) net: Salinger, supplements, Shirley and Sixers girls edition
Quite the busy week in basketball land this week, eh? Even if you did follow the slew of happenings over this seven days – the opening weeks of Euroleague and Eurocup Final 16 play, the naming of NBA All-Star teams, FC Barcelona’s streak ending in the ACB, the Greg Oden and Paul Shirley scandals, as […]
Fantasy tips from the Euroleague boss, week 8
Hello everybody, this is Javier Gancedo, ready to do the last weekly SportingBet Fantasy Challenge column in this 2009. It’s been quite an eventful week for me, and this is why this is being published a bit late. First of all, it was my birthday on Monday: I just turned 36 and celebrated all weekend […]
Best of the (basketball) net: Week of August 1
Once again for your weekend edification, Ball in Europe presents the weekly column bringing you a capsule summary of, um, well, of how i killed some time this week obsessing over basketball. Among this week’s highlights: Crying is for losers and Stephon Marbury; Europe makes a great career choice; and Allen Iverson’s best raps ever. […]