Euroleague Fantasy Scouting 1

To make the lives of Euroleague Fantasy Challenge players easier i have decided to help them out by offering them all 24 scoreboxes from their domestic weekend games.

You can download them HERE.

Fascism in Euroleague

How popular is fascism in Europe nowadays? Have you ever wondered? Generally speaking one can run into a great variety of fascism forms all over Europe pretty easily, unfortunately.

But I never though that fascism can be met in Euroleague basketball arenas. And I am not talking about the fans. I am talking about the officials of Euroleague clubs.

It seems that the authoritarian and arbitrary way in which Jordi Bertomeu is running the Euroleague, has made Euroleague club managements to take liberties with fascism, or just one club in particular that is.

I am referring to Maccabi Tel Aviv. One would say that as an Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv would know better than this and not affiliate fascist measures. OK, enough talking, let's see what happened.

Last Thursday a fellow Euroleague fan decided to attend the Maccabi Tel Aviv - Cibona game for the Week 5 of Euroleague. Having seen enough and being disappointed with Maccabi Tel Aviv's poor performances he decided to show his discontent about the situation with a friend. No, he did not swear at the players. He did not call for Katash to resign. He did not throw chairs, fireworks, food, whatever in the arena. He just... dared to make a banner which quoted "BYNUM OUT OF MACCABI", take it to the Nokia Arena with him and raise it during the warming up of the two teams.

The result? Well, I'll just let the fan talk for himself here:

Me and my friend had enough of Bynum. The managment aren't doing anything about it and won't release him. Same goes with Kattash and the GM of the team Zvika Sherf. So we decided to show our disapproval and made a sign which said "BYNUM OUT OF MACCABI". We arrived at the Nokia arena an hour before the game started. At around 7:30 PM (local time) we raised the sign when Maccabi T.A. players made their pre-game shots and while the entire Maccabi T.A. Staff and Management were on the courtside.

So after we raised it the Nokia Arena manager (his name is Nir Parselina) saw it and he sent two security officers towards us. They told us that if we showed the sign once more they would throw us out of the Arena.

***(AND WE ARE SEASON TICKET HOLDERS!! WE PAID MORE THAN $1500 for those season tickets!)*** So we told them that it was our right and thar Israel is not a Dictatorship. After we told them this, the security officers tear the sign from us and walked away.

Is this the Euroleague, and the European basketball in general, that we want? Where a fan, which contributes considerably to the team both financially and morally, can not express his feelings and opinions and instead sees his constitutional rights being blatantly violated in the home court of his favorite team that he and so many more people, who love democracy and freedom, supports?

I think that this incident was a huge foul from Maccabi Tel Aviv's side and that they liable to all basketball fans.

Keep rocking and balling my fellow Euroleague fans. Never Mind the Bollocks!

CSKA Moscow Cheerleaders Unplugged!

Why do I think that this will be the most popular post of this blog? Until the next one ofcourse.

Have you ever wondered how do cheerleaders look, behave, live outside the Arenas? Personally, I haven't. But I'm sure that you have...

So here we go:

Anna Burkina is the head of the CSKA Dance Team. Here she is in action in a CSKA home game:

And here she is enjoying her life:

Here is Anna Zvereva, a CSKA cheerleader

And here she is outside the Arenas:

The list goes on... Here is Evgenya Provodyna in action:

And here she is going on with her perfectly normal life...

Guess what? Another CSKA cheerleader! Please welcome Miss Darya Petrovskaya

Wanna see what she does in her free time? Why not?

I think you haven't had enough and want more... So here comes Darya Goryacheva:

Check out her hobby of... having her pictures taken...

What? You want more? Ok, ok... Ladies and Gentlemen... Masha Pozdnyakova!

Wanna know where she was on holidays this summer? On an island... i'll keep the name for myself though...

OK, I think we had enough for today... Allright, allright I'll post another cheerleader, the last one! Seriously... Miss Nastasia Zaiditinova, my favorite i would dare to say.

Here she is under the sun...

TIP: Click on the pics to see them in full size!

Road to Euro 2008

Dedicated to the England Football National Team

The talented Mr. Marc Salyers

The players who scored 40!!! points against Fenerbahce last week for a Euroleague match was interviewed by 'Athletiki', a Greek sports newspaper.

Here is the translation:

Q: How does it feel to play in the Euroleague? Do you feel that you compete at a higher level?

A: It's a wonderful experience. It is a great competition where some of the best teams in the world take part. Some of which can, in fact, compete with NBA teams.

Q: Many people believe that Roanne is one of the weakest Euroleague sides. What would you say to them?

A: Well i would say: 'You are wrong!!!' We lack some depth as a team but we have some great players who play very good together, we have a great chemistry. We have lost 3 games in a row but we fought in all three until the very end! It is not as if our opponents demolished us.

Q: You have played in Turkey, Italy, France and you are now settled in Roanne. Isn't this hard for a guy who was born in Chicago?

A: Well, i was born in Chicago but i now live in Florida, i own a house there. Roanne is a very nice, quiet place and i generally like the life in France. Truth to be said though, i have always preferred bigger cities.

Q: Like Athens for example?

A: Yes. I would love to play for an Athens team. It has always been a goal of mine to play in the Greek A1, which is one of the best.

Q: There is an impression that your coach, although French, prefers a free style of playing, more American per se. Is this true?

A: Yes, he likes fast basketball, he prefers faster basketball than the rest Euroleague coaches. Of course I prefer this. I like to have the go-ahead in the court and the fact that the coach lets me run the court.

Q: What do you know about Panathinaikos?

A: It is one of the best teams in the world! It is a great club with a huge tradition. Any role player of Panathinaikos can be a star in any other Euroleague team.

Q: Is there a Panathinaikos player you would rather have as a teammate instead of an opponent?

A: No! I would rather have them all as teammates!

Q: You score rather easily, what is your secret?

A: Who, me? I don't score easily... (laughs)

Q: Are you ready to brake your own Euroleague record by scoring more than 40 points?

A: If I am given the chance to do it, sure. I feel capable of scoring 41 points.

Q: What is your prediction regarding the Final Four?

A: The favorites for me at this moment are Panathinaikos, Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow. I'm not sure about the 4th team but these three teams are surely better than the rest!

Marc Salyers is the 2nd scorer of Roanne in the domestic French League where he averages 21.38 ppg and the 1st scorer of Roanne in the Euroleague where he averages 23.75 ppg. Against Fenerbahce-Ulker he scored 40 points in 33'12" having 9/11 2p, 6/13 3p, 4/5 ft, 6 rebounds, 1 block and 1 turnover.

Euroleague Fantasy Challenge: Week 5

I'm pretty sure that many of you are fierce fans of Euroleague Fantasy Challenge, and frankly i don't blame you, at all. This game can be addictive and attractive at times.

So what makes a great Euroleague Fantasy Team? What does it take to make it all the way to the top? Well, if I knew, wouldn't you think I would be leading the overall standings by now?

But... from my experience Euroleague Fantasy Challenge is a combination of game tactics and financial strategy.

You have to find that fine thin line between players who will bring you big points and the players who will give you the +15% maximum credits you need so badly to be able to purchase more expensive and therefore better players for your team.

A big part of the art of finding the players who will score big points for you is scouting. But in our case the scouting can be done from our own office using a computer instead of flying in order to watch the players.

You simply find the boxscores of the Euroleague teams with their weekend domestic performance...

Here are the top domestic competitions performers of the last weekend:

(Evaluation or Ranking Points - Name - Club)

Point Guards:

• 26: Diamantides - PAO
• 21: Zisis - CSKA
• 17: Lakovic - Barca
• 16: Palacio - Partizan, Penn - Efes
• 15: Arslan - Efes, Mulaomerovic - Cibona
• 14: Dragic - Olimpija, Harissis - Prokom
• 13: Conroy - Bologna, Blakney - Oly, McIntyre - Siena

Shooting Guards/ Small Forwards:

• 27: Warren - Cibona
• 26: Milic - Olimpija, Tepic - Partizan
• 25: Kecman - Partizan
• 22: Rozic - Cibona, Giovannoni - Bologna
• 21: Rakocevic - TAU, Winston - PAO, Lukauskis - Rytas
• 20: Rush - Roanne
• 19: Batum - Le Mans, Wagner and Roszyk - Prokom
• 18: Siskauskas - CSKA
• 17: Suput - Brose, Allen - Roma, Eidson - Rytas
• 16: Spencer - Bologna, Stefansson - Roma

Power Forwards/ Centers:

• 44: Lavrinovic - Siena
• 38: Fizer - Maccabi
• 33: Morris - Maccabi
• 31: N'Dong - Malaga
• 27: Jackson - Oly
• 26: Massey - Aris
• 24: Stonerook - Siena
• 22: Mottola - Aris, Watson - Milano
• 21: Badiane and Salyers - Roanne, Bouroussis - Oly, Reyes - Real M.
• 20: Savrasenko - CSKA
• 18: Mickeal - TAU, Lorbek - Roma
• 17: V.D. Spiegel - Prokom, Nielsen - Rytas, Jurak and Bradley - Zalgiris
• 16: Luca - Bologna, Booker - Olimpija
• 15: Trias - Barca, Bogdanovic and Clancy - Le Mans, Hervelle - Real M, Gonlum - Efes

You can download the full list of ALL players who scored 10+ during the weekend HERE