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Charles Smith: 'Players like Durant show what we could do but weren't allowed to'

2021-08-08

Charles Daniel Smith is one of the few American players to have played with Team USA in two international competitions: the 1986 FIBA World Championship and the 1988 Olympic Games. The U.S. won gold and bronze, respectively, but their defeat to the Soviet Union in the Seoul Olympic semi-final was the prelude to the advent of the Dream Team, which changed the basketball world forever in 1992. ...
Del Harris: 'I hope Jason Kidd will get Doncic off the ball'

2021-08-06

Del Harris has been around basketball almost forever. Now 84, the current Texas Legends executive and former Dallas Mavericks assistant coach has done a lot more throughout his career than being Magic’s last coach and Kobe’s first or appearing in the original "Space Jam" movie. The 2020 recipient of the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, given by the National Basketball Coaches ...
The future is tRicky: the first look at Spanish rebuild

2021-08-05

Pau Gasol had that empty look, sitting on the bench and watching Team USA ending the outstanding chapter of Spanish basketball. The Last Dance was over, and it didn't end with Spain on the podium. The place where Spain seemingly always had a reserved spot. It appears those days are over. What future holds for the Spanish national team? These are shocking numbers. Since 2006, Spanish NT has won two ...
10 most intriguing players coming from the CBA

2021-08-04

The Chinese Basketball League has been home to many high-quality players over the last few years. The reason? Pretty simple: really good money for a relatively short season. Many American and European players have chosen China in recent years but this season could be different. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the CBA is thinking about starting the season without foreign players on the rosters. Most ...
Frederic Weis on France NT, his medals' whereabouts and why he missed out on the NBA dream

2021-08-04

Frederic Weis is a man who looks like an open book. He doesn't try to shy away from addressing situations, as he had to do while playing basketball. A retired center, who won two medals with France national team at the 2000 Sidney Olympics and the 2005 EuroBasket, has been working as a commentator for French TV over the last few years. As far as basketball immortality goes, Weis's major claim to ...
Top 10 EuroLeague market players to hit the NBA free agency

2021-08-03

It's that time of the year again. Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania feed us with free agency news about the top NBA players and their summer decisions. Soon a few well-known European basketball names are likely to appear on one of those tweets too. BasketNews presents the Top 10 EuroLeague players with the potential to relocate to the NBA market. Kevin Pangos One of the hottest names on the ...
International tournament top scorers: Scoring prowess doesn't always lead to team success

2021-08-02

So far, in this year's Olympic basketball tournament Luka Doncic tops all scorers with 28.3 points per game. Slovenia has won all three games and safely made it to the quarter-finals. Rui Hachimura ranks second on the list with a 22.3 points average. Unlike Slovenia, Japan lost all three games and ended their fight for the medals. Patty Mills is third with 21.7 points per game. Australia went 3-0 ...
Westermann talks French gold medal hopes, Doncic from Mars, and move to Monaco

2021-08-02

Last week Leo Westermann was running his basketball camp for kids in Mulhouse, France, close to his hometown. And he lost the track of kids wearing Luka Doncic jerseys. That's the guy who in few days could be standing in the way of his fellow Frenchmen and their Olympic dreams. But Westermann is anticipating this potential semifinal game between France and Slovenia. An experienced point guard is ...
Jokubaitis talks amusing NBA draft night, Knicks surprise, and his future with Barca

2021-07-30

Rokas Jokubaitis haven't seen an NBA Draft broadcast before so the expectations for this year's event were simple - wait out for his name to be called and go to bed at around 5 in the morning. His plan didn't quite work. Even though Jokubaitis was drafted higher than expected, he had to try hard to fight off sleepiness. "I thought the whole draft would last two hours. But I noticed that after two ...
The case of Vince Hunter and the unfair standards we subject athletes to

2021-07-30

On July 21, 2021, Italian league champions Virtus Bologna officially announced that they were "unilaterally" parting ways with big man Vince Hunter. It was a surprise move, considering that just a few weeks ago, on July 3rd, the team had extended Hunter for two years. So what changed in such a short period of time? Few days after the contract extension with Hunter, it was revealed that the player ...
Real Madrid to get at least €3M buyout for Garuba

2021-07-27

Real Madrid will receive a significant buyout if Usman Garuba moves to the NBA. At this moment, his contract with Real includes an NBA buyout clause of 3 million euros, per BasketNews sources. If a 19-year-old forward moves to the NBA this summer, he'll need to pay around €2.345M out of his own pocket. This year NBA teams are allowed to cover $775K (€655K) of the buyout. According to ...
Ariel Hukporti signs with Melbourne United

2021-07-27

Ariel Hukporti, a center out of Germany, has signed with Melbourne United as part of the NBL’s Next Stars program, according to an ESPN report. Last season big man played an important role for the Lithuanian top division team. He averaged 10.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 11.5 PIR over 23.2 minutes in national championship. Hukporti scored a season-high 17 points against the ...
Filip Petrusev: I hope to be selected by a team that has a plan for me

2021-07-27

After an extremely convincing sophomore season at Gonzaga, an already strong team, Serbian big Filip Petrusev made a rather surprise move last summer by withdrawing his name from the 2020 Draft and opting to play in Europe. Of all teams in his native Serbia, he chose Mega Soccerbet, a club renowned for getting players ready for the giant leap to the NBA. There, he had a stunning season, averaging ...
Winning streaks, losing streaks, and record chases: Action-packed start of the Olympic basketball

2021-07-26

Round One of the Tokyo Olympic Basketball Tournament wrapped up on Monday, with all teams having played their first game. Let's recap the most intriguing events from the first six Olympics matches. 73-year losing streak The tournament kicked off with a game between Iran and the Czech Republic. The last time Iran had won a basketball match at the Olympics was way back in 1948. The Czech Republic ...
Keith Langford: Basketball has been a savior for me

2021-07-21

Keith Langford will turn 38 next September. In a summer period when several EuroLeague veterans, among them Vassilis Spanoulis and Omri Casspi, decided to retire, one of the continent's most productive scorers keeps going. The EuroLeague trophy may be still missing from his collection of silverware, but the experienced slasher has always been capable of delivering the goods whenever required. An ...
Giannis Antetokounmpo has Greece at his feet. But for how long?

2021-07-21

Giannis Antetokounmpo is definitely one of the most unlikely superstars in NBA history. The son of Nigerian immigrants who settled in Greece in the 90s started playing basketball around 13 years old and made a (modest) name for himself in the lower levels of the Greek league. Now, having won the NBA title with the Milwaukee Bucks and having dropped 50 points in the decisive game of the NBA Finals, ...
10 best remaining EuroLeague free agents

2021-07-14

With several teams already set for the next season, some of the best free agents have already found a home but there are still some prominent names out there who could help any team. I tried to make a list of the best/most intriguing free agents available on the market. Of course, it's only my take on the subject, so no offense intended to the ones who didn't make this list. Kevin Pangos The ...
Powerhouse no more: Turkey's exhausted brand and deferred Olympic dream

2021-07-13

12 Dev Adam (12 Giant Men) is an overly exhausted brand. First introduced as 2001 EuroBasket campaign embedded in a widely popular song by Athena (the band), it was intended to symbolize the glorious future of Turkish basketball. Over the last 20 years, this self-imposed image of being a "giant" witnessed only occasional celebration, few rare moments of euphoria, like the finals reached at the ...
What’s behind Obradovic project and the offer which saved Micic in Efes (Urbonus podcast)

2021-07-13

In the latest Urbonus podcast BasketNews' Donatas Urbonas and Orazio Cauchi discuss two of the biggest stories in European basketball this offseason: Partizan Belgrade big moves with Zeljko Obradovic and Vasilije Micic signing a new deal in Istanbul. Topics: Zeljko Obradovic’s return to Partizan (5:00); is politics behind Partizan’s cash flow? (10:37); possible Ekpe Udoh and Obradovic ...
Powerhouse no more: After the failure in Belgrade, Serbia has adjustments to make

2021-07-12

There was a constant that connected all the Olympic Qualifying tournaments: none of the teams that hosted the tournaments were able to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Not a single one. Lithuania, Croatia, Canada, and Serbia went home without that golden ticket to Tokyo. BasketNews continues its series of reviews about countries with strong basketball traditions and winning history. We've ...
Powerhouse no more: Major changes are on the horizon for Lithuania

2021-07-11

BasketNews returns with a series of articles about recognized basketball countries that have been underperforming for the past few years. We have already recapped the struggles of basketball in Greece and the state of Croatian basketball. Today - Lithuania's turn and their upcoming changes. The Lithuanian National Team lost to Slovenia on their home turf in the Olympic Qualification Tournament and ...
Powerhouse no more: There was a time when bronze medals were considered a failure in Croatia

2021-07-10

BasketNews continues its series of articles about recognized basketball countries that have been underperforming for extended periods of time. Yesterday we presented the state of Greek basketball, while today we dive into Croatia's basketball situation. It is strange to read quotes in one of the biggest news websites in Croatia stating that the debacle in Split during the Olympic Qualifying ...
Powerhouse no more: Greece between past principles and Pitino's lessons

2021-07-09

Greece, Lithuania, Serbia, Croatia. What do all these European countries have in common? Well, for starters, they used to have very strong basketball national teams. Olympic Games, EuroBaskets, World Cups would have been unthinkable without them. But it's all in the past now. The upcoming Tokyo Olympics will take place in their absence. Is it another sign of decadence? Does it mean that those ...
Neither difficult nor dull: Doncic's run to Tokyo with joy and ease

2021-07-08

Luka Doncic is, maybe, a difficult person, they said. It's not clear how many people will be excited to play with Luka, they said. Before starting the Olympic mission, Luka put all that NBA noise behind the Slovenia National Team camp doors. There were at least eleven basketball players, specifically from Slovenia, who were very excited to share the floor with Luka Doncic. And playing with Luka ...
Czech-mate Republic: A success story in the making

2021-07-07

A dominant 97-72 win over Greece in the final of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Victoria, Canada, made sure that the Czech Republic's national team was going to the Summer Olympics for the first time since the formation of the country back in 1993. As Czechoslovakia, the team last appeared in the biggest summer sporting event in 1980. The last decade brought a whole new level of success ...
NBA Finals preview: Should Budenholzer be fired, if Bucks don't win?

2021-07-06

The NBA Finals are right around the corner, and we are going to see an unpredicted matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns. Extraordinary playoffs, marked by injuries to NBA stars, will end with an extraordinary Finals series. The Bucks will be trying to reclaim the championship after 50 years-long drought, while the Suns will fight for their very first title in 53-year franchise ...
Sasa Doncic proud of his son: 'People feel good around Luka'

2021-07-04

Few hours before the Eurobasket 2017 final tips off. Smoking area of Sinan Erden arena in Istanbul. Sasa Doncic, the father of Luka Doncic, couldn’t stand still. Slovenia was facing Serbia in a gold medal game. His 18-year-old son was one victory away from becoming the European champion. "Look at my shirt," Sasa Doncic smiled, wet and still sweating. And it wasn't just because of a ...
Nesterovic talks about Doncic leadership, Dragic role, and building a National Team

2021-07-03

That’s a morning table you would like to be a part of every single day. Goran Dragic, Radoslav Nesterovic, Sasha Doncic, and the rest of the Slovenian basketball federation enjoyed their coffee on a nice terrace of one of the main Kaunas hotels. Nesterovic was all smiling. He loves that warm but not humid Lithuanian weather in summer. And he had to love his team's start in the Olympic ...
Why Olympiacos might not return to Greece's first division after all

2021-07-02

Olympiacos beat Maroussi 93-87 on Wednesday night to take the series 3-0, earning the promotion to the Greek Basket League after spending two years in the second division. Now, it's up to the management to decide what to do, compete in the first division or not. The club's development team undertook the difficult task of securing one of the two spots that led to the first-tier of Greek basketball ...
Rick Pitino: The NBA will take over European basketball and fans will love it

2021-06-29

Rick Pitino is a remarkable speaker. After all, it was partly due to his persuasiveness that he managed to convince Vassilis Spanoulis for a "Last Dance" with the Greece national team. However, Spanoulis got injured and will not only miss the FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament in Canada, but he also announced the end of his career. Thus, the American coach, who is leading Greece's effort to ...
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