Russia 90
Yormark: Nets need new culture, more exposure in Russia, maybe new name
New Jersey Nets CEO/president Brett Yormark was recently in boss Mikhail Prokhorov’s hometown of Moscow in order to conduct a little team business – no, not searching for prospects but more mundane stuff like discussing getting more Nets games on Russian TV. Happily, he took the time to give a quite extensive interview with Russia-based […]
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 […]
Basketball Without Borders Europe wrap: Bits, bites and highlights
The NBA’s Basketball Without Borders has wrapped its European edition for 2010, the first-ever such camp in Spain. On-hand to represent the NBA were The Gasol Brothers, Rudy Fernández, Vladimir Radmanovic, Serge Ibaka, Marcus Camby, Jason Terry, Chicago Bulls assistant coach Ron Adams and Indiana Pacers assistant coach Dick Harter. After three days of drilling […]
Hope for the future: Young Lithuanians crush Russia, 90-61, take U18 European title
Congratulations go out this morning to the Lithuania under-18 team, which capped an undefeated romp through the 2010 FIBA U18 European Championship with a 90-61 crushing of Russia in Vilnius. A crowd of 13,000 – the all-time record for a youth game in Europe – contributed their efforts as 13th man. While not much is […]
Say it ain’t so, Andrei: Kirilenko says “nyet” to FIBA World Championship
And another marquee name has dropped out of the 2010 FIBA World Championship due to the concerns of an NBA team: This time, it’s Andrei Kirilenko passing on playing in the international tournament. Citing a conversation with Utah Jazz brass about the state of his calf muscle injury suffered late in the 2009-10 NBA season, […]
The case for Diana Taurasi to win the ESPY
“They give out awards for everything these days. ‘Greatest Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler’…” – Woody Allen, Annie Hall What? You hadn’t heard that the annual ESPN ESPY Awards for Excellence in American Sport is running tonight? Well, now you know. And while shows such as these offer little in the way of relevance – quick: […]
Trajan Langdon on assimilating into Russian culture
What’s it like being a basketball star in Russia? Here’s a piece that recently ran on English-language program Russia Today, a day in the life kinda thing on longtime CSKA Moscow player Trajan “The Alaskan Assassin” Landon. Langdon has truly settled down to live the expat family experience in Russia, even adopting a Muscovite family […]
Russian Revolution: Ten teams announce break with Superleague to form new basketball association
In response to a “last straw,” i.e. the Russian Basketball Federation reformatting its season-ending tournament, 10 clubs in the country have announced their withdrawal from the competition and plans to make up a new Russian league. The list includes essentially all the top names in Russian professional basketball and clubs who play Euroleague, EuroCup and […]
Euroleague Women 2010-11 participants announced; Sony Athinaikos declines bid
FIBA Europe has released the list of participating teams for the 2010-11 edition of Euroleague Women. Defending champions Spartak Moscow region received an automatic entry, while 21 spots are allocated based on national federation rankings and three-year performance of the clubs in pan-European tournament play. Two “wild card” bids were also allocated: These were won […]
List of 2009-10 European basketball champions
League play is now accelerating to a close all over The Continent, and BallinEurope’s “List of European Champions” page gets more updates. Most men’s domestic leagues have completely closed up shoppe for 2009-10, but BiE has also listed a few details on where other leagues stand at present; links are provided where possible. If no […]
Kushchenko: “I cannot accept a position in the New Jersey Nets board.”
For Russian readers and creative Babel Fish users, Russia-based Tribuna Sports is running a nice interview with Sergey Kushchenko. CSKA Moscow basketball and Brooklyn/New Jersey Nets enthusiasts surely recall Kushchenko as Mikhail Prokhorov’s team-running “basketball people” whilst the multimillionaire was owner of the Red Army. Most immediately relevant for NBA followers and Prokhorov groupies is […]
It’s David Blatt for Maccabi Tel Aviv
Forget about American players making good in Europe: David Blatt is simply one of the top head coaches on The Continent, and the Team Russia miracle worker has just added another gold star to his resume in “coming home” to Maccabi Tel Aviv on a three-year contract. Blatt has some huge shoes to fill in […]