In the past, a handful of players have come over from Europe and made a big impact in their rookie seasons in the NBA. Pau Gasol came from Spain to win NBA Rookie of the Year with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2002. Coming off two straight Italian League MVP awards, Manu Ginobili gave the San Antonio Spurs the extra push off the bench they needed to win the NBA title in 2003. Luis Scola and Juan Carlos Navarro were immediate contributors as
So how does it feel, Spain? How does it feel to come up woefully short of expectations? How does it feel to be embarrassed by an inexplicable loss on your home floor in front of your blindly supportive fan base? How does it feel to be relegated to classification games while visitors vie for the international championship you believed was rightfully yours? Yeah, it wasn’t supposed to go down this way. Your march through the 2014 World Cup wasn’t supposed to be
Spain was targeting another classico with Team USA. Instead, they will have to settle for classification. In one of FIBA’s bigger upsets in recent memory, host Spain lost to France, 65-52, in the quarterfinals of the World Cup on Wednesday. The Spaniards came into this World Cup looking to avenge narrow losses to the United States in the final of the 2008 Olympics and the 2012 Olympics. They believed they had the personnel to match up with the Americans – especially after Team USA
The 2014 Basketball World Cup is finally here. And you need to take it seriously, because everyone else does. Thanks to NBC and the other fall-in-line media outlets, most Americans believe the Olympics is the premier international basketball event. Globally, nothing could be further from the truth. With 24 teams and no automatic bid for the host, the World Cup is twice the size of the Olympics. It doesn’t share the spotlight with track or swimming. And most of the players will
Welcome everyone to another edition of Sheridan Hoops presents Where Are They Now? This week, we will look at the former NBA and NCAA players that are taking part in the 2013 Euroleague Playoffs. With two teams having advanced and four attempting to join them, there’s no shortage of players making waves overseas. As outlined by Nick Gibson of Sheridan Hoops, Barcelona of Spain will play Panathinaikos of Greece and Olympiacos of Greece will square off with Anadolu Efes of Turkey on
In March of 2002, a 16-year-old Maciej Lampe played his first ever Euroleague Top 16 game for Real Madrid. The Polish prodigy scored seven points in 14 minutes and a little over a year later, the Knicks made him LeBron James’ opposing bookend as the 30th pick of the 2003 NBA Draft. New York whipped around and dealt him to the Suns in the Stephon Marbury trade, and three years and 64 games later, Lampe was out of the league at
Gracias, Pau, for linking to these highlights of Juan Carlos Navarro’s 33-point outing in FC Barcelona’s ACB victory over Real Madrid. [Read more…]
It’s a long, hard fall from the top of the heap, and sticking the landing is nearly impossible when your ankle’s being held together by trainers tape. Bo McCalebb was noticeably slowed by a wobbly ankle against Cantu, who dominated former number one in these very rankings, Fenerbahe Ulker, by a score of 82-58. That was good enough to give Cantu the big bump and yank the rug out from under the Turks. For now, at least. [Read more…]