Iraklis sent the contract to Smush Parker

If he sends it back they hit the jackpot.


Iraklis are in desperate position at the moment. They are way behind schedule and they just managed to get one more win in the league as they are desperately trying to avoid relegation. The team managed to return to the A1 league after many years but once again due to poor management the prospect of relegation looms menacingly over their heads once.

However the new coach, "firefighter extraordinaire", Giorgos Kalafatakis is going for the colpo grosso as they say in Italy and he will try to sign former NBA player Smush Parker(1.93-PG). Parker is no stranger to Greece as he won the Greek Cup with Aris back in 2004 and then he went on to play for the Lakers alongside Kobe Bryant. Since the glory days though, his career has taken a dip. He signed a contract with Spartak St. Petersburg in the beginning of the season but his conflict with head coach Svi Sherf got him sidelined. According to sport24.gr, Iraklis have sent the signed contract to Parker and they are awaiting his reply. This could be a great opportunity for Smush Parker as he will be getting ample playing time with Iraklis. Earlier this season he was offered to Aris BC but the deal didn't go through.

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Aris to replace Drucker with Sferopoulos?

I bet you weren't expecting that..well me neither..


This must be a first for the Greek A1 League or if it has happened before I surely don't remember it. Then again I'm not that old but let's cut to the chase. This is not 100% confirmed rumor but very close to that and it says that Giannis Sferopoulos will be leaving Kolossos BC for Aris BC.

Sferopoulos will be replacing Sharon Drucker who probably never got accustomed to the Greek League and chances are he never will. So it seems that Sferopoulos will be leaving Kolossos to become the head coach of Aris and this move raises a lot of questions. Kolossos BC have never been implicated in any rumors of financial problems for the last two and a half seasons that Sferopoulos has been the head coach and he has done quite a good job considering the limited resources that he had at his disposal. In fact I wasn't even sure whether the rules of the Greek League allow such a move between teams right in the middle of the regular season but apparently the rule only affects players. Then again not even Kolossos BC could be immune to the recession that has sweeped the globe. And if this is the case it would explain why Sferopoulos wants to move to a more secure environment.

It is rumored that Sharon Drucker is technically on loan from Maccabi Tel Aviv as Drucker didn't want to be assistant coach again and David Blatt didn't really want him as his assistant coach. So initially the deal suited quite a few sides but then again Sharon Drucker has used some peculiar lineups and combined with a total disrespect to team defense he managed to lose games that could've easily been won. And he lost them against teams with weaker rosters and lesser wallets. To be perfectly honest he did quite well in the Eurocup but one must play hard-nose defense in order to survive in the Greek league and Drucker didn't do that.

So Sferopoulos could be the next head coach of Aris and one might think why are they waiting in Aris for things to go really bad before they make a substantial and objectively good move hiring such a talented and promising coach. The same happened with Fotis Katsikaris who didn't manage to withstand the pressure of a bench that had 21 titles hanging over it. Will Sferopoulos doing it at this juncture? It's hard to tell..

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Lietuvos Rytas trying to sign DJ Strawberry

Lietuvos Rytas are making a last second push to sign a new point guard before Euroleague play resumes in the Top 16 stage on Wednesday.


It looks like former NBA player D.J. Strawberry is on the top of the Lithuanian champions list and talks have been steadily moving forward. However, the final agreement is yet to be reached, but things are moving in the right direction for the deal to come through.

“There are some issues with the D-league release and buyout that have not yet been finalized.  We will know everything by tomorrow morning in the States,” the player’s agent Scott Nichols told LithuaniaBasket.com on Monday evening.

Strawberry was drafted 59th overall in the 2007 NBA Draft by Phoenix Suns, where he played 33 games averaging 2.2 points and 0.8 assists per game in an average of 8.2 minutes of court-time.

After a short stint in Italy, which ended in a meniscus injury, the combo guard returned to the States and spent the beginning of the season playing for the Reno Bighorns in the NBDL, where Strawberry is averaging 13.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.


source : lithuaniabasketball.com

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Ilias Zouros is the new head coach of Zalgiris

Four days before it opens the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 on the road, Zalgiris Kaunas has a new head coach, its third of the season, having signed Ilias Zouros of Greece on Saturday.


Zouros, 44, arrives from Panellinios, where he led the club to its best results in decades last season and was named the Eurocup Coach of the Year. Zouros guided Panellinios to both the Eurocup and Greek League semifinals. Zouros replaces Rimantas Grigas, who will return to his previous job of sports director for Zalgiris one month after taking over the bench when Aco Petrovic was released. Zalgiris starts Top 16 play on Wednesday in Valencia, Spain against Power Electronics.

Zouros started his coaching career at the age of 20 with the cadet and the junior teams at Panionios. He moved next to Peristeri, serving as assistant coach to the senior team. He continued as an assistant coach at Sporting, Maroussi, Olympiacos and the Greek national team. In the summer of 2000, he was named head coach of Olympiacos, replacing the legendary Giannis Ioannidis, and led that team to the Euroleague quarterfinals. He remained at Olympiacos until February 2002, and then moved to Sagesse in Lebanon, guiding the club to the Asian Club Championship. Afterwards, he returned to Greece with Near East. He coached Aris Thessaloniki in 2005-06, leacing after three months to take over on the French club Racing Paris Levallois, where he remained until he signed for Panellinios in December 2007. Zouros also enjoys the distinction of having coached Olympiacos in the historic first game of the new Euroleague in October 2000 on the road at Real Madrid. The bench at Zalgiris will be his second Euroleague job.


source : euroleague.net

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Aris to replace Drucker and Dunston?

Someone needs to stir Aris back into course.


According to salonikabasket.blogspot.com, Sharon Drucker is counting his last days, perhaps even hours, as the head coach of Aris BC. He started the season quite well but as the season went on the bad results started becoming a repeating occurence for Aris. It is the opinion of this blog that Sharon Drucker was the wrong choice of a coach for the Greek A1 league and that is reflected in losses even at home to poorer teams with weaker rosters. It is rumored that the administration of the team will start looking for a new head coach although that is not 100% certain. Drucker is under heavy scrutiny as the team made 2 consecutive losses that will prove critical in the next season and has to show a streak of bad performances against even the weakest opponents in the A1. Even if Drucker stays the team has made already made 6 losses and is in really bad shape.

Another unconfirmed rumor but from a reliable source says that Aris signed veteran center John Thomas(2.06-C) who played for Hapoel Holon last season. He averaged 12.8 points 8.6 points and 2.1 assists in 22 games in the Israeli League. He was invited last September by the Minnesota Timberwolves to participate in their training camp but he hasn't played for a team yet. He will probably replacing Bryant Dunston(2.01-PF) who was misused by Drucker as a center and averaged 6.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 15.6 minutes of playing time. Rumors say that Thomas will be arriving to Greece on Tuesday.

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Allen Iverson to miss 4-6 weeks

Allen Iverson says he expects to continue playing basketball at the highest level possible once he has a lesion in his right leg examined in the United States.


Iverson posted on his Twitter page Friday that he was returning home for examinations, and possibly surgery. Iverson says he has no plans to retire and still loves the game.

Iverson signed with the Turkish team Besiktas after no NBA team expressed interest in the 11-time NBA All-Star

Gary Moore, Iverson's longtime manager, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Iverson was expected to miss four to six weeks. Moore says Iverson was hoping to rejoin his Turkish team in time for the postseason.


source : washingtonpost.com

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Jan Vesely is ready for 2011 NBA Draft

It's an extract from Jan Vesely's interview to Slam Magazine.



Jan Vesely says he’s in the Draft. The 6-11, 20-year-old told SLAM Magazine that he will “enter the 2011 NBA Draft” and that he’s“ready for the NBA after this season.”


While Partizan is struggling a bit this season and Jan’s numbers have dropped a tad from last season, he’s shown some major advancements in his game. Through the film that we checked out on Synergy Sports Technology, he appears even more athletic and more polished as a shooter than last season. Vesely is spending time between the small and power forward spots for Partizan, though he says that he envisions himself as a “power forward” in the NBA. Donned “the European Blake Griffin” by many, he’s had no problem putting guys on posters and has more bounce than any true European in recent memory.


more : slamonline.com

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Benetton announced Brian Skinner

Benetton Basketball announce the inclusion in the roster of the USA center Brian Skinner , to fill the gap of the absence of Sandro Nicevic. The new player will be tomorrow in Treviso and assist in the match against Pepsi Caserta.


After completing the medical examinations and the paperwork, Skinner will be presented on Monday to the press hours at 2:00pm at the headquarters of Benetton Basket La Ghirada. 

Brian Skinner, was born in Temple (Texas) on May 9 1976, and he comes from the Milwaukee Bucks (NBA). A total of his NBA career is about more than 600 games played in 12 seasons, averaging 4.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. He is a center of 206 cm., a player with great experience, rocky defender and rebounder with a particular look inside the game in offense, with good moves near the basket.

He played from '98 to 2001 with the Los Angeles Clippers (who chose him in the first round with the No. 22 pick after graduating from Baylor), then he played for Cleveland, Philadelphia, Milwaukee in 2003/04 where he played his best season in the NBA ( 10.5 points and 7.3 rebounds with a block per contest and 57% from the field) , then Sacramento, Philadelphia, Portland and again Milwaukee and Phoenix, before returning to the Clippers in 2008/09 and 2009/10. This season, he joined the roster of the Milwaukee Bucks, but he was released a few days ago.

He has a personal record of 23 points (vs. Denver in 2000), 6 blocked shots (2001 vs. Memphis ) and 19 rebounds (vs. Philadelphia in 2005).


source : benettonbasket.it

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Flip Murray lands in Efes Pilsen

Less than a week before the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 starts, Turkish powerhouse Efes Pilsen has reinforced its perimeter game with the addition of veteran scorer Ronald 'Flip' Murray, the club announced Friday.


Murray (191, 31), who signed until the end of the current season, has spent his entire professional career in his native United States, playing for eight NBA teams in as many years. Murray last played with Chicago, averaging 10.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 29 games after arriving there in February of 2010. He has also played for NBA teams in Milwaukee, Seattle, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, Atlanta and Charlotte.

His longest stint was three seasons in Seattle, where he averaged 12 points over 25 minutes per game in the 2003-04 season. During his only season in Cleveland, 2005-06, he posted his highest scoring average, 13.5 points over 36 minutes per game. Overall, he had a career scoring average of 9.9 points. Murray began playing in his hometown of Philadelphia and at Shaw University, where he was named the NCAA Division II player of the year in 2002.

source : euroleague.net

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Siena announced Marko Jaric

Mens Sana Basket informs you that they have signed a contract through the end of the current season with player Marko Jaric, born in Belgrade on October 12, 1978.


Marko Jaric begins his professional career in 1996 at Peristeri in Greece, where he stays until the summer of 1998 when he comes to Italy, more precisely, Fortitudo Bologna. He remains there for two seasons and wins the 1999/2000 national title.

Subsequently, he switches to Virtus Bologna’s cousins, where he definitively explodes and contributes to making a Grand Slam the 2000/2001 season. Jaric stays with Virtus Bologna the following championship as well before migrating to the NBA (2002). Chosen by the Los Angeles Clippers, he remains there until 2005, the year he’s traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The summer of 2008, he moves on to the Memphis Grizzlies. On December 22, 2009, he signed a 6 month contract with Real Madrid, and ended last season with an average of 7.1 points per game in Euroleague and 5.9 in the Spanish League.

With the Serbian Nationals, he won gold at the 2002 Worlds, the 2001 Europeans and the European Under 22’s in 1998.  In 2007, he was called to the Europeans in Spain to play with the Nationals from Serbia.


source : menssanabasket.it

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Papadopoulos in talks with Malaga to leave Paok

Papadopoulos looking for a way out or for a way to get paid?


Lazaros Papadopoulos(2.13-C) spoke to Spanish newspaper La Opinion De Malaga and he said that his agent Minas Toukmenidis is currently in talks with Malaga. During the summer the agent of Papadopoulos asked for a million euros from Malaga but back then the deal didn't go through so Malaga renewed their contract Scottish center Robert Archibald.

Now Malaga are back in talks with Papadopoulos who said that he is a player of Paok for the time being but he didn't deny the possibility of a deal with Malaga. Paok would have to be compensated to let Papadopoulos leave but that might be a big problem for them as he is their best player and they're all out of spots for any foreign players. Bosman centers are quite expensive and hard to find so this might be quite a serious blow for Paok. According to malagahoy.es, the buy-out clause in the contract with Paok is 150,000 euros and that's not a prohibiting amount for a team like Malaga.

Papadopoulos has been the cornerstone of Paok, both in the Eurocup and the Greek League averaging so far 10.7 points 7.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 10 games in the Greek League and also 16 points 12.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists

It's no secret that Papadopoulos is not having too much fun in Greece. The recent debacle of the Greek players strike that he led as the President of the Players' Union has turned the tides as to how he is treated by the Greek referees. In Greece Papadopoulos doesn't win as many fouls as he does in Europe and that diminishes his capacity in the game as they allow his opponents to play "tougher defense".

He is still owed money by Paok(most of his monthly salaries) so this could just be an elaborate way of  forcing the Paok administration into paying him. Finally one might think that the administration of Malaga have better things to do at the moment as Aito Reneses is rumored to be on his way out with Bozidar Maljkovic as a possible replacement. Sergio Scariolo's solution was dismissed as he is currently the head coach of the Spanish National Team and according to ACB rules its impossible for him to coach for another team in Spain.

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Elias Zouros in talks with Zalgiris

A Greek coach in Lithuania? That will be a first.


Elias Zouros is currently in Kaunas and he is negotiating with the administration of Zalgiris Kaunas to take up the head coach position. Rimantas Grigas won't stay as head coach and Elias Zouros seems to be a good choice for Zalgiris to start the Top-16 of the Euroleague.

Zouros was the head coach of Panellinios last season but when the team's budget was reduced to half of what it was and there were no financial guarantees he chose not to stay with them. He had a good run with Panellinios leading the team from the Qualifying stages of the Eurocup all the way to the Final 4. He has also coach Aris Thessaloniki, Racing Paris and Olympiakos for a short period. He has been a free agent since the beginning of the season.

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Mediterranean League - fact or fiction?

It could be closer than we think..


The rumors started last season but nowadays they keep springing up from all directions in Greece but as of yet there is nothing concrete to report. The idea is very old but the execution needed some infrastructure and most of all, some money.

Let's face it, the Greek league has seen better days. It could be classed as an example to avoid when it comes to organisation and meritocracy.

It becomes hard to find a team that doesn't owe money to players, or in taxes to the state. Some teams shouldn't even be playing in the A1 league because they can't collect all the necessary certificates that guarantee the club's financial wellbeing and stability. The president of the league becomes more of a decoration and his sole purpose at the moment is (in theory) to try and find a good television broadcast rights contract for the teams of the league. So currently we've got teams that cannot even afford hot water to have a shower after practice or teams that have changed more players and coaches than they currently have on their roster. Fortunately some other teams seem to be adapting to the

The league solely exists at the moment for the finals between Olympiakos and Panathinaikos and the same goes for the Greek Cup where (conveniently) the 2 Greek powerhouses never seem to meet before the final. This situation has the support of a body of sports journalists, who make their living out of the rivalry between the reds and the greens and also by the players themselves who can't stand up to their rich bosses. Hence one might be thinking what's the purpose of the Greek league? Let's create a new league where Olympiakos and Panathinaikos can play against more powerful opponents and one aging executive can come out as the Messiah who gave new impetus to a decomposing league.

So this is the plan.. in theory always. 3 teams from Greece, 3 from Turkey, 2 teams from Israel, the champion of Serbia, the champion of Cyprus, possibly Lukoil Akademik and last but not least one team from.. Qatar. This is not final and the specs of the league might change until the last moment. One might be thinking.. Qatar..? what the..? the rumors are that the team from Qatar will actually belong to the sponsors of the league. Hence they will provide the funds to organise the league and they will find other sponsors as well to make sure there are adequate funds to run a professional league smoothly.

The premise here is that the teams that will participate in this league will not be playing in the regular season in their corresponding countries but they would return in their local league only for the play-offs. This is the model of the Adriatic League and the purpose of it is that these teams will not be participating in a league that doesn't offer any substantial challenge. That might seem like making the league more challenging for the remaining teams but from a moral point of view it's exposing the current degradation of the league.

A Mediterranean league without teams from Italy or Spain? That sounds strange to me too but they just might be content playing for the Eurocup. For example this season we've had Gran Canaria, Estudiantes, Cajasol, Cantu, Benetton Treviso, Caserta. Why would they want to leave a league as organised and glamorous like the ACB or the LegaA1?

On the other hand, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos are gagging to leave the A1. The same goes for Fenerbahce and Efes Pilsen,  Maccabi Tel Aviv etc. The idea is that the teams picked from each country will be chosen according to their final position at the end of the play-offs. Also that the funding from the Mediterranean League itself will be significantly larger than that from Uleb leagues. This gives certain teams a motive in Greece to gain the 3rd place as it would secure their finances. The same goes for Turkey.

Chances are that the scheme will be announced some time before the end of this season and it will outline how the teams will be chosen and also the details of the league's layout. So this will be the "pilot-season" of a league that will aim to become one of the most popular leagues in Europe and rival the Euroleague, or fail miserably..


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Partizan made offer for Vujanic to Panionios

The offer has been made and is being considered.


Panionios were fortunate enough to sign Milos Vujanic to quite a low contract for the caliber of the player. Receiving less than 100,000 euros for the season signing Vujanic seemed like a bargain. The Serbian veteran seemed like a great catch but many teams seemed to avoid his case.

In numbers he hasn't actually done that well in Greece averaging 10.7 points 0.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 7 games in the Greek A1 league while shooting less than favourably. According to basketnet.gr, the buy-out clause in his contract is quite small and it comes up to 20,000 euros. Partizan made their interest known to both the player and Panionios so it should be decided within the next few days. If the deal goes through then Vujanic will be reinforcing Partizan in the Top-16 of the Euroleague.

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Flip Murray considering offer from Efes Pilsen

As the Memphis Grizzlies weigh signing free-agent guard Flip Murray, Murray is weighing European interest.


Sources close to the situation said Tuesday that Murray -- who auditioned for the Grizzlies in a workout before Christmas -- has been offered a contract by perennial EuroLeague contender Efes Pilsen in Turkey.

The 31-year-old Murray, who averaged 9.9 points in 75 games last season for Chicago and Charlotte, has been looking for a new team since the summer.

One source said Murray turned down a non-guaranteed offer from guard-stacked Golden State earlier this season.

The Grizzlies also worked out Larry Hughes with Murray and could soon make a signing to bolster their 13-man roster, with guard depth and perimeter shooting both areas of need.

Teams can start signing players to 10-day contracts Wednesday.


source : espn.go.com

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Dan Peterson returns to Olimpia Milano

What..?


Dan "The Coach" Peterson returns to action as the head coach of the team that he loved the most. According to the official website of Olimpia Milano he will be presented to the press today. Dan Peterson, currently at the age of 75, is a living legend of the Italian basketball as he coached for 14 years in the Serie A. In 1978 he became the head coach of Olimpia Milano and stayed with them winning many titles, until 1987 when he retired.

He created the powerhouse of Olimpia Milano of the 80s that dominated in Italy and Europe. Now he comes back to the aid of his favourite team replacing Pierro Bucchi. A desperate move? Only time will tell.

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