European Basketball

Lonnie Walker IV is attracting interest from NBA teams and is available for a buyout from his Žalgiris contract in the EuroLeague, with any NBA team able to make the move until Feb. 18, according to NBA insider Marc Stein.

The Philadelphia 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami Heat, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics have all been mentioned as potential suitors, per Stein.

Walker notably participated in Boston's training camp ahead of the 2024-25 season. After failing to crack the roster, he declined to sign a G League contract with the Maine Celtics and instead signed with the Lithuanian club, per Forbes' Hunter Felt.

Shortly after the decision, he took to social media to address the situation.

"I'm only 25," Walker posted. "All in due time."

I’m only 25 🙏🏾 all in due time ! The marathon continues. I know the stars will align. Self belief is the best belief. All apart of the story. Stay tuned ⏰

— Lonnie Walker IV (@lonniewalker_4) October 29, 2024

However, Walker has been showing out for Žalgiris. In 11 games he has averaged 14.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists while shooting 43.7 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from behind the three-point line.

Walker was the No. 18 pick in the 2018 NBA draft out of the University of Miami. He spent his first four seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, starting 56 games and averaging 9.4 points per contest while shooting 41 percent from the field and 34 percent from beyond the arc.

The 6'4" guard then spent one season with the Los Angeles Lakers before joining the Brooklyn Nets in 2023-24, with whom he averaged 9.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists while shooting 42 percent from the field off the bench.

After 12 seasons in the NBA, veteran guard Evan Fournier plans to continue his basketball career elsewhere.

Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Monday that Fournier is signing with EuroLeague club Olympiacos on a two-year deal worth over $4 million.

Fournier, who was traded from the New York Knicks to the Detroit Pistons at the 2024 trade deadline, became a free agent after the Pistons declined his $19 million team option for the 2024-25 season. NBA insider Marc Stein reported in July that "there will naturally be talk of EuroLeague interest" in Fournier, but he added that the 31-year-old was "expected to generate some NBA interest" as well.

More recently, Fournier represented France in the Paris Olympics and helped lead the team to the gold medal game against Team USA, but he had to settle for a second consecutive silver medal. He averaged slightly under 10 points during the Olympics.

Fournier's choice to join the EuroLeague likely stems from his diminishing role over the past few seasons. He struggled to see playing time with the Knicks and openly voiced his frustrations. When he was traded to the Pistons, he averaged 7.2 points in 18.7 minutes of action while coming off the bench over his 29 appearances.

The sharpshooting guard is certainly hoping to see more of an opportunity to contribute with Olympiacos. The Greece-based team made it to the Final Four for the third straight year this past season but hasn't won a EuroLeague title since 2013.

FIBA announced that the 2023 U18 European Championship will resume as scheduled on Wednesday following a viral outbreak that affected six teams, per ESPN's Jonathan Givony.

According to Givony, "several dozen players and delegation members from the teams of Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey showed symptoms of nausea, fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea since Monday," which resulted in "multiple players" spending a night in the hospital. All six teams were staying in the same hotel in Nis, Serbia, and the cause of the illness remains unknown.

"Some of the teams' personnel continue to be weakened by the illness but the majority of those affected have either recovered or on their way to full recovery," FIBA said in a statement. "The Serbian Basketball Federation are waiting for the official results of the tests conducted by the relevant health authorities investigating the exact cause of the illness."

The statement also noted that the six teams had the option to postpone Wednesday's games to Thursday, but each of them declined.

FIBA statement about the FIBA U18 European Championship in Nis, Serbia: pic.twitter.com/bupeJNxMMb

— FIBA Media (@FIBA_media) July 26, 2023

This year's tournament has faced roadblocks from the get-go.

Givony noted that the first day saw multiple injuries caused by slippery floors, which led to a "protest as players refused to meaningfully contest the final five minutes of a game" due to the poor conditions of the court.

Kemba Walker began the latest chapter of his basketball journey Friday when he signed with AS Monaco of the LNB Pro A in France.

A four-time All-Star, Walker became one of the most high-profile players to ever make the move from the NBA to the European game following a couple of unproductive seasons in the States, most recently playing for the Dallas Mavericks.

And while he'll miss playing on the sport's biggest stage, Walker isn't sure yet whether he wants to eventually make a return to the NBA. He's just excited to get his European career underway.

"I'm not certain. I mean, the NBA is obviously the main goal, but I've played there for many years," Walker said in his first interview after joining Monaco. "For now, I'm solely focused on my new adventure, this experience that awaits me with the new life I'm going to have. I'm so excited and eager to seize this opportunity in Monaco. I can't wait to explore the city and meet the people, my teammates, the staff, and everything surrounding the club. We're going to have some great moments. Can't wait for it to begin,"

Walker, 33, was one of the best guards in the NBA during the 2010s. He was the only star on a struggling Charlotte Hornets franchise for the majority of his career.

He reached his peak in the 2018-19 campaign—his last year with the Hornets—as he averaged a career-high 25.6 points per game to go along with 4.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.2 steals.

It was also the last season in which he was completely healthy. He'd never play more than 56 games again over stints with the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Mavericks as he dealt with knee injuries.

Walker saw a huge reduction in his role after his second season in Boston, he'd eventually end up with his hometown Knicks after reaching a buyout with the Oklahoma City Thunder ahead of the 2021-22 season, but only played 37 games before getting benched for the rest of the year.

Dallas signed him to a one-year, non-guaranteed deal in Nov. 2022 but he made just nine appearances for the organization, a far cry from his last All-Star season in 2019.

Now, Walker'll be able to return to a much bigger role with Monaco if healthy and is excited to see the belief that the club has shown in him so far.

"The club was very interested in me, and I just wanted to be part of a club that wanted me, that believed in me," he said. "I saw that the directors felt I could help them reach another level. That's what convinced me and made me decide to join Monaco. What's more, it's an extraordinary city where I want to spend some time and gain new life experiences.

"So it's going to be a really fun time, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity. I just want to keep playing basketball at a high level, and Monaco allows me to do that"

The jab step would be the same, so would the grimace and jump shot. The only thing that would change is the uniform as Kobe Bryant considers a very real offer from Italy, and that's no Bologna. 

ESPN reports Italian side Virtus Bologna have not relented in their pursuit of Lakers star Kobe Bryant. The current offer has reached the $5 million mark, which would be pretax and allow for Bryant to return if the NBA was to break the current lockout. 

The report states there have been continuous meeting between Bryant's agent Rob Pelinka, and Bologna President Claudio Sabatini.

The assumption is that Bryant is seriously considering the proposal as the NBA continues to cancel dates and preseason games. 

The NBA is about to shut out a great deal of players from receiving paychecks. That sentiment has many players flocking for the International gate at their local airport. 

Europe could see an infusion of NBA talent that has never been seen before. For a brief moment, the best in the world will be playing overseas. 

Mamba Strikes Abroad

The money means little to a man that revived his image. The Black Mamba is now in the good graces of the American consumer, making him a marketable athlete once again. 

His money garnered through his Lakers contract, along with renewed endorsements makes Bryant a man who is in want of little. 

What he does crave is to stay ahead of the curve. He is well aware that LeBron James is training daily, as is Dwyane Wade and other NBA elite. 

The call of the day is to train responsibly, and to stay fresh until the NBA season begins. The last thing Bryant wants is rust to infect his game, only to see the NBA lift their lockout to save some semblance of the season. 

If the best in the world are playing in Europe, you can bet Bryant will be among them. 

NBA Loss

As great as the 2010-2011 NBA season was, the loss of the upcoming one will be far greater. There is little hope that the season will begin as scheduled, a loss of at least some games is assumed. 

It is a shame considering all the great subplots, story lines and characters we received just a few months ago. The nation was once again on board with the NBA. 

Bryant is not a young man. Each season from here on out is at a premium for fans that have been dazzled by his talents for years now. 

We are on the precipice of allowing a season of great basketball to be shipped overseas. The months of entertainment will be left for highlights we see on SportsCenter. 

Dazzling finishes at the rim will be received on YouTube by uploaders from overseas. This is not what we sign up for as hoops hysterics, but is what we will have to settle for as owners and the union continue their stalemate. 

For one odd year, it will be far better to be a basketball fan in Europe than here in the States. The Mamba will lace up the sneakers once again to amaze fans, it will just be thousands of miles away, now. 

There is a precedent when it comes to drafting European talent into the NBA: you never know what you might get.

There is as much chance as selecting a gem like Dirk Nowitzki as there is selecting a dud like Darko Milicic. The fact is, evaluating European talent is extremely difficult—you are rarely afforded the opportunity to see how they play against top-level competition over a season.

The Euro League is good—and improving—but unfortunately it's not a scratch on the college system in America. There appears to be an influx of foreign talent heading to the NBA in this year's draft, including Enes Kanter, Jan Vesely and Jonas Valaciunas.

Most intriguing of all these prospects however, is the seven-foot Lithuanian Donatas Montiejunas. I was fortunate enough to see a game in Italy where Donatas outplayed his defender, often times effortlessly beating him with superior post-play, as well as the unusual ability for a big man to dribble down the floor and beat his defender on the fast-break.

Unlike many of the seven-footers that are in the NBA currently, Montiejunas can shoot the three ball with apparent ease and passes extremely well. He is probably the most versatile player in the draft, and in the game I witnessed he showed to be solid with both hands in the post, and just as comfortable with his back to the basket as he was on the perimeter.

Not unlike many European prospects drafted in the previous decade, however, Donatas suffers from poor rebounding and a lack of strength. He is indeed aggressive in his approach to offense, but he rarely showed a great deal of intensity.

What Donatas brings to the table though is that of a very unique player, someone who when committed can change the dynamic of a game in a single play. His stats in the Italian league are nothing short of outstanding; he shot 66 percent in the paint and 46 percent from deep—incredible numbers for such a young player.

His potential could see him reach a Pau Gasol-like level, a solid scorer and eventually a good rebounder. Not to mention his three-point stroke that will stretch defenses, as well as strong technical prowess, which will benefit him in the months that he continues to build strength.

He looks to be a lock for the lottery, with a worst-case scenario being that he tumbles a few spots out of it. I'd look for the Rockets to pick him up, hoping that in time he will pick up some pointers from Luis Scola and Yao Ming (if they retain him) in his first season.

Ultimately, it all depends on whether Montiejunas has the desire to add weight to his frame, and to work on the weaknesses he has in the rebounding areas. Will he adapt to the American game?

One must question with all his skills and versatility; he might not have to.

The Euroleague has its own March Madness and, sometimes, enough action to send the announcer into Coocooville.

Witness this overtime basketball game between Real Madrid and Unicaja Malaga, as called by Oscar Cuesta.

Yeah, that's his name: Oscar Cuesta! I said Cuesta. Don't pretend you never stood on a Tijuana street corner asking the friendly streetwalker “Cuánto cuesta?”

In this case, it's Oscar Cuesta, or how much does an Oscar cost?

Anyway, poor Oscar lost his voice at the end of the game, hilariously. The microphone was probably lisp-dripping soggy.

He was so confused he couldn't get the score right.

He was laughing like a Frenchman at a Jerry Lewis movie festival.

He made as much sense as Charlie Sheen trying to explain...anything. 

And don't worry, we've translated every bit of lunacy for you, our favorite reader. Who says March Madness has to stay stateside?

Let's listen in:

Right after a shot is blocked, Cuesta screams "Su casa es Malaga." It's your house, Malaga.

Prigiloni is "looking for a three." Busca un triple. Then he shoots and Cuesta says "madre mia, madre mia que triple... de Priglioni." Mother, what a triple!

And it was a special three-point shot. Priglioni shot the thing from 30'. You could have finished two orders of tapas in the time it took for the ball to splash the net. The ball was in flight forever.

And then, because it seems like Oscar Cuesta really likes casas, he said "es su casa Priglioni" followed by "su quinto triple en este partido." It's his fifth triple of the game.

Cuesta then says what may be his most prescient statement yet "este partido de sopresas" or "this game is full of surprises."

Here's the finish:

"65, 63... en el final del partido... dos horas ya de encuentro." 65-63, at the end of the game, two hours already of the match.

"Otra triple!" Another three!  "Triple de Garbajosa!" A three for Garbajosa! "El Triple por tantisimo... el hombre del partido."  So many threes... the man of the game."

Then he goes crazy. Malaga takes the ball and Priglioni shoots another three with four seconds on the clock. "El triple de Priglioni!"

Right here, his voice is cracking. His mind is telling him this is ridiculous, this can't happening. You are not hallucinating. And then before he can finish saying Priglioni, McIntyre is flipping one in from the 30-foot spot and IT GOES IN as time runs out. 

Here's what it sounds like in Spanish: Dime que no estoy sonando! Tell me I'm not dreaming! (over and over while he's completely lost his voice followed by que partido. Dios!  What a game, God!

Here's the final three seconds in English. An no, the Count from Sesame Street didn't grab the mic:

"It's innnnnnnnn!! It's innnnnnn!! The three by Prigioni. He looks for the three. McIntyre, IN! It's IN! In!! It's Innn! Haha. HAH! Haha HAH! Uhh hahahahahaha. Tell me I'm not dreaming! Hahahahaha! Tell me I'm not dreaming! 65-64! I don't know how we ended up here! WHAT A GAME, GOD!"

Malaga won. Terrell McIntyre, who once played for Clemson, hit the winning shot and the score was 69-68. Poor Cuesta was so in shock he called the score 65-64. 

It might have been worse. He could have ended up yelling GOOOOOAAAAL!!

The NBA is going to Europe sooner than you think.

Of course in the year 2011 this seems like a completely far-fetched, implausible, mind-boggling prediction. But I’ve got some evidence that may sway you.

Sports, like people and the government, have phases. The NFL is currently in its golden era for quarterbacks. MLB is in its post-steroids age trying to recreate a new image for its sport. And the NBA is sort of stuck in a crossroads.  

You saw the NBA enter its modern era in 1984; the birth of the NBA lottery, the three-point line and commissioner David Stern. Stern's vision for this sport was to create superhuman athletes the world could recognize. After all, the guys on a basketball court aren’t wearing a helmet. It’s easy to relate and to recognize them.

So Stern teamed up with Nike, Gatorade and Michael Jordan to create a model for the modern sports idol. Jordan became an international obsession with his winning ways, killer mentality on the court and his accessibility through the expanding media and advertising.  

With Jordan’s help the league exploded and kept expanding in the overseas television market up until 2004, when Jordan had been gone for a while. Other superstars like Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter put together athletic highlights but weren’t winners or marketable abroad like Jordan. The league was in a free fall after a terribly officiated 2007 Finals between the Heat and Mavericks.

Stern knew it was time to start a new era of the NBA. So he arranged super teams in Los Angeles, Boston, Miami (and soon to be New York) maximizing the largest television audiences and exposure for his sport. His idea was that young, average fans will gravitate towards these "super teams" and one day he will be able to scrap out the bottom-dwellers. I’ll explain more about that below.

It’s harder to make the championship game in the NBA than any other sport. And it’s done that way on purpose.

Since 2000, eight teams in the Eastern Conference have made the Finals and only three Western Conference teams have appeared in the title game (Lakers, Spurs and Mavericks). So 11 total teams in 10 seasons. Compare that to 15 in Major League Baseball and 16 in the NFL.

Basketball is a sport dominated by its scoring superstars and if your franchise doesn’t have at least two elite players, you literally have a zero percent chance of even sniffing the golden NBA trophy. The NBA extended all of its playoff rounds to seven games back in the early 2000s, a move that commissioner Stern hoped would eliminate all upsets and put the league's marquee players in the Finals.

Stern’s theory is that pro basketball suffers globally (the league's long-term goal) when teams like the 2004 Detroit Pistons win a championship without a star player. More than any other sport, fans root for individual players' success often times more than their own hometown team. I don’t blame these people for abandoning ship and worshipping Kobe Bryant instead. The NBA is completely unfair the way it is set up in 2011.

Realistically there are only five teams that could win the 2011 NBA Finals. The Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks.

That’s it. The rest of the 25 teams in the league are honestly just playing for some moderate fame and a paycheck. That’s it.

So that’s why boatloads of NBA teams have tried to roll the dice by tanking late in an NBA season. Tanking really doesn’t have a pure definition. It basically means that certain NBA teams employ a strategy to lose on purpose.

Players stop exerting maximum effort, coaches put in horrendous lineups and management pulls the trigger on some reckless trades in an attempt to lose as many games as possible. The NBA draft lottery rewards teams with the most losses, with a higher percent chance of drawing the top overall pick.

It’s crazy because this idea of tanking doesn’t exist in any other sport. If you tried this stunt in the NFL, you’d be immediately fired. In baseball draft picks don’t matter much and continual losing will result in a demotion to the minors.

Which teams have struggled and therefore tanked the past 10 years? New Jersey, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Sacramento, Toronto and Memphis are some cities that come to mind. What do these cellar-dwellers have in common? They play in smaller television markets.

There will always be a competitive unbalance in life. There will always be rich people and always be poor people. There will always be sports dynasties and bottom-feeder franchises. But the NBA, more than any other league, wants this to happen. It is all a part of Stern’s ultimate plan to get his league in Europe.

Here’s where my conspiracy theory takes shape. I think that the NBA wants these small-market teams to fail on purpose. Stern knows that not one human being wants to see a Memphis-Milwaukee Finals. The NBA is a business and therefore wants its best resources (star players) playing in the largest television markets, to attract the biggest audiences, gaining buzz about this growing sport.

You can’t tell me that the Grizzlies actually wanted to part ways with Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown and Javaris Crittenton. And Minnesota knew they were about to reignite the Boston dynasty when they traded 14-time All-Star Kevin Garnett to the Celtics for a bag of peanuts. There are two explanations for trades like this:

1. The league has set them up—similar to the WWE.

2. This is all part of the NBA’s master plan to globalize and these executives are in on it too.

If David Stern can keep star players from staying away from these smaller markets, eventually owners of these teams are going to start losing money. And eventually they will want to sell their franchises back to the NBA, similar with what’s going on with the New Orleans Hornets right now.

The tanking is going to continue. Like I stated above, if you can somehow draft someone like Kevin Durant, your franchise might have a future even in a small market. But with the tanking come hundreds of late-season, meaningless games between two teams who want to lose. Once tanking is brought to light by ESPN or even CBS’s 60 Minutes, sports fans would be outraged that organizations are supporting this losing cause.

What’s the solution to fix the NBA’s competitive problem? Scrap the smallest market teams that continue to fail and move the rights of those franchises to Europe. Stern would set up an expansion draft with all the other top players in the world. The schematics of the NBA would change but there could still be an Eastern and Western Conference but now also a European Division. Traveling would be crazy but teams could go overseas for a three-week period and vice-versa with foreign teams coming to America.

Free agency would now become like soccer, with teams buying and selling players. Eliminating the smaller market teams removes bad businesses from the NBA. Plus there is no denying that basketball is starting to overtake soccer as the world’s most recognized sport. Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are just some of the current foreign players who have gained prominence from the league. And you can add to that list guys like Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutumbo, Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divac and Detlef Schrempf as successful players who originally put this idea into Stern’s little head.

There are a few problems with this idea. Fan backlash from the eliminated franchises could get ridiculous. It would put many American basketball players and team employees out of work.

It could also be one of the greatest ideas to ever come to sports. World basketball All-Star games and championships. The most competitive sports. Also having games on at all times during the day, instead of reruns of Maury. Basketball would now be on the biggest stage. LeBron James even recently said the league could prosper with fewer teams.

The NBA is entering a crossroads in eras. The Michael Jordan age solidified the league as entertaining and competitive. The new super-teams are just the early indication for where this sport is about to go.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is “You have to adapt before they adapt to you.” The NFL has already begun experimenting with in-season games in London and the NBA will follow suit this year in March, when the Raptors and Nets travel to London to play a regular season game. The NBA needs to jump the gun and beat the NFL in globalizing its product.

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