Kevin Love got paid. So did Danilo Gallinari and Kosta Koufos – yes, Kosta Koufos – as the Nuggets dropped a cool $50 million. The rest of the 2008 draft class, including Eric Gordon, Brook Lopez and Nicolas Batum? Please take a number, young man. A dose of fiscal responsibility by owners – brought on by the new CBA – and a combination of trepidation and smarts by executives make it unlikely for most 2008 first-round picks to get some early financial
BARCELONA — Bieber must have dumped Selena. Or the other way around. That, or the British are coming. There are tweets in ALL CAPS. There are tweets with exclamation points. There are tweets in ALL CAPS followed by exclamation points. There are tweets comprised only of exclamation points that are re-tweeted with a “!!!!” preface from the re-tweeter. But these aren’t the hormonal babblings of Beliebers, nor are they warnings of an impending attack from the red coats. These are men and
BARCELONA — Eleven men dressed in red and blue knelt to the floor and then rocked onto their backsides, some grabbing a heel, others a toe as they stretched. But Barcelona’s Juan Carlos Navarro remained standing, his heels and toes right behind the 3-point stripe. Unlike the others, he wore long black pants and a matching long-sleeved shooting shirt, and all it took was a raised eyebrow for the ball boy to get the hint; he fired one out as Juan
By Nick Gibson of EuroleagueAdventures.com BARCELONA — So you’ve played in the NBA before. That’s terrific. The thing is, nobody in Europe really cares. The fans might enjoy the novelty, but your teammates aren’t impressed, your coaches won’t tie you to a longer leash, and management has a loophole at the ready whenever they feel like voiding your deal, which is most likely the heftiest on the books. Being an NBA talent means just that: you’re talented. However, talent alone is not nearly enough to compete
By Nick Gibson of EuroleagueAdventures.com BARCELONA — With the NBA set to resume labor talks on Tuesday, only one thing’s for sure: there will be a Euroleague box score from Monday night for the sides to check out, if they so choose, in their respective caucus rooms. It will include the names Ty Lawson, Andrei Kirilenko, Sonny Weems, Nenad Krstic and DeJuan Collins. The Euroleague opens Monday night with CSKA Moscow playing Zalgiris Kaunas, and Wednesday there are four more contests before six on Thursday. On Friday, a little dessert: Bilbao vs. Olympiacos. Mmm…my
By Nick Gibson of EuroleagueAdventures.com Kevin Durant doesn’t seem too keen on spending his lockout overseas. Dwight Howard says he has a soft spot for China, but that’s what Dwight Howard does: says things. And though self-proclaimed Europhile Kobe Bryant has entertained overtures from Italian and Turkish squads (Chinese, too), not even the Black Mamba has inked a deal that would keep him busy while the NBA plays its games in conference rooms instead of on basketball courts. So no, we haven’t seen
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — You never quite know what will come out of David Blatt’s mouth, but it is always interesting, often controversial (such as what he said last summer about the Soviet Union rightfully winning the 1972 gold medal game against the United States at the Munich Olympics in 1972), and sometimes right on point. Emphasis on sometimes. Two examples from his post-game comments after Thursday night’s 77-67 victory over Serbia put Blatt’s Russian team into the semifinals of EuroBasket. _ “Viktor Khryapa was
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — Historically, when the French have played the Greeks, the script has so often played out the same way: It would be a close game in the fourth quarter, and the French would then fall apart like they were mimicking the recent Greek economy. So when Thursday’s quarterfinal was a two-point game with 2:01 left, the French should have been predisposed to expect the worst. Who would make the crucial mistake? Who would commit a stupid foul? Who would let