As August and September roll around, the basketball world does NOT calm down. There are FIBA Tournaments set to be held in Slovenia and Caracas, among other places, as teams try to earn berths to the World Cup in Spain next summer. I have gone on rifts before, but sometimes rifts are worth repeating. FIBA basketball is better than NBA basketball for the following reasons: [Read more…]
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — The home team at EuroBasket still has a chance to make it to the Olympics, but it’ll be 10 months before Lithuania knows for sure. Sarunas Jasikevicius’ seventh assist of the afternoon, a pass to wide-open teammate Mantas Kalnietis behind the 3-point line, gave Lithuania a 79-77 lead over Slovenia with 19 seconds remaining. Jaka Lakovic missed a shot inside with 6 seconds remaining, Kalnietis made one of two shots from the foul line with 3.3 seconds remaining, and Slovenia’s last chance
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — Bostjan Nachbar indeed wants to get back into the NBA, and don’t be surprised if he ends up in one of three places: New Jersey, Toronto or Detroit. Nachbar, who has been working out for two weeks after having surgery to remove loose cartilage from his ankle, arrived Tuesday in this quaint Lithuanian city to provide color commentary for Slovenian television as his homeland plays in the quarterfinals. He has spent the past three years playing in Russia
By Chris Sheridan VILNIUS, Lithuania — Sergei Monia banked in a 3-point shot off an inbounds pass with 2.5 seconds remaining to give Russia a 63-61 victory over Macedonia on Monday night in the final game of Round 2 at Eurobasket. After two aborted inbounds plays — the Macedonians intentionally fouled on the first one with 2.8 seconds left, and Russia’s Alexei Shved then banged the ball off the player defending the inbounds pass and back out of bounds to avoid a 5-seconds call, Shved found Monia on the right
By Chris Sheridan VILNIUS, Lithuania — Spain learned Monday who its opponent will be in the second round of Eurobasket, and it is a team that will try to dictate the pace of the game and keep it slow. That opponent is Slovenia, which advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Finland 67-60 to claim fourth place in Group F. “We know them, we respect them, we know they are full of excellent talented players and experienced players, and we would be stupid if we were