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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