Allen Iverson one step closer to Besiktas

Allen Iverson (184-G-75, college: Georgetown) is in serious talks with Turkish team Besiktas ColaTurka Istanbul where he could land soon and play the upcoming season.


'We are in very serious negotiations with [Besiktas ColaTurka Istanbul],' Iverson's manager Gary Moore said. 'Istanbul is beautiful from everything we've learned. It's not that far from the U.S., and the competition is good, which makes it all attractive. Allen wants to play basketball'. said his manager,

The player, who had some difficult seasons in the last years, would make $2 million under the one-year contract. Last year Iveson started with Grizzlies and then returned back to Phila playing 25 games with averages of 13.9ppg, 3.0rpg, 4.1apg, FGP: 42.5%, 3PT: 33.3%, FT: 82.4%. In February he left the team to take care of his son that was sick.  

source : eurobasket.com

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Ivanovic to replace Pietrus in Baskonia

Baskonia are about to close a new signing Ivanovic has confirmed. In addition, Florent Pietrus will not continue after termination of his contract with Baskonia.


After the win against Gran Canaria 2014, Dusko Ivanovic has announced that Florent Pietrus will not continue in the team and that "a new player will join on Monday".

Pietrus, who had signed in September for a month, has completed his contract and will not be in the team. "He will not travel to the United States and he will not be in the team. He is a great player and a great person, has helped us a lot and it's a shame that he does not follow ", said Ivanovic as quoted by Radio Vitoria.

The Montenegrin coach has revealed that "there will be a new player on Monday". When asked for details, he suggested that it is "almost closed" but did not disclose details. It is understood to be a low-post player.

source : acb.com

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Greek League : the nail in the coffin? (updated)

Things could go a whole lot worse before they remotely get better.


Things could get pretty nasty for the Greek A1 league. There is a possibility that one of the biggest sponsors in the league could back out and this could prove disastrous for quite a few teams.

Let's start by saying that things are really, really bad in the Greek League. The condition of the Greek League resembles remarkably the condition of the Greek economy, in other words it's in shambles. The people who run the League are simply lightweight and this can be proved by the recurring problems that appear each and every year in the League for the last decade or so. Teams are allowed to participate in the League without many of the necessary requirements and when you do it for one team you have to do it for every other team that fits, (or doesn't in this case) the bill. Nonetheless the vast majority of Greek teams are still owing a lot of money to players and some of them even reach as far back as season 2005-2006.

Then there are so many fronts in the 'Cold War' that has plagued the league between the people who run it, the players' union, the referees, the clubs themselves and last but certainly not least, the Greek Federation.

The latest problem comes from a big sponsorship from OPAP, the Greek betting company that enjoys(not for long) the market monopoly in sports betting. OPAP would offer the measly amount of 250,000 euros to each team that would bear their logo on the front their shirt. I use the word 'measly' lightly if we are to consider the millions that OPAP are offering to the Greek Football League.

Nonetheless there are some teams that are not happy with this league. Partially because they promised a larger amount and because they have their own agenda. The team that threatens to bring this about is one of the Greek powerhouses, one that has started its own private little war against the League not caring about the consequences. There are 2 more teams that could potentially follow through. One starved for money, and another one that could sure use the extra cash to establish themselves in Europe.

The problem here is that if even one of the teams backs out, then the deal with OPAP is over. This means that many teams could lose the 250,000 euros that they were hoping for. For some it's half or a third of their budget. And then you'll have more players leaving their teams, more player suing for money you might even get teams dropping from the league much like Olympia did last season.

(EDIT : I forgot to clarify one thing and that is that OPAP would back out of the sponsoring deal if another betting company were to sponsor a team in the Greek league. This is what the 3 other teams are considering at the moment as they could secure a sponsorship from another betting company that would surpass that of 250,000 euros. The betting market is opening in Greece and OPAP will soon lose its monopoly.)

Everybody is calling for reform but nobody's taking action. Obviously there are far more important problems in Greece at the moment and one might think that there isn't enough money in basketball for the government to care. But then again the people that call the shots in all areas of basketball seem to focus on fighting each other instead of uniting their forces to help the ailing league.

But as my friend greekbball.blogspot.com says, at least we have a new logo!!





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Trifunovic and Maskoliunas to man the bench of Lietuvos Rytas

The coaching staff changes in Lietuvos Rytas camp, which began with the sacking of head coach Drazen Anzulovic, were completed on Monday with the signing of two new specialists.


Aleksandr Trifunovic will return to the side from Vilnius to take the head coach’s position while Darius Maskoliunas, who arrives from KK Kaunas, will be the Serb’s assistant.

“A coaching staff like this is the best there is in the market at this point in time. Trifunovic knows the working environment in the club so he will not need to adjust to how everything works here. He is the best foreign specialist we could allow ourselves to invite. This is his second go with Lietuvos Rytas and I’m sure he’ll use it well,” said Jonas Vainauskas, the club’s General Manager.

Darius Maskoliunas was at the helm of Zalgiris Kaunas in the end of last season before being sacked in the midst of the Lithuanian league (LKL) finals series.

“Maskoliunas is currently the best Lithuanian coach, who we were able to invite over to our club. His knowledge and experience both as a player and as a coach in Zalgiris, the time he spent in Euroleague, will help to build a great coaching tandem,” Vainauskas added.

As a result of the rotations amongst the coaches, the Latvian specialist and former Lietuvos Rytas player Roberts Stelmahers was sent to coach the club’s second team Perlas, the position he held last year.

“Working with Perlas and finishing a three year period will be better for Robis himself, than just helping out a little for Lietuvos Rytas,” the General Manager of the club explained. “Everything is in its places now – all the changes were timely and correct. How correct? Only time can show, but this is the best I could have done now, under circumstances like this.”


source : lithuaniabasketball.com

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Aris and Mazzon settled their differences via FAT

The club announced a few days earlier that they had won the case but not all details were published.


On September 30th, Aris BC announced via their official website that the FIBA Arbitral Tribunal. The announcement from FIBA was as follows:

The Italian coach Andrea Mazzon and the basketball agents Elias Diamantopoulos and Dario Santrolli filed a claim against the Greek club KAE Aris Thessaloniki BC for outstanding salaries and agent fees. The coach requested full payment of his salaries for the 2009/2010 season as well as compensation for the damage to his reputation, alleging that the club had unjustly terminated the contract and had failed to pay his salary. In its answer, the club denied the above claims, submitting that proceedings before ordinary courts had already been initiated and that FAT proceedings should therefore be stayed. Additionally, the club argued that FAT had no jurisdiction to hear the case and that, in any event, a mutual termination agreement had been entered into by the club and the coach. The Arbitrator decided to partially uphold the claim.

source : fiba.com

The Hoop was also implicated in this case as it is mentioned as a source on page 16 of the FAT Award. It was a source used by the claimant to prove that Aris had intention to fire coach Mazzon if he were to fail beating Maroussi and thus proceeding to the next step of the Euroleague qualifying rounds.

Nonetheless neither Aris nor Maroussi got exactly what they wanted. Aris are still to pay compensation to Mazzon but Mazzon won't be able to claim his entire season's salaries as compensation either. So Mazzon won't leave empty handed and Aris won't have to financially bleed out anymore.

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End credits are rolling for Maroussi

It's quite interesting how they let it fall apart like that.


It was the team that impressed everyone last season both in Greece and the Euroleague. Much like Partizan Belgrade, Maroussi did have a small budget for all their player contracts that barely exceeded a million euros. However with very good coaching and smart player choices they managed to reach the TOP-16 of the Euroleague by defeating both Greek powerhouses Olympiakos and Panathinaikos during the season as they went along. But all things come to an end. The beginning of the end started with Maroussi being kicked out of the Euroleague Qualifying rounds for not submitting all the necessary documents to ULEB. But it actually started before that.

The major shareholder of Maroussi, Aris Vovos has abandoned the team for quite some time now. The players spent the entire last season receiving miniscule amounts of money and it's no wonder that most of them have fled to other destinations where the teams pay their players. He also left the team to be dismantled by incompetent people and he didn't even life a finger to change the collision course of the team. I guess he might wanted the team to go down after all.

Maroussi did have a decent presence in both Europe and Greece in the last few years and that needs to be said. It was more like a side project, a hobby if you like of someone with considerable amounts of money but the team itself had no significant amounts of fans. It wasn't a commercial team not by a long shot. Lately though the team has been left to its own devices and it was handed over to people with no experience in professional basketball. And of course these people have now disappeared after they ridiculed themselves, the team and Greek basketball in general.

According to basketnet.gr, the team will not be able to participate in the A1 league. They won't be able to submit a guarantee cheque in order to participate in the League or the Cup. They no longer have a roster of players or a head coach.

The situation in Maroussi reflects in a way the situation that exists at the moment in the Greek League. Where rules are bent to no end and there is no reliability on its proceedings or standards, let alone the officials that run it. Maroussi will be demoted to a semi-pro team and fall 2 divisions below. The Greek League will continue with 13 teams or 14. Unless of course a miracle happens in the next few hours..



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Kostas Sloukas to play for Aris on loan

They didn't waste any time after Verginis was injured.


Dimitris Verginis(1.91-PG/SG) got sidelined for about 6 months after a ligament rupture injury during a Greek Cup game against Peristeri. In Aris they lost no time and made a deal with Olympiakos to get Kostas Sloukas(1.98-PG/SG) on loan for one season. Sloukas won't be able to get enough playing time in Olympiakos and Aris needed another guard for the frontcourt so everyone's happy. Sloukas is a player of Olympiakos until the end of season 2011-2012.

Well everyone except some of the fans of the team who didn't like that move considering degrading for their team. However, Sloukas is a fan of Aris, one that actually has a season ticket so this part of his personality will probably be empasised during the official announcement tomorrow. Sloukas has been a long standing member of the Greek Youth National Teams having won many medals in the last 3 years. The deal has been struck for some days now but it hadn't been made official due to certain financial details. There is also a possibility that Aris will try to get Sloukas on-loan for season 2011-2012 with a view to sign him afterwards as a free player.

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