SH Blog: New Zealand drops heartbreaker to Turkey; T’Wolves break season ticket record

Nobody warned me that the first day of the World Cup coincided with the first day of college football. Instead of watching my Maryland Terrapins thump James Madison by 45 in a total mismatch, I could have watched Team USA demolish Finland by 59 in a total mismatch. Okay, maybe I made the right choice.

Tomorrow, though, the US has Turkey, who weren’t gifted a tournament spot because the guy who made Angry Birds said he wanted them to be in (a slight exaggeration, but only a slight one). Though the Turks did struggle against New Zealand, who didn’t even have Steven Adams, so expecting them to put up much of a fight against James Harden, Anthony Davis, and co. might be a bridge too far.

Chris Sheridan rounded up the day’s play here, and before we get to some more strictly NBA news, let’s look at what other media outlets had to say about the day’s international action.

The best roundup you’re going to find of the non-USA Group C action is from Zorgon of Welcome to Loud City. Here’s a bit of his recap of New Zealand-Turkey:

For about 80% of the time, I thought New Zealand was going to win this game. But great outside shooting and a miracle run from Corey Webster can only carry you so far. New Zealand had the cards stacked against them tonight, as they only feature one player over 6’8″ and were going up against one of the biggest teams in the tournament in Turkey.

Despite that fact, the Tall Blacks led the rebounding battle at the half, 28-19. They did it by giving heavy minutes to the 6’11” Rob Loe and packing the paint whenever necessary. But the rebounding numbers slowly turned in Turkey’s favor, and by the end of the game Oguz Savas was waltzing to the basket with ease.

After the game, coach Nenad Vucnic didn’t have a grand explanation for the loss. “Basically, we just froze and made bad decisions.” He was referring specifically to the couple of offensive foul calls in the late fourth that killed New Zealand’s momentum. First, during a helter-skelter part of the mid fourth that saw two changes of possession, Corey Webster was called for a questionable offensive foul. This caused Coach Vucnic to commit a technical, giving Turkey two straight free throws and posession, which they used to barrel inside. Corey Webster’s brother, Tai Webster, immediately entered the game looking to brighten things up. But he quickly lost the ball, lost his head, and was called for an unsportsmanlike foul. This, again, gave Turkey two free throws and possession. Together, both fouls accounted for a 9-0 swing, and can’t be underestimated when considering the final result.

It was tough going for New Zealand’s offense late in the game, as Corey Webster’s ability to create was the only positive momentum they had. Kirk Penney was doing the little things but struggling from the field, and nobody else was able to step up into a significant second half role. By the time Webster ran out of gas, New Zealand was reduced to bad jumpers.

The biggest game of the day, though, was in Group A (which will probably have the biggest game of the day throughout the entire group stage). John Schuhmann of NBA.com recaps that one:

Group A of the FIBA Basketball World Cup not only has the most NBA players, but also four of the best teams in the tournament. So every day of pool play in Granada will bring at least one big game. Four teams from the group will advance to the knockout rounds, but a higher placement will likely get you an easier opponent in the round of 16.

So Brazil was the big winner on Saturday, holding on for a 65-63 victory over France in the second game of the day in Granada. It was an ugly game throughout, with the two teams combining for 19 turnovers in the first half and shooting just 11-for-35 from 3-point range for the game.

But point guard Marcelo Huertas had enough in his bag of tricks to get the job done in the fourth quarter.

France actually led by nine late in the first, but scored just 10 points on its final 20 possessions of the first half, as Brazil took a two-point lead into the break. The Brazilians led by as many as eight early in the fourth, but couldn’t put France away, because they couldn’t put together more than two straight scores.

“The zone was back all the time,” said Tiago Splitter, who scored just six points on 2-for-5 shooting. “Nobody was getting easy shots. And our shooters didn’t have a good game outside. “

Huertas was basically the only guy who could get anything going offensively. He scored 11 of Brazil’s 19 points in the period, hitting a three off a Nene post-up, finding space around the foul line for a couple of runners against the sagging French defense, and sealed the game at the free-throw line in the final minute.

While some of the aging international stars, including France’s Tony Parker and Argentina’s Manu Ginobili, and every American over 30, are sitting the tournament out, some of the game’s brightest young players are showing up and flat-out balling.

Speaking of that, here’s what Giannis Antetokounmpo did in an easy win for Greece:

It’s called the Eurostep for a reason.

Of course, the World Cup is also basically the best place to do some international scouting. And it always helps if you’re the brother of an NBA star. Via Orazio Cauchi of Sportando:

According to Marc Stein, a couple of NBA teams have interest in Zoran Dragic, younger brother of Goran. He recently signed a two-year extension with Unicaja Malaga in Spain and he has a buyout around 800.000$.

Pacers are one of the teams that have interest in Zoran Dragic, sources told Sportando.

Despite receiving interest from several teams, Ray Allen is still undecided about playing next season, per sources close to the situation.

— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) August 29, 2014

 

Doc Rivers had been in contact with Ray Allen earlier this summer. Expect the Clippers to make a run at him again.

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) August 29, 2014

WHO IS JOSIP KLEMM, AND WHY IS HE LINKED TO DARIO SARIC?

One of the newest Sixers, the incredibly talented young Croatian forward, has an unclear relationship with a businessman whose interests are best describe as “diverse”.

Here’s an excerpt from a piece by Joseph Swide of Vice Sports on the subject:

A powerful figure in Croatia, Klemm served in the Croatian war for independence in the 1990s and later became president of the Special Police Association. In 2003, he started Klemm Security, a private security firm that saw its annual revenue skyrocket from €2.9 million in 2008 to €10.5 million in 2012. Armed with new financial power, Klemm became widely known in Croatia in November of 2012 when he organized support for the homecoming of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, two Croatian generals who won their appeals of war crimes convictions and were released from the Hague just two weeks before Saric’s signing with Cibona. (It’s worth noting that there was widespread support for the generals throughout Croatia due to their role in winning a brutal war for independence. So much so that the two biggest Croatian soccer clubs even played an exhibition to raise money for their cause.).

Since then, Klemm’s business portfolio has spread into other areas, including investment in a large-scale thermal energy project and, apparently, basketball speculation.

Klemm has no background in basketball or any sport of any kind. He’s not even a fan of Cibona, saying his loyalty is “only Croatian.” As for his involvement with Saric and the club, he told press, “I saw that there was a problem with the payment of Saric’s fee and I wanted the jewel of Croatian sports to stay in Croatia if at all possible.”

A cynic might see Klemm’s entry into the situation at this time as less an act of some deep-pocketed benevolent patriot, and more that of a cold opportunist looking to exploit a moment of desperation for financial gain. Whatever the case, the money lent to Cibona to pay the fee came with what Klemm openly said was the understanding that he would be repaid when Saric either went to the NBA or was sold to another club in Europe. However, the exact agreement between Klemm and Cibona remains unclear, and very few details of Saric’s contract with the club have ever been released.

However, on April 1, 2014, it was reported that the Croatian state attorney was investigating the loan from Klemm to Cibona. Specifically, the investigation seemed to focus on a strange series of events in 2013 in which Cibona threw out the management of a longtime nightclub in Zagreb, claiming they didn’t pay rent. Cibona put a new company in the space and posted Klemm Security out front during the “transition.” It was suspected that the new company received discounted rent to somehow help repay Klemm for the Saric loan. When Saric then withdrew his name from the 2013 NBA Draft, it renewed speculation on who was actually behind his decision making.