Team Brazil 43
2012 Olympic basketball: Rising and falling stock after the first round
While we’re a little ways away from actually awarding medals for 2012 Olympic basketball, the first round showed international hoops fans quite a lot. Though the fat lady hasn’t sung yet, reputations have changed over the past five games to cause some individual and/or teams losses beyond these Olympics. BallinEurope today takes a look at […]
Block of the night: Guilherme Giovannoni hears the Thunder against Spain
Who else would perpetrate the rejection of last night’s Olympic basketball slate but Mr. I-Blocka himself? Below the break, check out Gilherme Giovannoni’s shot barely leaving his hands before Serge Ibaka’s hearty swat triggers a Spain fast break in last night’s loss to Team Brazil.
Brazil 88, Spain 82: Allegations of tanking predictably begin
Well, it had to happen. In the wake of the shocking (not!) defeat handed to Spain by the boys from Brazil yesterday, you knew allegations of tanking in order to avoid an earlier date with Team USA would be forthcoming; heck, Sergio Scariolo did. Los Rojos’ coach was quoted in a wire story as saying, […]
2012 Olympics: Is Spanish dominance over? (Plus Official Fearless Predictions™)
BallinEurope may be pulling the trigger a bit early on this one, but has to ask: Was the loss to Russia on Saturday a harbinger of things to come from Team Spain? Not to put too fine a point on it, but is the marathon (by today’s standards) golden age of Spanish basketball in international […]
2012 Olympic basketball: Today's Official Fearless Predictions™ (with now-95% record at stake)
“Ladies, ladies, I don’t mean to brag but, I’m the greatest.” – Sidney Deane Kudos go out today from BallinEurope to, well, BallinEurope. And thanks to Team Russia, whose stirring 77-74 win from an early 22-5 deficit against favored Team Spain brings BiE up to a 19-1 mark in Official Fearless Predictions™ thus far. These […]
Games three, 2012 Olympics: Official Fearless Predictions™
Just enough time to get in some Official Fearless Predictions™ this morning … note that BallinEurope is at 12-0 through two days of Olympic competition. Note, too, that only serious homers and lobotomized octopi should be less than 11-1 at this point anyway, depending on the person/being’s choice for the Argentina-France game. So here goes […]
Plan Y for Team Lithuania (plus Official Fearless Predictions™)
BallinEurope’s Lithuanian agent Skyped BiE today with two words on his mind: “Lithuania’s doom.” “Today?” BiE countered. “No, it already happened two days ago,” said Y. and he was off with a prescient, simple formula for success after the 23-point blowout at the hands of Argentina.
BallinEurope’s Official Fearless Predictions™: 2012 Olympic Basketball Group B
And now, round two. Or maybe that should be “round B.” With BallinEurope having (sort of) Fearlessly Predicted the entries for the 2012 Olympic basketball knockout stage from Group A, it’s onto the Official Fearless Predictions™ for Group B – and we’ll do this one from the bottom up. 6. China (0-5) 5. Australia (1-4) […]
Seven (or eight) games on which 2012 Olympic basketball will turn
BallinEurope’s Official Fearless Predictions™ for 2012 Olympic basketball will be posted tomorrow, but with the 2012 Olympics opening ceremonies taking place tonight and the men’s competition tipping off on Sunday, BiE got out the virtual calendar to make time for the following seven (or eight) games, matches that should fundamentally shape the greater 30-game picture, […]
Twenty years ago today: The Barcelona Games
The 1992 Olympic Games, the Games of the XXV Olympiad: The first to be held without mass boycotts and, by many estimation, the greatest Olympics ever in presentation, hosting, and competition. It was the Games of Hungarian swimmer Krisztina Egerszegi, of Belorussian/Unified Team member Vitaly Scherbo in gymnastics, of the Russian men’s swimming team, of […]
USA 100, Spain* 78: Notes, highlights, miscellany
Well, then. If not quite as emphatic as in the days of Dream Teams I through III, Team USA dispatched the world’s second-best/Europe’s best side for a 100-78 win over Spain in Barcelona. Though the notebook on the Red, White and Blues mostly accentuates the positive, one doesn’t quite need to squint to see chinks […]
Twenty years ago today: The greatest in his greatest season
Drazen Petrovic: The name is always mentioned in any discussion of all-time greatest European player, his effect inestimable, his ultimate greatness unknowable. BallinEurope has waxed poetic on the Basketball Mozart innumerable times already, but must say that lost in the general hoopla of the Dream Team in 1992 was the fact that one of the […]