Sani Becirovic 20
Revealed: The EuroChallenge championship curse
Winning the EuroChallenge title is a good thing, right? After all, it’s typically the first Continental trophy to display on the mantelpiece and the champions label wins the club to right to play in the more prestigious (and more big-bucks) Eurocup competition the following season. Well, Uygar Karaca may convince believers otherwise. In the first […]
BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings 5.0
Right. It’s time for the final edition – pending Nenad Krstic’s prospective suspension by FIBA – of BallinEurope’s 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings. Now that Team USA has had it out with Spain and Greece, we can see the picture a little more clearly heading into the tournament tipping off Saturday. There’s a clear […]
Team Spain beats Slovenia behind fearsome foursome, announces final roster
The Spanish Basketball Federation is reporting that coach Sergio Scariolo has finalized his 12-man roster, and that Carlos Suarez has been passed over for Caja Laboral’s Fernando San Emeterio. Scariolo informed his team of the decision after yesterday’s 79-72 win over Team Slovenia in Ljubljana; he was quoted on the Spanish Basketball Federation’s official website […]
Power rankings (already updated): 2010 FIBA World Championship
See, BiE secretly knew this would happen … you break down, make a few fearless predictions online and bam! The inconvenient fact of a loss – two losses in fact, one particularly egregious – goes down and you suddenly have to rework the whole damn post on 2010 FIBA World Championship power rankings. In the […]
The top 5½ European teams of the 2000s
In closing out the calendar on this decade – not technically, we know, but we’re going with the flow here – BallinEurope today considers the top European teams of the 2000s. (For BallinEurope’s official All-Decade All-Europe All-Star team, click here.) Though only Euroleague championship finalists were considered, domestic league records were also factored in vis-à-vis […]
The Frank Euroleague roundup, week five
Once again, BallinEurope.com contributor Francesco Cappelletti weighs in on all the happenings in Europe’s top basketball league in week five of play in ruminating on just how good FC Barcelona is; on CSKA Moscow’s resurrection due to coach Pashutin and possibly the “heart of a champion”; and on a flashback to one year ago. The […]
Euroleague team preview – Union Olimpija: Time to change destiny?
What to make of Union Olimpija’s chances for 2009-10, especially in light of the Euroleague-opening demolition suffered at the hands of Maccabi Tel Aviv? Guest writer Matjaž Žbogar, chief editor at Prostimet.si, gives us reasons for optimism about the green-and-white’s chances, together with a heavy dose of, um, realism. Slovenian powerhouse Union Olimpija was once, […]
Betting on basketball: EuroBasket 2009 Group C odds
In our ongoing look at the odds on EuroBasket 2009 (herein presented by Euroleague/Ball in Europe partner SportingBet.com), BallinEurope.com takes a few notes on the current odds and trends in Group C. Group C is the pool which is getting officially overhyped in this tournament as the “Group of Death” sports journalists so often seek […]
Yarone's Weekend Joints – Part I
Let the young men play before us Last game of the regular season. Most teams have a “must-win” label on their game, in one way or another. The serious pressure is on. The results can effect the destiny of a whole season. Investments of millions of Euros are on the line. Jobs, too. You’d expect […]
Tips from the Euroleague boss: Week 10
Hello everybody and happy 2009 to every BallinEurope reader! First and foremost, I must apologize for my non-blogging last week. I was on holiday and returned one hour before the games with a ton of things to do. Things didn’t go as planned, either, trades were not good and I went down some positions. Hope […]
Yarone's Weekend Joints – Part II
The last pack of Joints before the big break presents you with the stories behind the games in Barcelona and Roma, with a short stop in Athens and a final visit to Kaunas. Puff it up! Mirza Bryant? An NBA glitch for a minute. The most memorable game from Kobe’s rookie season was the last […]
Monday's Cigarettes
After a short version last Monday, we are back now with a full force of tasty, smoky cigarettes. “At the end of the day, it is here where I am doing what I always expected, what I was supposed to do when I was young, before the injury: to be a leader of one of […]