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Report: Chris Kaman staying in Kaunas
The Website sport24.gr is reporting that Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman has agreed to a one-year contract with Zalgaris Kaunas with an NBA out that will allow him to return to America when the lockout ends. More here from RealGM.com. Kaman averaged 15.5 points and 10.0 rebounds for Germany, which was eliminated in the second round of EuroBasket. Zalragis Kaunas has already signed Denver Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson to a similar deal with an NBA out clause.
Jasikevicius expected to rejoin Panathinaikos
This is big news in Greece this morning, reported in gazetta.gr by my good friend and colleague Antonis Kalkavouras. Jasikevicius spent three seasons with Panathinaikos from 2007-08 to 2009-10, then split last season for Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania and Fenerbahce Ulker in Turkey. Despite playing less than 20 minutes per game, the 35-year-old Jasikevicius was Lithuania’s third-leading scorer in EuroBasket and averaged 4.6 assists — the third-highest total in the tournament behind Milos Teodosic of Serbia and Viktor Khryapa of Russia. Lithuania finished fifth in the tournament after defeating Greece 73-69 Saturday night, and they
Eurobasket: Batum’s dunk might dim the memory of Weis getting dunked on
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — The most memorable dunk in French basketball history will remain a dunk that they are not proud of. But at least now, there is a dunk — courtesy of Nicolas Batum — that the French can replay over and over again without feeling ashamed. France qualified for the 2012 Olympics by defeating Russia 79-71 Friday night in the semifinals of EuroBasket, staying strong down the stretch, thanks mostly to Batum, to end an 11-year limbo that began
Eurobasket: Navarro’s “masterpiece” puts Spain into 2012 Olympics
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — “He was like a maestro today. He was like a picture in the Louvre or something like that — just beautiful. Juan Carlos, you’ve got to recognize, is one of the artists of European basketball.” It was a DaVinci of a quote that Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo delivered Friday, about as eloquent of an assessment a man could deliver after what he witnessed from his own personal Michelangelo. Juan Carlos Navarro scored 19 points in the third quarter to single-handedly break
Exclusive: Krstic has $1M buyout with CSKA Moscow
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — Contrary to prior reports, Nenad Krstic does have a buyout clause in his two-year contract with CSKA Moscow, and it’ll cost him $1 million to return to the NBA for the 2012-13 season. Krstic revealed the buyout terms Friday in an exclusive interview with SheridanHoops.com following Serbia’s 87-77 loss to Greece in a classification game at EuroBasket. The loss cost the Serbs a chance to qualify for the 2012 Olympics at next summer’s pre-Olympic tournament in early July. “Actually I
Quote of the morning from David Stern
By Chris Sheridan From NBA commissioner David Stern, via Associated Press writers Jaime Aron and Greg Beacham: “The clock is ticking, but it hasn’t struck midnight yet,” he said. “We have time to do what has to be done and we’d like to do it, actually.” In my view, the clock hasn’t even struck 11 o’clock yet. I still say the deal gets done sometime before or around Oct. 1, as I wrote in my debut column for this site less than two weeks
Eurobasket: Serbia-Greece to play for first time since brawl
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — The two European Olympic berths will be determined tonight in the EuroBasket semifinals as Macedonia plays Spain and Russia plays France. But first, there is a classification game between Greece and Serbia to determine which of the two teams will make it to next summer’s pre-Olympic qualifier (a.k.a. the FIBA second-chance tournament). Click here to see who is in that field so far. The last time the Serbs and the Greeks met, Nenad Krstic ended up spending the