Maccabi TA clarified the situation with Macvan

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv has reached a fundamental understanding with Milan Macvan, but no official agreement has yet been signed.

Clarification regarding Milan Macvan - Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv has reached a fundamental understanding with the player, his agent, and the Serbian team - but no official agreement has yet been signed.


source : maccabi.co.il

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Khimki announced Travis Hansen

Travis Hansen found a team after all.


Khimki Moscow announced the signing of veteran swingman Travis Hansen (1.98-SG/SF) via their official site. Hansen is the owner of a Russian passport, a perk that he acquired from his days a player of Dynamo Moscow. Hansen hasn't played for a team this season and Khimki Moscow wanted to add someone with experience and a shooting touch so that Keith Langford doesn't need to everything.

Hansen was part of the ambitious team of sorts that Ettore Messina created in Real last season and he has also played for the Atlanta Hawks and Baskonia. Last season he averaged 4.8 points and 1.9 rebounds in the
Euroleague and also 7.1 points 2.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in the ACB playing for Real Madrid.

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Rick Pitino to coach Puerto Rico NT?

We can say that this fits the PBT format because Rick Pitino once coached professionals (you can insert your Louisville basketball jokes here), or that the Puerto Rican national team features NBA players such as J.J. Barea and Carlos Arroyo. But the honest truth is we just find this fascinating.


Pitino is in talks to take over as coach of the Puerto Rican national team. He will meet Sunday in Miami with officials from the island nation to talk face-to-face, according to ESPN Dallas. Barea confirmed the news to ESPN.

“He’s very excited and it’s almost a done deal,” Barea said Wednesday before the Mavs faced the Portland Trail Blazers. “And I’m excited for it. We need a guy like that. It’s going to help us as a team.”

Puerto Rico has a good basketball tradition — remember they beat the USA in the Athens Olympics — but last summer they did not impress at the World Championships in Turkey. There are questions about whether they can to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics (that qualification tournament takes place next summer in Argentina, the USA already qualified this summer by winning the World Championships).

So, the Puerto Ricans are going big — not Coach K big, but they are desperate enough to go outside their own group of guys.

“He’ll bring defense and discipline and I think guys will listen to him more than they listen to the guys in Puerto Rico just because he’s Rick Pitino,” Barea said. “I think that will help.”

Celtics fans, stop laughing.  This is seriously going to happen.


source : http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com


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Oliver Lafayette goes back to the NBDL

The Mad Ants are bringing back guard Oliver Lafayette, the leader of their late season rally last season.


Lafayette, whose late season play earned him a callup to the Boston Celtics, hopes to play in the games in Tulsa Thursday and Friday nights if he can gain clearance from FIBA from his contract with the Serbian team that recently released him. Lafayette averaged over 17 points and six assists last season in Fort Wayne.


source : indiananewscenter.com


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Will Yao ever return?

The sad news of Yao Ming's latest setback raises questions about the future of the NBA's most important international star. Will Yao decide to retire at the young age of 30?


Yao's latest stress fracture has been discovered in his left ankle -- the same foot that underwent reconstructive surgery to sideline the Houston Rockets' center for all of last season. No one but Yao can resolve whether he is willing to subject himself to risk of further injury by attempting to come back yet again.

Many league executives have long questioned whether Yao can withstand the pressures of attempting to run the floor at 7-foot-6 and 310 pounds. A variety of injuries had caused Yao to miss 173 regular-season games over the previous five full seasons coming into this year. He had played in five games this season before he was shut down Nov. 10 with an apparent bone bruise in the left ankle.

Yao is in the final year of his contract at a salary of $17.7 million. Should he commit to another comeback, the Rockets will have to decide whether to invest in him and at what price. The anticipated lockout next July could give both Yao and the Rockets more time to decide how best to proceed.

Zach Lowe: Without Yao, Rockets must look to the future.

Yao has already fulfilled his duties as a public representative of China and the NBA. As the most popular athlete of his native country, he served as the face of Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Olympics. His unrivaled status has also afforded the NBA inroads to build its business in the world's most populated market.

Throughout his career Yao has heard the warnings of NBA experts that he needed to cut back on his training with the Chinese national team in order to enable his body to rest. Are these injuries a result of overwork?
In any case, no one in the Chinese basketball federation or the NBA could claim that Yao owes anything to either party after all of the prestige and income he has created for basketball around the world.

That's why any decision to return from this latest injury must be a highly personal choice made by Yao alone. He has advanced to the second round of the playoffs once in his nine-year career, and this season marks the fifth time in six years in which he will have played fewer than 60 games. I would be surprised if Yao were to decide to retire. His pursuit of excellence has been defined by his stubborn, tireless and patient approach,
and his love for basketball is unquestioned. But will he view this as another setback worth overcoming? Only he can make that decision now.


source : sportsillustrated.cnn.com

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Macvan finally moving to Maccabi Tel Aviv until 2015

Took em long enough..


Milan Macvan(2.06-PF/C) will be finally moving to Maccabi Tel Aviv and leaving Hemofarm behind. The Serbian rising star is the cornerstone of Hemofarm but with a hefty compensation that is rumored to be about half a million euros he will become the latest addition to the frontline of Maccabi Tel Aviv. There were plenty of rumors about a speculated move throughout the summer but the plan is barely coming to fruition now.

According to kosarka.rs, Macvan will sign a contract for the next 4.5 seasons with Maccabi Tel Aviv and he will be replacing Richard Hendrix(2.02-PF/C) that never managed to win any significant playing time in the Israeli powerhouse. The deal should be announced fairly soon and Macvan will be helping Maccabi Tel Aviv in the next step of the Euroleague. So far he has averaged. So far he has averaged 17 points 8 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 5 games in the Eurocup and also 19.5 points 7.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 11 games in the Adriatic League for Hemofarm. Richard Hendrix might be released at the same time unless his compensation hasn't been worked out yet.

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Panellinios announced Steven Smith

They wanted a center but they signed the first player they saw..


Steven Smith(2.03-PF) was announced today by the official site of Panellinios BC. The deal is valid until the end of the season and Smith will be returning to Greece after season 2008-2009 where he was leading the scoring board playing for Kolossos Rhodes for most of the regular season but an achilles tendon rupture cost him dearly. Last season he played for Ironi Nahariya in Israel and this season he started in Oldenburg but he couldn't adapt to the team's style of playing so he was released.

In Panellinios they needed a center but Steven Smith's case came up so they didn't hesitate to sign because of his previous record in Greece. This season he averaged 8.5 points and 4.7 rebounds in 12 games in the Bundesliga. However Smith is replacing Andre Brown who is a center but Smith is a power forward. Only time will tell if this will help Panellinios who are currently running a bad 1-7 record in Greece.


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