Category: International Basketball Blog

International basketball blog

No extension for Linas Kleiza

The Rocky Mountain News (Chris Tomasson) reports: The Nuggets’ deal to sign Linas Kleiza to a contract extension has fallen apart and he will become a restricted free agent next summer, his agent said Friday.
Bill Duffy told the Rocky Mountain News that the Nuggets decided Friday not to offer Kleiza, a Nuggets forward, a deal in the range the two parties had been talking about that would start next season. The sides had been talking about a possible extension in the range of $25 million over four years which would have had to have been signed by the Friday deadline… Duffy said that while Kleiza likes Denver, other NBA teams will be looked at next summer. He’s also a candidate to go overseas.

InsideHoops.com editor says: Kleiza is a good bench player but not an essential part of the Nuggets future. He does make a team better.

Rudy Fernandez can play

The Columbian (Brian Hendrickson) reports: This fall was supposed to be a transition period for Rudy Fernandez. But the Portland Trail Blazers rookie at times has looked like he has been playing NBA ball all along. The seven-year veteran of the Spanish ACB League filled up his stat line throughout the preseason, throwing down electrifying lob dunks, assisting on a pass through an opponent’s legs, and scoring in a variety of ways. He has also demonstrated an exceptional understanding of the game, a dynamic range of skills and an ability to inject instant energy into the offense. But when he explains the quick adjustment to his new teammates and league, Fernandez makes the move sound fundamental. “Basketball is basketball, Europe or in USA,” he explained. The Blazers never expected the transition to be that easy, but Fernandez has certainly made it look that way. He led the Blazers in steals (2.6 a game) during the preseason, and ranked third in assists (4.0 average) and fourth in scoring (12.0 average). And if Fernandez continues to play with that level of comfort, then his quick, smooth transition could pay big dividends.

Tyson Chandler gets harrassed in Barcelona

I spent some time in Barcelona this summer. It was my second time there. And I can tell you that Barcelona is a fantastic, wonderful place, but only if you don’t spend too much time in the heart of the city, where tourists flock. The most famous street in downtown Barcelona is Las Ramblas, and it’s flooded with street performers, locals, but also hoards of pickpockets and nutjobs. And it’s directly next to an extremely bad neighborhood called La Raval, a neighborhood where not a lot of actual Spanish people live.

I quickly learned that the best way to enjoy Barcelona is to stick to the residental neighborhoods. They have less nightlife than the busy areas, but are still as alive as you’d want them to be, and far more fascinating than the crowded tourist spots.

The point of my mentioning this is, Tyson Chandler himself recently learned that the tourist heart of Barcelona has problems. Here’s Chandler, via his NBA.com blog:

So after we left the restaurant, I took off, walking faster to get ahead of them and take pictures. I’m taking pictures and all of a sudden, I hear somebody start cursing at me. I’m looking through my camera lens at the time, so I can’t see anything but the pictures I’m taking. I come from up under, and this dude walks up to me, cursing me out.

I put my camera down and I’m like, “Am I not supposed to be taking pictures here?” He starts yelling in Spanish and I can’t understand him obviously. He looked homeless to me, and I’m saying, “Oh, I’m not supposed to be taking pictures here. I’m sorry.”

He’s just screaming at me and I put the camera away and walk away. But then he’s still going off and I see like 10 more homeless people up against the wall with dogs and stuff. It looked to me like the other 10 people were asking him what he was doing, but they were speaking Spanish, so I don’t know what they were saying.

The guy’s walking toward me and I’m putting my hand out like, “Stay back.” I walk backwards and start to turn around, but then, in the corner of my eye, I see him reach back to throw something. I kinda ducked and all these coins hit me.

He threw a bunch of coins at me.

At this point, I wanted to just go at it. This dude just hit me all over my back with coins, and he’s still screaming at me. But I told him, “Listen, you had better stay back.”

And I look at my wife and that’s the only thing that could calm me down. I see my pregnant wife and realize that I can’t have a situation go down like that. My teammates were in shock, because they saw what happened. I didn’t want anything else to happen so I tried to calm myself down. I started walking away from him and he kept his distance.

I personally know three girls (separate people who don’t know each other) who had their cameras stolen by pickpockets in Barcelona this summer.

I loved the place, as soon as I learned to hang out about a 20+ minute walk away from La Ramblas.

–Jeff

Yi Jianlian glance

The New York Daily News (Julian Garcia) reports on Nets forward Yi Jianlian’s preseason play so far: Yi has been pretty good offensively (14 ppg) but has struggled to grab rebounds (five in three games) and on the defensive end. Yi admitted he had a hard time with defending the pick-and-roll in his first two preseason games, but Frank said “it’ll happen” as long as Yi continues to work at it and learn how to play aggressively on that end “without committing needless fouls.” Frank added this, too: “I think the thing you can’t discount too is there’s a little bit – not much – but a little bit of a language barrier. So he’s got to do a little bit more thinking initially until he gets comfortable with voice recognition. He’ll get it. It’s just going to take some time.” As for rebounding, Frank said, “In the Olympics he was one of the leading rebounders, so I think he has it in him.”

Oct 19: Clips 114, FC Barcelona 109

The AP reports: Al Thornton had 23 points and 11 rebounds, rookie Eric Gordon scored 12 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter after getting into early foul trouble, and the Los Angeles Clippers beat FC Barcelona 114-109 in an exhibition game on Sunday as part of the annual Staples Shootout. Ersan Ilyasova scored 20 points and Jaka Lakovic added 19 for Barcelona, which lost 108-104 to the Lakers on Saturday night. Juan Carlos Navarro, the only player on the team who participated at the Beijing Olympics when Spain won the silver medal, had 11 points in 29 minutes after getting 34 points in 41 minutes against countryman and former Memphis Grizzlies teammate Pau Gasol… The Clippers again played without Tim Thomas (groin strain), Marcus Camby (bruised heel) and Baron Davis (sprained finger).

China loves Joe Alexander

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Charles F. Gardner) reports: It didn’t take long for Milwaukee Bucks rookie Joe Alexander to be discovered by the Chinese media. Before the Bucks’ practice Tuesday at the Guangzhou Gymnasium, the 6-foot-8 Alexander was swarmed by a huge group of reporters. His fluency in Mandarin was one reason for his popularity, and the fact he spent much of his youth living in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan. “They enjoyed me a little bit,” Alexander said in a phone interview. “There was a pretty fair amount (of media), more than I’m used to.”

China to get bball arenas

China is a big place with a lot of people. They also like basketball there. The NBA knows this and figures it into future plans to keep growing NBA basketball around the world.

AEG, one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world, and NBA China, have formed a joint venture to design, market, program and operate multi-purpose, NBA-style sports and entertainment arenas in major cities throughout Greater China, it was announced at a press conference today at AEG’s O2 arena in London by Mr. Timothy J. Leiweke, President and CEO of AEG and NBA Commissioner David Stern.

The assumption is that there will eventually be an NBA-affiliated basketball league in China.

The full story is here.

Hanno Mottola of Finland retires

Fiba.com reports: Finland coach Henrik Dettmann has heaped praise on Hanno Möttölä following the big man’s decision to retire as a basketball player at the age of 32. Möttölä made the surprise announcement after helping the Finns preserve their EuroBasket Division A status with a fourth-place finish in Group A in this summer’s qualifying campaign for next year’s Final Round in Poland… Möttölä was the first-ever Finn to reach the NBA and he was also the first from his country in the Euroleague, not to mention the first Finland player to compete in that competition’s Final Four.

Ricky Rubio has right wrist surgery

Fiba.com reports: Spain’s DKV Joventut star Ricky Rubio will miss the first several games of his team’s Euroleague and ACB campaigns after having surgery on his right wrist. The point guard got hurt during the gold medal game at the Olympics on August 24 when the United States beat Spain and he suffered a recurrence of the injury in the pre-season.

InsideHoops.com editor says: Rubio is expected to be one of the top picks in whatever NBA draft he declares eligibility in. He’ll quite possibly go first overall, but he’s not an absolute lock to do that.