The Miami Heat have overcome their early season wobbles to become one of the NBA’s best teams, but they are a long way from the finished article.

(Discuss the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic in our basketball forum)

Carrying a 43-17 record into Thursday night’s home game against Florida rivals Orlando and seemingly in command with a 24-point lead in the third quarter, LeBron James and the Heat allowed the Magic to battle back and claim a 99-96 victory.

While Dwight Howard led Orlando on the interior, scoring 14 points and grabbing 18 rebounds, Jason Richardson torched the Heat from outside and finished with 24 points.

He had 11 to ignite a 40-9 run that left the visitors on top 89-82 in the final frame.

Richardson made all five of his shots from long range after half-time.

“I’ve been a part of games like this one before, but this one is special,” Richardson said.

Chris Bosh and James ended up trying to make three-pointers in the final seconds but missed as Orlando claimed a famous triumph.

With the defeat, Miami fell two games behind Boston for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Orlando are fourth in the East, two and a half games adrift of Chicago.

Read the full article at FIBA.com.

Aussie center Andrew Bogut took advantage of a decimated Magic squad lacking superstar center Dwight Howard, all-star guard Jameer Nelson, and sharpshooter J.J. Redick, all out with a stomach virus.

(Discuss Andrew Bogut’s NBA season in our Australian forum)

In the Buck’s 96-85 win, the 7-0 pivot scored a season-high 31 points by hitting 13-20 shots, matching his season-high for rebounds with 18, as well as fouling out Marcin Gortat, who started in Howard’s absence.

“Bogut was tremendous all night,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. “We couldn’t stop him in the post, we couldn’t keep him off the glass. He was dominant.”

However, Bogut couldn’t shake the free-throw bug that has plagued him this season – missing eight straight free-throws while the Magic intentionally fouled him in the fourth quarter.

“To me it’s very frustrating,” Bogut said. “I feel I let my teammates down, in a sense. In this game if I had made just five more free throws we’re up 16 and the game is much more comfortable.”

This season has Bogut shooting career lows from the line.  The 26-year old may have went to the line 16 times, but only make five of his attempts. For the season, Bogut has shot 57 free-throws, making just 24, a terrible 42.1%.  Bogut is avergaing 13.1 points and 11.5 rebounds for the 7-12 Milwaukee Bucks.

Orlando Magic center Marcin Gortat would like to be playing more minutes.

“I love the organization, but I’m not going to stay here being a back-up player and playing five minutes a game,” Gortat said. “I hope people understand that. I know I can have a bigger role on another team.”

The problem? Gortat plays behind all-world center Dwight Howard.

In the last four games, Gortat has played seven, eight, seven and six minutes. A total of just 28 minutes or an average of seven minutes per game.

However, this discontent isn’t anything new and one could see it coming. The problem goes back to the summer when Gortat was a restricted free agent coming off the Magic’s trip to the 2009 NBA Finals.

The 25-year old was playing the market as the Magic were unlikely to have enough money to re-sign both he and unrestricted free agent Hedo Turkoğlu.

Gortat was reportedly offered a huge offer sheet by the Dallas Mavericks, where he would probably been the starting center, but when Turkoğlu ultimately left Orlando for Toronto, the Magic had enough money in the coffer to match Dallas’ offer.

And they did so, keeping the 7-0, 240lb Polish center in Florida for the next five years despite Gortat’s agent, Guy Zucker, advising the Magic not to match the offer.

Right now, despite being unhappy with his minutes, Gortat seems resigned to waiting it out. For now.

“I really don’t think about this now. But at some point, I want to have the chance to sit down with coach Van Gundy and tell him how I feel and where I want to go with my career,” Gortat said. “I’m 100 percent sure coach will understand and will do the right thing for me and the team.”

To read the full article, go to the Orlando Sentinel.

It was swingman on swingman as Argentinian Carlos Delfino had a monster block on Frenchman Mickael Pietrus. Check out the high-flying swat.

Dwight Howard dominated the middle with 25 points, 20 rebounds, and 4 blocks for the Magic. Ersan Ilyasova led the Bucks with 20 points and a career high 16 rebounds.

It’s been a dream season for Hedo Turkoglu (discuss).

Sure his stats are down, in fact Turkoglu’s stats have dropped in every major category from last season: points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, FG%, FT% and 3PT%.

Last season Turkoglu averaged career-highs in points (19.5), rebounds (5.7), assists (5.0) and was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player.

Despite being only the third leading scorer on the Magic team and his lower numbers during the 2008-09 campaign, the success and exposure that he received this year, as the Orlando Magic advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1996, has been invaluable to both player and the franchise.

Well, not exactly invaluable.

We will see how much Orlando values the 6-10 clutch forward from Istanbul this summer.  Turkoglu is entering the final year of a six-year, $36 million contract and Hedo is scheduled to make $7.3 million next season under the current terms of that deal.

But according to Lon Babby, Turkoglu’s agent, those current terms are all but over.  Babby told the Orlando Sentinel that Turkoglu will opt out of his contract and test the free agent waters in two weeks (June 30 is the first day players can declare for free agency).

“It would make sense for him to opt out,” Babby told the Sentinel. “I can’t imagine a scenario in which he would not.”

The question is how far can the Orlando Magic go without the versatile forward?  Without Turkoglu, Dwight Howard would have to dramatically step up his inside moves (and not to mention his free-throw shooting) and Rashard Lewis would certainly get less open looks without Hedo creating off the dribble.

“I think Hedo distinguished himself in this playoff run,” Babby said. “He’s in a different spot than he was before the playoffs began. He’s a rare player, a unique player who helped take a team to the Finals. He’s grateful for the opportunity he has been given.”

“He’s enjoyed his time in Orlando. It’s a solid organization, a team on the rise,” Babby continued. “(but) Hedo will weigh his options.”

“I hope we have the same group of guys here next year to go into battle,” Turkoglu said after Orlando’s game five loss in the 2009 NBA Finals. “But the people upstairs make those decisions.”

Luxury Tax Considerations
Depending on the amount, re-signing the 30-year old Turkoglu may send the franchise over the luxury tax threshold for the first time in the franchise’s history.   If a NBA team surpasses the projected $69.4 million dollar budget next season, every dollar they are over, they will have to pay a 1:1 luxury tax

Knowing the importance Turkoglu plays in the team’s success, Orlando Magic president Bob Vander Weide has said exceptions could be made in order to re-sign Turkoglu.

“We’ve always avoided the tax, but winning has a crazy effect on people,” Vander Weide said. “The (DeVos family) are having fun right now. I don’t think anyone has a willingness to stay in tax for 10 years, but to go in for a few years to ride this out, I don’t think that’s threatening to our family short-term.”

The DeVos family own the Orlando Magic.

Hedo Turkoglu has played for three NBA teams thus far; the Sacramento Kings (2000-03), San Antonio Spurs (2003-04), and the Orlando Magic the last five seasons (2004-09).

Gortat also Free Agent:  Turkoglu isn’t the only international player that the Magic have to worry about this summer.  Marcin Gortat, the 7-0 backup center from Poland, is a restricted free agent. Gortat made $770,000 this season and his solid play backing up Dwight Howard will certainly garner interest around the league.

It’s likely that Gortat will have a different NBA jersey on next season as the Magic will focus their time and money on locking up Turkoglu.

Links and Resources: Agent: Turkoglu to enter free agency (ESPN), Magic may focus on retaining Turkoglu in offseason plans (USA Today), Turkish Basketball Forum (Interbasket), Rich DeVos’ comments about gay marriage prove a magnet for controversy (MLive), Hedo Turkoglu named 2007-08 Most improved (Interbasket)

Today’s pic is dedicated to the man child of all man children dunking on another man child. Um… ok, English = Dwight Howard dunking on LeBron James, 7-3 Lithuanian Zydrunas Ilguaskas and Delonte West can’t get into the picture quick enough!

It’s really hard to make NBA players look helpless, much less LeBron James, but that’s exactly what Dwight is doing in the pic.  Howard, Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Mickael Pietrus and the Magic were too much for King James.

Orlando defeated the Cleveland Cavs 103-90 in the deciding games.  They needed six games in the Eastern Conference Finals.  Dwight Howard and his Magic will face the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2009 NBA finals, whom were 2-0 against Kobe Bryant and his crew in the regular season.

Links and Resources: NBA Basketball Forum (Interbasket)

Interbasket is happy to announced our 2008 IBN Award Winners.  I feel this year’s winners are the most diverse and on-point in the three-year history of the awards.

With both well-known and lesser known players being nominated this year, our third annual Interbasket award winners  mirrored many of the mainstream awards handed out by their respective domestic leagues and international tournaments.  Some of those awards include  the Euroscar award, NBA MVP, Euroleague MVP, All-NBA teams, Olympics Medals, regional championships, and other accomplishments.

Haddadi Larger than Life in 2008
The biggest surprise, both in 2008 and in our voting, is the 7-3 center Hamed Haddadi.   Haddadi wasn’t well-known coming into the second half of 2008, then ended up leading the Beijing Olympic field in both rebounds and blocks.  He then was signed by the Memphis Grizzlies, making him the first Iranian player in the NBA.

Only the most diehard international basketball fan and Middle East hoopers knew of Haddadi before the Olympics, but everyone knew of him once August 2008 came to a close.  So Haddadi won Interbasket’s 2008 Asian/Middle East Player of the Year, breaking Yao’s stranglehold on the award the last two years. And that’s saying a lot of Haddadi’s year as Yao donated time and money to the Sichuan earthquake survivorss, had another successful all-star season in the NBA, and led team China to a respectable performance in the 2008 Olympics as hosts.

Even with Haddadi’s groundbreaking year, our community still honored Yao as second-team All-World, while Hamed was named third-team – most-likely recognizing that despite the headlines, Yao was still the more advanced player.

Outside of Hamed Haddadi’s upset, some other notable first time winners of an IBN award are Patrick Mills (Oceania), Carlos Morais (Africa), and Ricky Rubio (under-22).  Check out this year’s awards to see what you think:

• 2008 Interbasket Player of the Year: Kobe Bryant, USA
• 2008 Basketball Team of the Year: USA Olympic Team
• 2008 International Player of the Year (non-USA): Pau Gasol, Spain
• 2008 Under-22 Rising Star: Ricky Rubio, Spain
• 2008 African Player of the Year: Carlos Morais, Angola
• 2008 Asian/Middle East Player of the Year: Hamed Haddadi, Iran
• 2008 Euroleague Player of the Year: Ramūnas Šiškauskas, Lithuania
• 2008 European Player of the Year: Pau Gasol, Spain
• 2008 Latin American Player of the Year: Luis Scola, Argentina
• 2008 North American Player of the Year: Kobe Bryant, USA
• Oceanic Player of the Year: Patrick Mills, Australia

• 2008 All-World First Team:
• G: Kobe Bryant, USA (60)
• G: Chris Paul, USA (55)
• C: Dwight Howard, USA (57)
• F: LeBron James, USA (52)
• F: Pau Gasol, ESP (43)

• 2008 All-World Second Team:
• G: Manu Ginóbili, ARG (21)
• G: José Calderón, ESP (15)
• C: Yao Ming, CHN (30)
• F: Kevin Garnett, USA (31)
• F: Dirk Nowitzki, GER (20)

• 2008 All-World Third Team:
• G: Rudy Fernandez, ESP (13)
• G: Tony Parker, FRA (tie, 9)
• G: Dwyane Wade, USA (tie, 9)
• C: Hamed Hadaddi, IRA (22)
• F: Ramūnas Šiškauskas, LIT (12)
• F: Paul Pierce, USA (20)

Kobe, USA: Redeemed
Another surprise was Kobe Bryant winning Interbasket player of the year and the USA National Team winning team of the year.  For obvious reasons, Interbasket’s forum leans international, and despite all that, it’s a well-deserved award for both.   Kobe and Team USA have had tough years in terms of reputation, but 2008 proved to be their year as both redeeemed themselves; Kobe Bryant with a NBA MVP, NBA finals appearance, and gold medal while Team USA rampaged the competition on their way to a gold medal. Team USA played one of the best international games in recent memory in the Olympic finals vs. Spain.

Ramūnas Šiškauskas, Pau Gasol, and Luis Scola took home more virtual IBN hardware, whereas international mainstays Steve Nash, Yao Ming, Manu Ginobili, and Dirk Nowitzki walked away empty-handed without an individual award this year (though Nowitzki, Yao and Manu are represented in the All-World Team).

Since the Interbasket awards aren’t limited by one league or tournament, we use one full calendar year to determine the most-deserving recipient.  When we determine the player of the years, it includes all games, tournaments, playoffs, awards, and performances starting January 01, 2008 to December 31, 2008.   So though a player may participate in the 2007-08 season, only the season that falls in the 2008 calendar year should count.  It makes voting a little harder to determine, but is the best way to keep everything fair, and the 2008 awards is truly 2008 accomplishments.

Links and Resources: 2008 IBN Award Winners Announced (Interbasket), The 2008 IBN All-World Team announced… (Interbasket), Pau Gasol wins 2008 Euroscar Award (Interbasket),  Hamed Haddadi signs with Memphis Grizzles (Interbasket), Hamed Ehadadi, the next big thing (Interbasket), Patrick Mills Profile: Olympic Breakouts (Interbasket), Patrick Mills News (Interbasket), Ricky Rubio Profile | 2008 Olympic Breakouts (Interbasket)

With the Olympics all done and all the medals handed out. I thought it would be a good idea to collate some of the best Olympic basketball photos into one gallery. I’ve organized the Olympic photos by date, so you can follow the tournament as it progresses.

The images in this gallery are taken from, and courtesy of Yahoo, Gettys Images, NBC Olympics, and from FIBA.com

[Show as slideshow]

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Links and Resources: Fiba’s 2008 Olympic Basketball Photo Gallery (Fiba.com)

Well, it’s not quite a video of the dunk, but it’s a nice animated gif that shows just how great Rudy Fernandez’s dunk really was during the second half of the Olympic gold medal game.

On the play, Rudy Fernandez and Pau Gasol ran a very loose pick and roll on Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard.  Kobe, the supposed great defender, gambled trying to steal the ball from behind Fernandez.

With Kobe Bryant behind Rudy, Dwight was forced to switch out on Rudy, whom already had nice momentum going.  Rudy paused, took another dribble and two steps, rocked the ball in his right hand and slammed the ball through with Howard too far behind to block or stop the dunk.  Rudy swings on the rim with one hand before dropping down.

You can’t see Kobe Bryant’s reaction as you did during the game’s broadcast.  After the dunk, Kobe raised his arms in frustration and it seems as if Kobe was pointing that frustration at Dwight.  i hope that’s not the case because it was Kobe’s poor defense that allowed that play to happen.

I’ll also be adding a photo gallery of different angles of Fernandez’s dunk later on.  Until then, enjoy the little animation of Rudy Fernandez’s slam dunk on the United States’ center Dwight Howard.

edit: added the video with Spanish broadcasters from MySpaceTV:

Links and Resources: Download video of Rudy Fernandez dunk on Dwight Howard (Tinypic.com),  Rudy Fernandez Dunk Video with sound in Spanish (MySpaceTV.com)

The United States Men’s basketball team, dubbed the Redeem Team, captured the Olympic gold medal for basketball yesterday, defeating Spain 118-107 in a tightly-contested and high-scoring game (replay).

The 2008 US National Team has shunned any comparisons to the iconic Dream Team, and ironically, they’re probably the closest thing to the 1992 team in terms of dominating the competition.  Coming into the final game with Spain, the USA had defeated teams by an average of just over 30 points a game.

The win placed the USA back on top of the basketball world, but the game also showed why Spain is considered one of the tournament favorites, and basketball powerhouse, as they played a composed game, withstood the American’s defensive pressure, and fought hard for 40 minutes before finally succumbing by eleven points, which is the lowest victory of margin for the Americans during the Beijing Olympics.

Quarter-by-Quarter Breakdown:
First Period: Other than the 17-year old Ricky Rubio starting in place of the injured Jose Calderon, there weren’t any significant changes in the starting lineups.

LeBron James started out the game with a long three pointer for the United States, and was immediately answered by a Pau Gasol‘s three point play on Spain’s first play.  The two teams would exchange leads throughout the beginning of the game before Spain took one-point lead after a Carlos Jimenez three pointer to make it 10-9 Spain.

The Spanish were able to maintain a slim lead throughout the next four minutes and would take a 5 point lead after free throw by Juan Carlos Navarro.  The United States would then outscore Spain 21-9 to finish out the first quarter, to take a 38-31 lead.  Dwyane Wade scored eight points during their run and led the United States in scoring with twelve first quarter points.

The second period starts out with five straight points from Kobe Bryant, which pushes the United States’ lead to 13.  Critical time for Spain because with a couple key mistakes, this could be when the United States goes on one of their runs that takes the spirit out of their opponents.

But the Spanish would remain strong with a Marc Gasol basket, a Rudy Fernandez three, and a couple free throws from Ricky Rubio that puts the Spanish within striking distance again.  Spain would close the lead to six twice in the period, but wouldn’t get any closer than that.

USA goes into halftime with an eight-point lead 69-61, thanks to Dwyane Wade’s 21 points and 10 points from Chris Paul.  Spain’s Rudy Fernandez, who will play for Portland in the NBA, came alive with 11 points in the period, including three three-pointers.  Pau Gasol added 9 points.

Third Period: Spain took advantage of four USA turnovers in the first few minutes and uses a 10-6 run, with four points each from Felipe Reyes and Juan Carlos Navaroo, to start the third period.

The run brings the lead down to just four points, 75-71, and prompts the USA to call a timeout.

The two teams would exchange buckets before the US eventually builds the lead to 11 before Juan Carlos Navarro strikes at the buzzer with one of his patented runners to make it a nine-point lead going into the final quarter.  Navarro goes for four field goals and eight points in the quarter and Carmelo Anthony hits six points for the USA.

Fourth period: Spain is down nine, but they use a 7-0 run out of the gate with two straight buckets from Pau Gasol, and a three from Rudy Fernandez to cut the United States’ lead to just two, 91-89 with a little over eight minutes remaining in the game.  This mini-run prompts another US timeout.

Coming out of the timeout, the USA answers Spain’s 7-0 run with one of their own; Kobe hit a tough jumper in the lane, a Deron Williams three, and a Dwight Howard dunk, both off Bryant assists.   The lead is back up to nine, at 98-89.

Rudy Fernandez would break Spain’s drought with another three, but Kobe would answer with a three pointer of his own.  After a LeBron James putback of his own miss, Fernandez runs a pick-and-roll with Pau Gasol.  Dwight Howard switches out on Rudy after the supposedly great-defender Kobe Bryant goes for a steal.  Rudy looks left takes one hard dribble, takes two long steps with Dwight Howard trailing, and puts down a spectacular one-hand dunk with Howard in tow.  And one.

After the free throw, the lead is back down to eight, 103-95.  Pau Gasol would hit for four points on Spain’s next two trips to cut the lead to five, 104-99.

On the following USA possession, Kobe Bryant hits a long-three and is fouled by Rudy Fernandez.  Not only would Bryant convert the free-throw for a rare four point play, Rudy Fernandez would commit his fifth foul on the play, and was disqualified from the game.

And even with the lead back up to nine with just over three minutes left, Spain still had more fight in them.

Spain would score the next five points with a Juan Carlos Navaroo runner and a Carlos Jimenez three cutting the lead back down to four, 108-104.

And again the USA would counter.  Dwyane Wade would hit his fourth and final three-pointer on the next possession to push the lead back up to seven with just over two minutes remaining.

Spain would miss their next three shots and wouldn’t get any closer than six.  With 34 seconds left, Marc Gasol would follow up a miss by his brother to make the score 115-107 and USA bench was already celebrating, knowing that the game was all but over.

The final score, 118-107, was not indicative of how close the game really was as technical fouls against Spain’s bench and Rubio padded the final score.

Respect for the Both Teams
After the game, there was respect for both teams for what they had just accomplished.

“Every possession counted.  You couldn’t take one second off. Much respect for Spain” LeBron James said shaking his head as if the USA had lost the game “Spain was unbelieveable.”

“It has been a very beautiful game to play,” said Spain’s Pau Gasol. “It’s a pity because we came mighty close. We never backed down and played a tough game. I think this final game says a lot about what team we are and how we deserve to be in this position.  We should be very proud of what we have accomplished here.”

“Spain was fabulous. Everything we did, we tried to stop them, we couldn’t stop them completely and it was a great basketball game where everybody involved played at the highest level,” said US Coach Mike Krzyzewski. “It brought out the best in us. We played with great character in one of the great games of international basketball history.”

Gold Medal Game Recap, Facts, & Stats
The USA used great shooting from the three-point line. hitting a US Olympic record 13 threes at a 46% clip (13-28 including four threes from Dwyane Wade, who led the US in scoring with 27 points and 4 steals.  Kobe Bryant added 20 points, 6 assists and played a significant role in withstanding Spain’s comeback in the fourth quarter.

Lebron James scored 14 and grabbed 6 rebounds.  Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul each scored 13 points.  Paul added a team-high 5 assists.

Rudy Fernandez led Spain in scoring with 22 points, Pau Gasol put up 21 points and 6 rebounds.  Juan Carlos Navarro added 18 points and 4 assist.  Carlos Jimenez chipped in with 13 points.

Pau Gasol’s brother Marc, who will join Fernandez as an NBA rookie next year, scored 11 points and pulled down 5 rebounds.

Ricky Rubio totaled 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals in helping to fill the point guard void left by the injured Jose Calderon.  With his silver medal, Rubio became the youngest basketball player ever to win a gold medal, beating out the legendary USSR center, Vladimir Tatchenko, who won a bronze in the 1976 Olympics.

USA Basketball has put together a 96% winning percentage, with a 122-5 record, and have now medaled in every Olympic basketball competition they have particiapted in. Including these Olympics, the USA has 13 gold medals, one silver (1972) and two bronzes (1988, 2004).

Links and Resources: Americans overcome battling Spain to win gold medal (FIBA), USA Men Fight Off Spain To Claim 118-107 Win And Olympic Gold Medal (USA Basketball), USA vs. Spain Replay (Interbasket), 2008 Olympic Men’s Basketball Tournament Results (USA Basketball), USA-Spain Play by Play and Boxscore (NBC Olympics), Images in this article are courtesy of Gettys Images.

With a few days left before Olympic basketball begins, Interbasket is previewing the twelve national teams participating in the tournament.  We reviewed the six teams in Group A on Tuesday, and we’ll be reviewing Group B today. (Click here for Olympic Basketball Group A Preview).

With the United States, Spain and Greece all in Group B, the group is obviously the tougher group of the two. Unlike Group A where five teams have a chance for four spots with Iran a 100-1 chance to win a game, Group B will likely have one spot for either Angola, China, or Germany assuming that the heavyweights take the top-three spots.

United States Olympic Preview (discuss)
FIBA World Ranking: 1 (832.2)
Qualified: 2007 Fiba Americas Tournament (Gold)
Roster: Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, Deron Williams
Facts: If the USA wins the gold, Jason Kidd will join Larry Bird as the two oldest basketball Olympic gold-medalists (Larry was an older 35, beating Kidd by a few months).
Note: This may be the first real group of US players that are coming in with a real sense of urgency and respect (basketball-wise) for their opponents.  “For too long, we’ve been saying it’s our game,” said USA coach Mike Krzyzewski. “It’s really the world’s game. You can’t be arrogant and win.”

I’ve followed their U.S. coverage and their play and teamwork seems as cohesive as I have seen a US team with a couple exceptions. Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade have proven they haven’t completely bought into the team concept when they step on the court as they’ve broke the offense many times to go one on one with only mixed results.  Wade has converted on his individual forays, while Kobe has not.

This type of play will hurt the US especially against more disciplined teams such as Greece, Spain and Argentina, but if they make the shots that will add to the US’s intimidation factor.  And though the intmidation factor is not nearly as it was in the previous years, the USA still can seem imposing.

“(The USA) can intimidate a lot of people,” said Australia‘s Chris Anstey.

The key for the USA and their intimidation is their defensive ball pressure and offensive flow.  One feeds into the other, and if the US runs into a defensive team with capable guards (see Greece, Spain, Argentina and Croatia), it can cause major problems for the United States.

Every time Jason Kidd has put on a USA jersey, he has been an important player for the United States, but his needed impact is less necessary this time around with the growth and skills of the spectacular Chris Paul and powerful Deron Williams.

Outside of needing work on his help defense, Carmelo Anthony continues to be the most-adapted international player on team USA, Instead of being the explosive scorer he is in the NBA, Anthony is quietly getting 15 a game by letting the game come to him.

LeBron James is adapting, though he’s been tempted to shooting fadeaway jumpshots as he does in the NBA, his amazing shooting percentages in the FIBA tournament of the America and the recent pre-tourney games shows he is picking and choosing his spots.  (He averaged 18 ppg in the TOA on 76% from the field and 63% from three).

The play of the big guys, Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh, will be particularly important against the more competitive teams.  Howard is at that stage of his career where consistency is still an issue.  Some days he looks like a thinner, more athletic Shaquille O’Neal and other days he seems content, almost biding his time, watching LeBron, Carmelo, and Wade get their shots.  I think the US is definitely one of the favorites, it’s how this team will respond to being challenged will be the true test; will they come together or will they be tempted to play one-on-one?  USA’s First Game: August 10th, 2008 vs. China (22:15 local time)

Links and Resources: Basketball at the Summer Olympics (Wikipedia), US survives toughest test, beat Asutralia by 11 (Associate Press)

Spain Olympic Preview (discuss)
FIBA World Ranking: 3 (580)
Qualified: 2006 World Championships (Gold)
Roster: José Calderón, Rudy Fernández, Jorge Garbajosa, Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol, Carlos Jiménez, Raúl López, Álex Mumbrú, Juan Carlos Navarro, Felipe Reyes, Berni Rodríguez, Ricky Rubio
Facts: A tribute to how strong this Spanish team is, they won the 2006 World Championships without leading scorer Pau Gasol, whom was injured the game before.  Espana’s medalcount stands at 97 total medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, placing them 34th overall in the world, behind Greece.

Note: The Spaniards are a disciplined, emotional, talented, and they don’t just want to beat you, they want to embarrass you.

The Spanish National Team hasn’t changed much in the last two years and they’re bringing almost the same squad as they had in the 2006 World Championships (where they won first), and the 2007 Eurobasket (where they took 2nd).

Speaking to the talent of the Spanish team, they boast seven players that have played, currently play, or will play in the NBA, the most in the Olympics outside of the USA.

Spain brings back 10 of the 12 players from those two tournaments, only swapping out point guards Carlos Cabezas and Sergio Rodríguez with point guards Raul Lopez and Ricky Rubio, arguably the best 17-year old basketball player.  With only minor changes to the team, and without significant losses to their core, Spain’s chemistry and gameplan will be amongst the strongest, if not the strongest, in the field.

With that said, Group B has the best guard play in the tournament, and Spain boasts a really strong backcourt in fiery Jose Calderon, La Bomba Juan Carlos Navarro, solid Raul Lopez and teen phenom Ricky Rubio.  Look for Calderon to be all over the floor this tournament, whether because of opponents or self-inflicted.  Also look for opposing fans to hate him.

Their frontcourt is nothing to sleep on either with their cog Pau Gasol and brother Marc are intense on the inside.  Swingman Rudy Fernandez is a better-Carlos Delfino – much better.   Carlos Jiménez is one of those players that is more than willing to sacrifice any individual accolades so that his team succeeds, that’s a nice way of saying he’ll do the real dirty work.

Spain has been looking great in preliminaries blowing out contenders in Argentina and Lithuania.  I know that using friendlies as a gauge is flawed, but I think it does help to determine a team’s preparedness, especially when playing against other senior national A teams.

Pau Gasol is weary about the competition, but it doesn’t phase his confidence “There are several big teams in the competition, such as Argentina or Greece — and especially the United States is very strong this year,” the Spanish superstar said “Once we are in the quarter-finals we will begin to make plans. We must demonstrate to everyone why we came here as the favorites.“ 

Their first step towards those quarterfinals is a huge one, they’ll play Greece in their first 2008 Olympic match.  That’s going to be one intense game, people.  Spain’s First Game: August 10th, 2008 vs. Greece (14:30 local time)

Links and Resources: Basketball at the Summer Olympics (Wikipedia), Kobe can Wait, says Spain’s Gasol (AFP), What about Carlos Jimenez? (Interbasket)

Greece Olympic Preview (discuss)
FIBA World Ranking: 6 (429)
Qualified: 2008 World Olympic Qualifying Tournament
Roster: Yiannis Bourousis, Dimitris Diamantidis, Antonis Fotsis, Andreas Glyniadakis, Theodoros Papaloukas, Michalis Pelekanos, Giorgos Printezis, Sofoklis Schortsanitis, Vasileios Spanoulis, Kostas Tsartsaris, Panagiotis Vasilopoulos, Nikos Zisis
Facts: Throughout its history, Greece has totaled 104 total medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, placing them 33rd overall in the world (behind New Zealand and ahead of Spain).

Note: Not far behind USA and Spain, is Team Hellas.  Aggressive on offense and defense, the Greeks have an all-world defense led by their starting backcourt of Theodoros Papaloukas and Dimitris Diamantidis.

The Greeks came off a unbeaten record in the World Qualifying Tourney (4-0) defeating their opponents by a decisive 32 points a game, including a complete 57-point drubbing of Lebanon.  Yowza.

Along with the United States and Spain, Greece’s backcourt is amongst the strongest in the tournament with all-European player Theodoros Papaloukas, defensive genius Dmitrios Diamanditis, the fearless Vasillis Spanoulis, and solid Nikos Zisis.

Theodoros Papaloukas is a pure point guard that stands 6-7, and is arguably been Europe’s most successful player in recent history, as well as being the Euroleague’s all-time leading assist man and thief.  Diamantidis is the Joe Dumars of the Euroleague, quiet, smart and known for his defensive prowess, the Octopus Man has being named as 2007 Euroleague Final MVP,  2005, 2006 and 2007 Euroleague Best Defender, 2006-07 All-Euroleague First Team.  Spanoulis provides an aggressive player that can get to the basket and Zisis a consistent perimeter threat in both running the offense and shooting the three.

Zisis is coming off a shoulder injury from the World Qualifiers, but should be ready in time for Greece’s first game matchup against Spain.

On the frontline is the 6-10 Antonis Fotsis, a skilled athelete with a knack for rebounding the ball can also step back and shoot the three.  6-9 Sofoklis Schortsanitis who was a force in the 2006 World Championships, but since has had trouble controlling his weight and 6-11 center Yiannis Bourousis.  Bourousis will fill the space of the national team center mainstay Lazaros Papadopoulos, whom wasn’t included on the Olympic roster.

Greece has been running on all cylinders as of late, that’s not good news for Group B, or the rest of the world for that matter.  Their first test is going to be a good one, they’ll be playing recent nemesis Spain.  Expect some sparks to fly.  Greece’s First Game: August 10th, 2008 vs. Spain (14:30 local time)

Links and Resources: Zisis to undergo intensive treatment (FIBA), Basketball at the Summer Olympics (Wikipedia),

Germany Olympic Preview (discuss)
FIBA World Ranking: 9 (284, tie)
Qualified: 2008 World Olympic Qualifying Tournament
Roster:  Patrick Femerling, Robert Garrett, Demond Greene, Steffen Hammann, Jan Jagla, Chris Kaman, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Ohlbrecht, Pascal Roller, Sven Schultze, Konrad Wysocki, Philip Zwiener
Facts: Dirk Nowitzki will join Sarunas Jasikevicius, Manu Ginobili, and Andrei Kirilenko as the flag-bearer for Germany, which apparently is odd because only German Gold Medal winners who took part in several olympic games were considered. Germany’s total medalcount is at 648 for both Winter and Summer Olympics, putting them 5th in the world.

Note: This is Dirk Nowitzki’s first Olympics and the pressure is on. Because Deustchland is still all about Dirk Nowitzki, the burden for him to perform is at its highest since he led Dallas to the NBA Finals two years ago.

Recognizing the reliance on Germany’s best hooper, Team Germany has continue to fine-tune and tightened up Dirk’s supporting cast.

They’ve added naturalized American 7-0 center Chris Kaman whom will take a huge load off of Nowitzki by holding down the interior and pulling in his share of rebounds – Kaman averaged 8.6 rebounds and added 12.6 points to boot in the FiBA World Qualifying Tournament.

Germany has also tweaked the players outside the paint with solid preimeter players and outside shooters in Pascal Roller, Steffen Hamman, Demond Greene, and Robert Garrett.

Robert Garrett is 6-4, but Roller stands only 5-11, and Hamman and Greene at 6-1.  With significant players lacking in height, Germany will really miss their warrior in the paint, 6-9 Ademola Olulaja, whom pulled out of the Olympics after reportedly being diagnosed with a tumor in his spine.  With Okulaja out, the 33-year old, 7-1 center Patrick Femerling and 6-8 Konrad Wysocki will be called upon to contribute in the German frontcourt.  With all that said, this team’s fortunes begin and end with Dirk Nowitzki, and the 7-0 German has always delivered in international tournaments. Germany’s First Game: August 10th, 2008 vs. Angola (11:15 local time)

Links and Resources: Basketball at the Summer Olympics (Wikipedia), Nowitzki will be flag-bearer for Germany (Spiegel.de), Concerns raised over Okulaja’s health (FIBA)

China Olympic Preview (discuss)
FIBA World Ranking: 11 (252.7)
Qualified: Host
Roster: Yao Ming, Liu Wei, Yi Jianlian, Chen Jianghua, Weipeng Zheng, Chen Jianghu, Sun Yue, Wang Zhizhi
Facts: China has 319 total medals in both Winter and Summer Olympics, ranking them 15th in the world. Among the 433 torch bearers in the final Olympic torch relay from the Forbidden City to Beijing, Yao Ming was the ninth bearer.  Yao will also be the China’s flag-bearer for the opening ceremonies, this is the second consecutive Olympics that Yao has the honor of bearing the flag, he also did so in Athens 2004.  Including 2008, Chinese Basketball players have beared the flag for China in the opening ceremonies in seven straight Olympics Wang Libin (1984), Song Tao (1988), Song Li (1992),  Liu Yudong (1996 and 2000), and Yao Ming (2004 and 2008).

Note: Host team China has the pressure to do well on their homecourt.  Despite the obvious lofty expectations, Team China’s goal is progress, and that is to make it into the quarterfinals.  With USA, Spain and Greece all in China’s group, that would be a great accomplishment for the host team.

Chinese superstar Yao Ming is coming off another leg injury and whether his timing and stamina will be up is a concern for China.  “I went several months without playing and it’s hard.” Yao said.

Even if Yao doesn’t score 30 points and grab 15 rebounds in a game, the 7-6 center’s presence is invaluable to Team China on both ends of the court.  Teams have to be concerned that the Chinese giant is more than capable of getting 30 points and 15 rebounds.

Like the Aussies, the strength of the Chinese team is their frontcourt.  With the new walking great wall, veterans Ming, Wang Zhizhi, and newcomer Yi Jianlian (taking place of Mengke Bateer) standing at the frontline, they will certainly be imposing.  A couple issues with the big men is that they are all turnover prone, how well they will move their feet and how quickly they can get to rebounds, as none of the three are lightning quick or are naturally strong rebounders.

China has never had a problem filling their frontline with talented big men, but the question has always been whether China will have the capacity in the backcourt to finish off competitive games.

Liu Wei is an experienced international player and should do a decent job running the point as he played 10 years with Yao Ming and this will be his third Olympics.  Liu’s backup is Chen Jianghu, whom participated in the 2007 Nike Hoops Summit as part of the World All-Star team, is new to the National team and tends to play sporadically.

Even with all the questions about China’s National Team, Li Yuanwei, deputy director of the Chinese Basketball Association thinks this National team is the best team China has ever fielded: “I think the Chinese teams at the Beijing Games are the best.” We’ll have to wait and see.  China’s First Game: August 10th, 2008 vs. USA (22:15 local time)

Links and Resources: Basketball at the Summer Olympics (Wikipedia), China has best basketball teams in history, top official (Xinhua), Olympic Torch Relay begins final leg to Beijing (China Daily)

Angola Olympic Preview (discuss)
FIBA World Ranking: 14 (206)
Qualified: 2007 African Championships (1st)
Roster: Carlos Almeida, Felizardo Ambrosio, Milton Barros, Abdel Aziz Boukar, Olimpio Cipriano, Armando Costa, Luis Costa, Vladimir Geronimo, Joaquim Gomes, Paulo Leonel, Eduardo Mingas, Carlos Morais.
Facts: This will be Angola’s fifth-straight Olympic Games as the sole representative from Africa.

Notes: Angola is the perennial African champions, and have won the last nine of ten African Championships, dating back to 1989.  Despite the continental success, Angola has never placed higher than 10th in either the Olympics or the World Championships.  The southwestern African nation is looking for a lot more progress this time around.

Angola is assuming that powerhouse USA, Spain and Greece will advance to the quarterfinals so, they’ve marked the calendars for their games against Germany and China.  “Spain are world champions, and Greece and the U.S. are just very, very tough.” said Carlos Almeida, Angola’s veteran shooting guard. “China and Germany are tough teams but we will try to steal those games.  We know we have the ability to beat them.”

Defeating Dirk Nowitzki and Yao Ming’s teams would basically guarantee Angola a spot in the next round.

Angola comes back with a similar gameplan as in past tournaments – small ball.  Always seemingly bringing a roster that is lacking a legitimate big man, Angola plays small ball with their tallest players only standing at 6-8; leading scorer and rebounder Joaquim Gomes.  Abdel Aziz Boukar is also 6-8 and Felizardo Ambrosio is 6-7.

What the Angolans lack in height, they make up for in speed, energy, and athleticism, quite possibly matching the USA in overall athelticism.  Team Angola has will be led by the three-headed forward combination of Joaquim Gomes, Eduardo Mingas, and Olimpio Cipriano.

This threesome has consistently been Angola’s leading scorers over the last several tournaments, and we would assume that this will remain the case.  The 29 year-old Mingas and 27-year old Gomes have played together since the 2002 World Championships, with Cirpriano joining the tandem in the 2004 Athens Olympics.  Angola’s First Game: August 10th, 2008 vs. Germany (11:15 local time)

Links and Resources: Basketball at the Summer Olympics (Wikipedia), Angola aims to give China the elbow (Guardian.co.uk)

Jason Kidd is apparently headed back to Dallas, where he started his career almost 14 years ago. The star power and talent continues to shift to the Western Conference. With Pau Gasol being sent to the Lakers in exchange for a bag of peanut butter cookies, and Shaquille O’Neal traded to the Phoenix Suns for Shawn Marion, the NBA should seriously consider moving Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, and the Detroit Pistons to the West, and close up shop in the Eastern Conference. Just a thought.

Every Wednesday during the NBA season, Interbasket takes a closer look at ten international NBA players that has caught our eyes, our good eye or our stinkeye. (This week is for period 01/02/2008- 01/08/2008)

This week Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian are performing in different directions, Tony Parker receives an important award, the pros and cons of dunking for both Andris Biedrins and Dirk Nowitzki, DJ Mbenga‘s story, we begin to question Darko Milicic’s potential, and the NBA calls up a 7-2 Croatian and a Puerto Rican Superman from the NBDL.

Is Darko Officially a Bust at 22-Years Old?
So whoever still believes in Darko Milicic‘s ability to succeed in the NBA, raise your hand.

Man, I just don’t know anymore. I was a believer once but being a seeing-is-believing kinda guy, I need him to show me a little more. I know the Serb center with the foul mouth is only 22 years old, but he really hasn’t shown much this season to warrant any excitement for his future.

Milicic is averaging the most minutes in his career yet his stats aren’t reflecting the extra tick. After a while, if one doesn’t fulfill their potential, it’s either a bad-scouting or a lack of effort. I firmly believe, from the few minutes that I saw him play under the Pistons his first year, Darko thought he was better than garbage time. And on that 2003-04 Piston team, he wasn’t.

Now it’s Darko’s sixth season, his third NBA team, and his last three seasons look too similar. It would different if we were seeing a small increases in production season-over-season, but that’s not the case.

Considering the players drafted after Darko (Carmelo, Wade, Bosh, and Josh Howard) and Sam Bowie was riddled with injuries during his career yet still managed to put up respectable numbers (14.7 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks in one season with the Nets) — if Darko continues down this mediocre path, he could go down as the worst draft pick than the infamous Sam Bowie.

Tony Parker: European of the Year?
Tony Parker was just awarded the European Player of the Year given by Gazzetta dello Sport, an Italian Newspaper focused on sports. The award marks the first time in six years that Dirk Nowitzki didn’t win the award. Mr. Longoria beat Nowitzki by 17 points this year (128 to 111). Andrei Kirilenko, who led Russia to the Eurobasket gold medal, finished third with 85 points. The jury that decides the award is made up of a total of 100 writers, coaches and players from 28 different countries.

This was Parker’s first Euroscar award, he finished 3rd in 2005. Had Nowitzki won again this year, he would have tied Arvydas Sabonis‘s record with six EuroScar awards. Currently the German superstar is tied with Toni Kukoc, whom also has won five of these awards. Check out the list of winners here, along with second and third place finishers.

Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian
Milwaukee has quietly won three out of four (yeah it was against Philadelphia, Charlotte and Miami, but a win is a win!) and Andrew Bogut has played a large part in each of the wins. The Aussie center scored a season-high 25 points, including a short hook with 19 seconds remaining to seal a win against Charlotte.

In those four games, Bogut put up 15.2pts, 9.8 rebounds, 3 assists, and shot 53.1% from the field, all above his season averages of 12.1,pts, 8.8rebs, 2.2 asts and 50.6% FG.

On the other side of the coin, Yi Jianlian was either jinxed after winning NBA Rookie of the Month for December, by my comments last week that he could actually contend for Rookie of the Year honors, or a combination of both.

Since being awarded that honor on January 2nd, the same span that Bogut flourished, Jianlian hasn’t performed to expectations. In the last four games, the rookie from He Shan, China has chipped in only 6.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1 block per game and shot 30.3% from the field, including an 0-7 performance yesterday against Philadelphia. His rebounding average was the only stat that saw improvement during that week.

More Andris Biedrins Love
And here’s out weekly Andris Biedrins love — the Latvian center that just turned 21 last year has been leading the NBA in field goal percentage. AB is is currently way out in front of everyone at 65.4%, three full percentage points ahead of fellow center-of-the-future Andrew Bynum. THE current center of the future Dwight Howard is currently at third with 60.9%. Of the three, Biedrins is the oldest.

And I want to emphasize that Biedrins isn’t dunking everything or getting a ton of alley-oops lobs like Howard and Bynum. As of this writing, Dwight HOward leads the league in dunks and Bynum is #2. Where is Biedrins? All the way down at #36 with 27 dunks, tying his teammate, the 6-3 Monta Ellis.

Almost half of Dwight Howards made field goals (46.7% to be exact) are dunks (130 of 280). Same with Bynum, 48% of Bynum’s FGs have been dunks this year (80 of 166), while Biedrins dunk-to-FG ratio is at 16% (27 of 168). Watching Biedrins, there are times in which he can dunk the ball, but instead lays it in, but even so, not enough to even come close to being where Bynum or DHo are at.

The left-hander eastern European has a nice soft touch around the basket and picks his places. Many of his baskets come from rolling to the basket off a pick and roll or slipping in for offensive rebound tip-ins. Biedrins has a great sense around the hoop, great timing and springs off the ground faster than most small forwards.

Andris has seen his minutes steadily rise during the season, especially lately in which he has seen at least 23 minutes in the last ten games and has been averaging a double-double in that span 11.0 pts, 10.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks. On the season, Biedrins is averaging 10.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks. Consistency, baby!

Who is the Top International NBA Dunker?
All this talk about dunks got me wondering which international NBA player has accumulated the most dunks this season. My immediate thoughts considering the height and minutes played, that Yao Ming would be on top and Nowitzki would be somewhere near the top-five, but I found something much different…

Dunk Totals and Stats for the NBA season thus far (International Players):
1. Samuel Dalembert, Haiti/Canada 62 dunks (6th overall)
2. Yao Ming, China 59 (7th)
3. Pau Gasol, Spain 39 (23rd)
4. Andrei Kirilenko, Russia 29 (35th)
5. Andris Biedrins, Latvia 27 (36th)
5. Yi Jianlian, China 27 (36th)
7. Linas Kleiza, Lithuania 25 (44th)
8. DeSagana Diop, Senegal 20 (59th)
9. Ronny Turiaf, France 17 (69th)
10. Luol Deng, Sudan 15 (74th)

Source: CBS’s Dunk-O-Meter

Linas Kleiza is a nice surprise to be found on the list, considering his minutes and that he isn’t a seven-footer like 5 of guys ahead of him. Says a lot about the Lithuanians aggressiveness towards the basket and his ability to run the floor on the break.

No Dirk Nowitzki even in the top-100 of dunkers in the league? I find that a bit odd, I swear I’ve actually seen 5 of his dunks on highlights this year. Nowitzki is tied with Hilton Armstrong with 10 dunks and right above Julian Wright. Not looking at how many games he has played, that’s less than a dunk every three games.

Outside of Nowitzki’s pathetic dunk numbers, Dirk has slowly and surely brought his scoring touch back in the last month, as Josh HOward’s numbers have also returned to normal levels. In the last nine-games (Dallas has won eight), Dirk has put up 28.4 points per game, 10.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists and shot 48.4% from the field. That’s compared to his season averages of 22.2ppg, 8.6rpg, 3.8ast, and 47.3%.

Back to Golden State: One International In, One Out.
Late last week, the Golden State Warriors called up Serbian center Kosta Perovic from the NBDL. The 7-2 Perovic, who was the 38th overall selection in the 2006 NBA draft has yet to play for the Warriors. Kosta has been developing for the Bakersfield Jam in the NBDL. Perovic is looking forward to the cushier and more consistent surroundings of the NBA ” “We don’t have a practice facility (with the Jam), we practice one day at a high school, one day at the arena, and our lifting room is away from the gym on the other side of town, so it’s all spread out.” Perovic said.

Kosta had played 19 games this season for the Jam, and averaged 8.9 points (on 48.8% from the field), 5.9 rebounds, 1.4 blocks in 22 minutes a game.

One in, one out. Hard-working and all-around great guy Didier Ilunga (DJ) Mbenga was waived by the Golden State Warriors today. The 7-0, 255lb Congalese center played 16 games this season and was brought in by Don Nelson because the two had a great relationship in Dallas.

I’m sure Mbenga’s interesting path to the NBA was another factor that Nelson considered. Mbenga’s story is one that mimic those of other African NBA players such as Luol Deng.

Didier Mbenga was born in Zaire and his father was involved in the former Zaire’s government. When his father’s term was over, the reigning regime hunted the old government’s leaders, putting the Mbenga family on the run. The father died mysteriously to unknown causes, but many suspect the obvious.

DJ spent nine months on Hutu death row after being mistaken for a Tutsi, but eventually escaped with the help of a prison guard that was bribed by his brother. The Mbenga family had enough and escaped to Belgium where they received political asylum and eventually, Belgian citizenship.

With the help of Belgian basketball legend and his mentor Willy Steveniers, Mbenga spent five years developing on several Belgian teams, moving from youth division to second division to the first division before finally signing with the Dallas Mavericks at the start of the 2004-05 season.

Mbenga signed a conditional-guaranteed contract on November 17th that would have become guaranteed tomorrow, Thursday. Unfortunately for the native of the Congo, backup point guard Troy Hudson’s career may be over, so they had to make room for another point guard so they brought in D-League star guard CJ Watson.

Clippers Call Superman
Guillermo Diaz is a 6-2 Puerto Rican combo-guard nicknamed “Superman” that has been toiling in the NBDL this season, until he was called up to the NBA yesterday. The 22-year old is espected to sign a 10-day contract after Brevin Knight had a minor injury and Richie Frahm was waived. Diaz played college basketball for the University of Miami, spending three seasons there before being named All-ACC second team and declared early for the NBA draft.

He was made the 52nd overall pick in 2006, but was eventually cut. Since then Diaz has bounced around the world playing basketball — Diaz spent the 2006-07 season with CEZ Basketball Nymburk, a club team in the Czech Republic, averaging 20.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 15 games. In 2007, Diaz moved on to Greece, playing in five games with AEP Olimpiada Patron in the Greek League, putting up 13.0 points per game.

After being waived by the Clippers right before the start of this NBA season, Diaz has played 14 games for the Anaheim Arsenal and was averaging 16.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 33.1 minutes for his minor-league team before being recalled up by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Guillermo Diaz was the 100th player to be called up from the NBDL… well, technically both Diaz and CJ Watson were called up on the same day, and NBA.com didn’t make any distinction into who was the actual 100th call-up from the NBDL. It’s taken over 6 years for the NBA to reach bring 100 NBDL players into the league.

Sources: Parker named European Player of the Year (AFP), Parker wins 2007 Euro Thread (Interbasket Forum), Full List of Euroscar Award Winners from La Gazzetta dello Sport (Interbasket), Darko’s Post-Game Threats Draws 10,000€ Fine (Interbasket), CBS’s Dunk-O-Meter (CBS Sportsline), Sam Bowie’s Career Stats (Basketball-Reference), Warriors waive C DJ Mbenga, recall C Kosta Perovic from D-League (Yahoo), DJ Mbenga Wikipedia Profile (Wikipedia), Another D-League gem? (InsideBayArea), Clippers Sign Guillermo Diaz to 10-Day Contract (Nba.com)

Every Wednesday during the NBA season, interbasket takes a closer look at ten international NBA players that has caught our eye. This week is for period 11/15-11/21/2007.

After three years of gathering splinters on the bench (and two championship rings), and with Jacque Vaughn getting the backup PG calls, little-used Beno Udrih was finally traded by the Spurs. The Minnesota Timberwolves then promptly waived the guard from Slovenia.

With the injury to Mike Bibby that will keep him out of action for nearly two months, Udrih was then signed by Sacramento and is now the team’s starting point guard. Beno had 23 points and 6 assists in Sacramento’s impressive win over Detroit and is putting up 13 points, 4 assists 2.7 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in six games with the Kings before he was injured in Tuesday’s game with a thigh contusion.

Unlike Udrih, Luis Scola never got the chance to don a Spurs jersey, garner splinters and be on the receiving end of a Gregg Popovich spit-filled tirade. Scola was shipped off to Houston in hopes of more playing time and not taking any minutes from fellow Argentine Fabricio Oberto. Scola came in with high-expectations and many labeling him and Kevin Durant as the serious rookie of the year candidates, but the transition hasn’t been nearly as smooth as all had hoped. Scola was struggling to find his way, and from a few games that I watched, it seemed his teammates had lost confidence in his abilities.

With Tracy McGrady injured and unable to look Scola off, Luis grabbed the opportunity to show off his wares – mid-range jumpshots, rolls to the hoops to the tune of 10-11 shooting and 20 points against… well, the Spurs. Coincidence? Probably. “It kills me to have him on that team,” Popovich said after the game, “Enough to make you spit.” Whoa, relax Pop, don’t go spitting. The man needs anger management!

Scola followed his breakout game with 20 points (on a career high 19 FG attempts), 11 rebounds and 4 assists against the Suns – unfortunately the Rockets lost both those games and have lost 4 straight after starting the season off 6-1, but it’s good to see Scola finally getting his confidence back. Hopefully when McGrady returns, the Rockets can incorporate the 2006 Spanish league MVP.

I love Manu Ginobili, but really, I am tired of talking about how he’s having a fantastic year and looks revived and is the most-exciting NBA player to watch yada yada yada… luckily I can talk about his international backcourt mate Tony Parker. After a couple slow games, Parker torched the Hawks for 17 points in the second quarter, and 31 points for the game last night. TP started the season strong but has since settled; his stats so far this season almost mirror the previous 3 seasons – 18 points, no more than 6 assists a game, 3.5 rebounds, 1 steal a game, 50% from the field on 14 shots a game. I thought Tim Duncan was supposed to the boring and consistent one?

After having another 0 point outing, Juan Carlos Navarro found his stroke in his eighth NBA game; going 8-9 from three-point and totaling 28 points in their loss to New Orleans. With those eight threes, Navarro tied a rookie-record for threes made (shared by Jason Kidd and Chris Duhon). Since then Navarro’s shooting has been much improved (it helps to go 8-9), following his record-setting night, he has gone 4-8 and 4-5 to help offset his dismal start to the season.

Andrea Bargnani has been an enigma this season. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern as to if he’ll play well one game and awful in the next. The season’s only eleven games deep and already Bargnani has had enough highs and lows to fill a NBA schedule. The 2006 number-one draft pick started out the season with 20.5 points, 5.5 rebounds on excellent shooting in two wins for the Raptors – then couldn’t find his shot in the three consecutive losses (32% FG). Bargnani was benched for five games which didn’t improve his shooting confidence much (35%) before he was re-inserted into the starting lineup last night in a heart-breaking loss to the Mavs (he had 20 points and was 5-9 from three).

Golden State put a stop to their winless ways with more than a little help from their Latvian center Andris Biedrins. In their two wins, Biedrins has averaged a monster double-double 19 points and 16 rebounds at 71% from the field. Before Wednesday’s game against the Knicks, Biedrins was averaging a career high in minutes (36), points (13.4), rebounds (11.1), assists (1.9), blocks (1.9), and FT% (70%) (also personal fouls and turnovers, but that comes with the territory of being more involved). Let’s all keep in mind that this is only Biedrins fourth NBA season and he just turned 21 years old in April. I think we’re looking at another international superstar in the making….

Speaking of international big men, is Zydrunas Ilgaukskas really only 32 years old? I guess he was the Greg Oden of his day, looking much older than he actually is. It doesn’t help, despite his soft touch and consistent midrange jumper, that he’s always been slow and hulking around the basket which only served to emphasize his Oden-ness.

After playing all 82 games in his first season, Zydrunas missed 155 games the next three seasons. However, since then Big Z has only missed 14 games in the last five seasons. And this season Ilgauskas is looking like a beast on the boards, demolishing his career average by 4 rebounds per game. The Lithuanian giant is averaging 16pts, 12.1 rebounds, 1.5 blocks on 50% shooting and 84% from the free-throw in nearly 34 minutes a game while holding down the middle for the Cavs. Anderson Varejao who?

Anderson Varejao who? Oh, him. Yeah, the guy that’s still holding out and wants $10m/season (the Cavs are offering $6m). I like Varejao, but c’mon man… someone really should send him a tape of himself playing, particularly of that spin-move prayer during game three of last year’s NBA finals.

Really, this guy must have a warped sense of what he really brings to the table. I am beginning to believe the accounts from the 2006 World Championships when Varejao’s elbow broke Greece‘s three bones in Nikos Zisis’ face. Varejao reportedly told him that Nikos didn’t respect him enough, enough for him to elbow an opponents face – I am seeing a little of that in his holding out.

The Dallas Mavs haven’t missed a beat — and that historically meant that Dirk Nowitzki was tearing things up — but thats just not the case this season (before last night when Nowitzki hit four straight 3-pointers in the final 1:41 of the third quarter to bring the Mavs back from a 24 point deficit against Toronto).

With Josh Howard leading the team in scoring at 21.9 a game, Jason Terry motivated by his sixth man role (with a starter-like 20.3), and Devin Harris continuing to improve (15.4ppg), the Mavs can afford Dirk’s slow start. Before his 32 point outing against Toronto last night, Nowitzki was shooting at career lows across the board FG (44.5%), 3PT (26.1%) and FT (78.1%). The last time Dirty has shot at a lower percentage in his career was when he was a rookie (40.5% FG, 20.6% 3pT, and 77.3% from the FT); when everyone thought Don Nelson was crazy for picking the wunderkind. No doubt Dirk will pick up the pace, and if the other guys are rolling as they have been, the Mavs are going to be even tougher.

I don’t know about you, but I have yet to be convinced of Sasha Vujacic. He keeps showing up on the Laker’s roster year after year, but I’ve never seen much out of him when I saw him play.

Looking at his stats this year, it might not be obvious that anything has changed this year – but if you look deeper, you can see that Vujacic is having a very promising start to the season. Currently, the backup guard from Slovenia is averaging a career best in points (6.5), in only around nine minutes a game, his lowest mpg of his career thus far.

It’s not his points or assists, it’s Sasha’s efficiency from the floor which has seen his shooting percentages near Steve Nash levels. Given, thats not a fair comparison seeing as Vujacic shoots about 3.5 times a game, but instead of shooting at a low-30% clip, he’s hitting over half his shots this year. “Sasha last year made every shot in practice — and couldn’t make one in a game,” Kobe Bryant said. “Now he’s starting to put `em together, so it’s cool.”

Other notes: Man, I would really hate to be an opposing NBA center when Dwight Howard hits his prime. That guy is seriously a beast; I’m talking Shaquille O’Neal freak-of-nature-size-plus-athleticism-scary (and the terrible FT%). D-Ho (there’s got to be a better nickname than that) is putting up 22pts, 14rebs, and 2.4 blocks on pure overwhelming athleticism without a go-to move or a back to the basket game.

Sources: Sacramento Kings sign guard Beno Udrih to fill in for Mike Bibby (CanadianPress), Popovich and R.C. Buford: How Scola and Udrih got away (MySA.com), Raptors still have confidence in slumping Bargnani (Canada.com), Dallas Comes Back from 24 point deficit to defeat Toronto 105-99 (Yahoo!), Lakers trying to figure out backcourt minutes (Honolulu Advertiser),