New to Euroleague
Hey guys,
I am new to watching the Euroleague from the end of last season and loved it, i have been a Knicks fan for the past 21 years since playing basketball at the age of 13. I am now at the stage where i think i should be choosing a team but seeing as there is none in Aberdeen Scotland where i am from its not as easy as supporting local (not even sure any British teams have made the league).
Have been reading up on the main site and some blogs and liked the look of Milan because of the link through players they have with the Knicks but is there any teams linked to UK or Scotland i should know about?
Again new to watching the league but loving it so i will say sorry now if i need to ask any noob questions at a later date.
So recap, any teams linked to Scotland any way or any UK teams and failing that any British speaking teams?
hi there muldwych
good to see some more felow brits get into the euroleague
im quite new to the euroleague, always been aware of the euroleague since being a basketball fan since the late 90s but never followed it particularly closely since maybe the last 3 years as there is little to no coverage of it here (as you are aware), obvioulsy my old favourite team the london towers used to be in it but they were quite clearly way out of there depth, but now we get a weekly game on espn and i subscribe to ebtv last season so im hooked
its great because unlike the nba, every game really matters, you only have 10 games in the first round, and now the 2nd round has expanded to 14, but when the nba has 82 games each game is less meaningful, and is why i never really used to make effort to watch the nba until after the all star game
theres not a lot of british team connections, obviously we had the towers back in 00-01 and 01-02 and a few before that but they all majorly flopped, we used to be a bit better in the 2nd tier eurocup with brighton and towers having success but then our most recent effort with guildford was a joke, we have a long battle to get back to euro competition level
the only two connections i can think of is some of our players, as for scotland we did have robert archibald at unicaja malaga but he plays for some other spanish non euroleague team to i think zaragoza, but nothing currently but as for uk as a whole we have joel freeland who also plays for and is one of the main guys for unicaja malaga, but i think he might be leaving, and my personal favourite pops mensah bonsu plays for besiktas and he just led them to euroleague qualification by winning the turkish league, weve had others in the past too like andy betts, john amaechi etc
the other connection is the fact that the euroleague final four is coming to londons o2 arena, ill be making the trip from preston, will you be too, its guna be epic
yes olimpia milano (offical name), or ea7 emporio armani milano (you will find a lot of teams have sponsors taking over there name) is a good choice of favourite team, and i see you made the link between ex knick galinari and them, not to mention mike dantoni who led them to titles as a player, they have a good arena good fans and a rich history and are looking to return to there glory days, you might also like olympiakos as they have new knick 2nd round pick papanikolou who i think is guna be a very good player
euroleague i find far more fun and exciting to watch than the nba, mostly because individual games matter more, and i think they play a far more pure and asthetically pleasing style
Some very small connection with Scotland: Vladimir Romanov is the owner or Zalgiris Kaunas and Hearts. I don't know though if it'll lead to support or to dislike towards ZalgirisOriginally Posted by muldwych
There're probably none related with Scotland, but of course Unicaja still has Freeland under contract as sm11 mentioned, also if I'm not wrong Devon van Oostrum has contract with Caja Laboral for upcoming season, but might be loaned again
Stay away from being a Milano fan. Their coach is terrible. You can pick a better team than that to follow.
Thank you for all the replies people, I will watch a bit longer and see if any grab me but I do seem to be leaning to Milan. When I get a chance today will have a look around the rest of the forum and see what is up with and I hope there is a British Basketball section even if the only Scottish team is in Glasgow
.
And you're not from Edinburgh, so do Aberdeeners have some unpleasant opinion of all things from Glasgow? It's sad that British teams don't participate in European club competition anymore. It could definitely make your league better.Thank you for all the replies people
Still most of the best British players (except some NBAers like Deng) are playing in Europe, especially in Spain. Joel Freeland is already one of the best European power forwards and there are some other Brits who are doing (or were doing recently) very good in Europe. I can easily come up with the names like Andy Betts, Robert Archibald, Daniel Clark, Matthew Bryan-Amanning, Mike Lenzly and Kieron Achara. Clark and B.-A. are young and promising while all others managed to have respectable and successful careers in European basketball. Especially the first two who were very valuable guys in top European teams.
About choosing the team for which to root I recommend you to watch Euroleague on regular basis whole season and then to make some more rightful and informed choice. Milano was a great team some time ago while now they have a massive budget (by European terms as we're light years behind NBA in that department) but are not playing as they should. If current trend continues Milano will keep on underperforming for quite a some time.
Overall, happy to see you here
I can tell you that EL is fun to watch even without supporting a team!! That's what I'm doing since 7-8 year long.. and I'm really enjoing!
I'm a FinalFour Devote.. even if not supporting a team.. I've been to four final4 (including the last three in a row) and I absolutely want to be in London next year.
If you're looknig to Scotland connection to EL... you'd better watch to Flight connection that can cheapely bring you to see some live matches... that could be a way to choose a team to support.
If you are a stats addicted, don't miss the EL Fantasy Challenge.
No Scottish in EL team 2011-2012 rosters .. the onyl UK player, Freeland, has just left for NBA... you might hope that Pops Mensa-Bonsu will soon ink with an EL team...
Hope this helps, and welcome from an Italian EL fan.
Devotion
Thanks again for the replies guys, have decided it is Milano I will support, been on youtube watching some of there videos and cant wait for the season to start although we do have the Olympics first ;-)
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