From the crew @ Interbasket (and Pau Gasol), we wish you a very Merry Christmas, a super Hannukkah; a happy holidays.  Whatever you you do, however you are celebrating, whoever you are with, wherever you are in the world – we sincerely hope you have a safe and happy holiday season.

Pau Gasol walks up the court in the Laker’s game vs. the New Jersey Nets.

Merry Christmas or Merry Christmas translated in the many different languages around the world:  Veselé vánoce (Czech), Vrolijk kerstfeest (Dutch), Joyeux Noël (French), Frohe Weihnachten (German), Kala Christouyenna (Greek), Buon Natale (Italian), Linksmų Kalėdų (Lithuanian), Feliz Natal (Portuguese), С Рождеством (Russian),  Vesel Božič (Slovenian), Feliz Navidad (Spanish), God jul (Swedish), Maligayang Pasko (Tagalog – Philippines), สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาส (Thai), Mutlu Noeller (Turkish)…

It’s been a busy week for FIBA as they announced the four wild cards on Saturday, and determined the top four seeds for the World Championships of Basketball on Sunday.

Now the federation that overseas international basketball has announced the draw results that will determine the groupings for the 2010 world basketball event in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 24 participating nations were drawn into four groups of six teams each:

• Group A: Serbia, Argentina, Australia, Jordan, Germany, Angola
• Group B: Croatia, Brazil, Tunisia, Slovenia, Iran, USA
• Group C: China, Turkey, Russia, Puerto Rico, Ivory Coast, Greece
• Group D: Lithuania, Lebanon, France, Spain, Canada, New Zealand

(Discuss the draw results in our forum)

The draw was held at the the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel, Istanbul, on 15th December 15th, 2009 at 11:30AM local time.

The draw was conducted jointly by FIBA and the LOC in the presence of participating nations’ representatives, “National Federation members, prominent public figures and members of the international media.”

The FIBA World Championships are held every four years and determines the world’s top country in basketball.

At the beginning of the NBA season last night, the league boasted 83 foreign-born players, from 37 different countries on opening day rosters.

The 83 players ties the record for the most international players set in 2006-07.

The Milwaukee Bucks’ fifteen player-roster (both active and inactive) features a league-high seven international players.

The Bucks’ roster has Aussie Andrew Bogut, Carlos Delfino (Argentina), Francisco Elson and Dan Gadzuric, both of the Netherlands, Ersan İlyasova (Turkey), Luc Mbah a Moute (Cameroon), and Roko Ukić (Croatia).

The Bucks also feature rookie Brandon Jennings, who spent last season playing in the Euroleague, as well as Joe Alexander, who was born in Koushing, Taiwan, spent significant time in Asia growing up, and is nearly fluent in Mandarin.

Twenty-seven of the 30 teams have at least one international player. The Charlotte Bobcats, Sacramento Kings and Toronto Raptors each have five international players,

The Los Angeles Clippers join the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers as the only NBA teams with no international players. Boston and Indiana continue their lack of international diversity with zero foreign-born players on their 15-player rosters.

The country with the most NBA players this season? It’s France. The French have the strongest representation with a record 10 players on NBA rosters; Alexis Ajinca, Nicolas Batum, Rodrigue Beaubois, Boris Diaw, Yakhouba Diawara, Ian Mahinmi, Tony Parker, Johan Petro, Mickaël Piétrus, and Rony Turiaf.

In comparison, during the 1999-2000 NBA season, the NBA had only 36 international players from 24 countries and territories.

The following is a complete list of international players on 2009-10 NBA opening night rosters:

PORTLAND, Ore.  — On the eve before the NBA season begins, Portland Trail Blazers forward Nicolas Batum will undergo surgery on his right shoulder to repair torn cartilage.

After the surgery, Batum may need as much as 4 months to recover.

The injury was originally suffered late last season in a 93-89 loss to the Dallas Mavericks at the Rose Garden.

Batum would finish out the season, but the injury remained.

The 6-8 forward would go on to play for his national team, but Batum’s ailing shoulder gave cause for concern to the Portland Trailblazers, who summoned the 20-year old back to the United States so the Blazers’ doctors could look at the shoulder first hand.

The Trail Blazers open the 2009-10 season at home tonight against Houston Rockets.

On Tuesday, eleven basketball legends that greatly contributed to the game of basketaball as players, coaches, referees, or contributors were inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain).

The men and women of the 2009 inductees included US and NBA great Oscar Robertson (USA), national team hero Ricardo González (Argentina), women’s basketball legend Jacky Chazalon (France), referee Artenik Arabadjian (Bulgaria), and coach Pedro Ferrández (Spain).

Phostumous inductees include big man coache Pete Newell (USA) and women’s NCAA coach Kay Yow (USA), Ubiratan Pereira (Brazil), referee Marcel Pfeuti (Switzerland), and contributor Luis Martin (Spain).

The  inductees, except for Chazalon, were in Katowice, Poland, on Sunday to watch the final day of EuroBasket before flying out to Spain to take part in their induction ceremony.

Boston Celtic great Bill Russell, who was inducted 2 years ago in the FIBA Hall of Fame’s first class, was also in Spain to take part in the ceremonies.

“It’s an honor to be inducted in the FIBA Hall of Fame,” the now 84-year old González said to FIBA.com. “To be recognized for my career as a basketball player is a wonderful feeling and it gives me great pride.”

Despite being down 19 points in the first quarter, France used 28 points and 10 assists from Tony Parker and a full day of rest to hand Turkey their second defeat in less than 18 hours (discuss).

Turkey tasted defeat for the first time when they were eliminated by Greece in yesterday’s quarterfinals.

“Because of the schedule, in not 24 hours we played two very tough games,” Turkey guard Kerem Tunçeri said. “The first maybe 15 minutes we played great, but after that because of our condition we went very bad down.”

Besides Parker, France had three other players in double figures. Nicolas Batum, Antoine Diot, and Florent Piétrus each scored 13 points for Les Bleus.

Hedo Türkoğlu once again scored 13 points in a Turkey loss, and Ömer Aşık added 11 points.

In the other classification game, Croatia defeated defending champion Russia 76-69 behind 18 points and 8 assists from Roko Ukic, giving them the final automatic bid for the 2010 Worlds.

On Sunday, Croatia will play France for fifth place, while Russia will face Turkey in the seventh-place game.

France was the last qualifier for the Eurobasket, having to play in an additional qualifying tournament against the likes of Belgium, Italy and Finland.

Since Turkey is hosting next year’s World Championships, they automatically qualify for the tournament and could be the reason they sat key Eurobasket components Ender Arslan and the team’s leading scorer Ersan İlyasova.

Had Turkey won against France, Europe would have qualified six teams, but since they lost, Europe, including hosts Turkey will bring seven teams to the tournament.

Katowice - The first day of the quarterfinals are here and no less than 15 former, current, and future NBA players will be participating in the game.

(discuss the France – Spain quarterfinal)

Spain features nine players with NBA affiliations, while France has six players with ties to the NBA.

Everyone already knows the two stars, Spain’s Pau Gasol and France‘s Tony Parker.

“France is a hard rival,” Gasol said. “They are undefeated and we need to beat them if we want to progress. They have confidence and good players as well as being more rested than us, but we have to win.”

The Les Bleus - España game will also display the talents of of current NBA players Rudy Fernández and Nicolas Batum (Portland Trailblazers), Boris Diaw (Charlotte Bobcats), Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies), Ronny Turiaf (Golden State Warriors), Ian Mahinmi (San Antonio Spurs).

The game also has prospective NBA players in 2009 NBA draft picks Ricky Rubio (#5), Victor Claver (#22), Sergio Llull (#34), and Nando De Colo (#53) and former NBA players in Juan Carlos Navarro, Raúl López, and Jorge Garbajosa, all of Spain.

The game is the second match of the day and is set for 21h00, to be played after the Serbia/Russia game.

Bydgoszcz - French team rookie Nando De Colo scored a total of six points; the good thing for France was that those six points were all in the last 1:31.

With Tony Parker on the bench, the 22-year old guard, who was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs, drained a jumper at the buzzer to lift France over Greece 71-69.

The win keeps France on pace with Turkey as the two only undefeated Eurobasket teams at 6-0.

With France up 69-66. Vasileios Spanoulis hit a three-pointer to tie up the game with just 8 seconds remaining setting up De Colo’s game-winner.

Previous to the buzzer-beater, De Colo scored on two free throws and a layup. The 6-5 guard scored the final six points for France.

The question now is whether either team wanted to win the game at all, as the victor is likely to face the talented-but-underperforming Spain in the quarterfinals.

Alain Koffi led France with 14 points, all of which came in the first half as France built a seven-point margin at halftime 41-34. Tony Parker scored 12 points, Ali Traore and Yannick Bokolo each added 10 points.

For Hellas, Spanoulis led all scorers with 16 points, coming from four three-pointers and four free-throws. Sofoklis Schortsianitis added 12 points, and Ioannis Bourousis added 8 points and 10 rebounds.

More Eurobasket: In the first match of the day, Russia snuck by F.Y.R. of Macedonia by the same score 71-69, earning a berth into the quarterfinals. Russia was led by center Timofey Mozgov’s game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds and swingman Anton Ponkrashov’s 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists.

In the Eurobasket game of the day, it’s the NBA vs. Euroleague when France takes on Greece today for the top spot in Group E.

France boasts six current and prospective NBA players with four of their five starters, participating in the 2009-2010 NBA season.

Along with Mickaël Piétrus’ brother Florent, France starts star guard Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, and Ronny Turiaf.

Les Bleus also has guard Nando de Colo and power forward Ian Mahinmi, who both were drafted by the San Antonio Spurs.

Greece on the other hand has no current NBA players, but several Euroleague stars in center Ioannis Bourousis,  Antonios Fotsis, Nikos Zisis, Sofoklis Schortsianitis, and Vasileios Spanoulis, who spent one season with Houston Rockets.

Schortsianitis was drafted by the Clippers with the 34th overall pick in 2003. Fotsis was drafted by Memphis in 2001 with the 48th pick.

Bourousis was rumored to been offered a contract with the San Antonio Spurs this past summer, but instead re-signed a 3-year extension with domestic club Olympiakos.

The victor goes on to play a struggling, but still dangerous Spanish team. Follow the France-Greece game live in our forum

After three games of group play, three teams came out of the first phase of Eurobasket unscathed. France, Greece, and Turkey all were undefeated.

In Group A, Greece won their three matches by an average of 22 points per game. Without their veteran backcourt of Theodoros Papaloukas and Dimitris Diamantidis, Vasileios Spanoulis and Ioannis Bourousis stepped up to the plate; each averaging 15 points in wins over Macedonia, Croatia, and Israel.

Greece has a great supporting cast of players including Nikos Zisis, Antonis Fotsis, Kosta Koufos, and Sofoklis Schortsanitis all contributing 7-10 points a game as well as rebounding the ball.

Up next, Greece will play Germany on Friday, Sepetmeber 11, 2009 (discuss the game).

In Group B, France downed defending Eurobasket champions Russia, a tougher-than-expected German team, and Latvia led by their NBA trio of Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, and Ronny Turiaf.

Parker led Les Bleus with 19.7 points in the three wins, good for the second-leading scorer in the tournament. Turiaf averaged a double double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. The multi-faceted Diaw passed out a team-high 14 assists, as well as 10.7 points per game in the three wins.

France’s next opponent is F.Y.R. of Macedonia tomorrow, Sepetmeber 11, 2009 (Discuss the game, predict the winner in our forum).

Group D saw 2010 World Championships hosts Turkey round out a perfect phase one with wins over Lithuania, Poland, and Bulgaria. Turkey’s top-scorer in the trio of games has been Ersan İlyasova (17 ppg), who will return to the NBA this year.

Turkey’s success has been buoyed by the surprising play of point guard Ender Arslan, The 26-year old has hit for 14.3 points per game and has shot eight for eleven from three-point range.  Hedo Türkoğlu put up 13.3 points in the group phase.

Turkey will play Spain in their next match on September 12, 2009 (Discuss the match/predict the winner in our forum).

The final two teams playing for a berth to Eurobasket, France and Belgium, played a two game series to determine who would go to Eurobasket.

Belgium took the first game over Les Bleus 70-66.

That meant that France had to come out and defeat the Belgians by more than four points in the second, and final, contest held in Pau, France.

France knew the importance of the second game, came in focused and used a 27-5 run in the second quarter that team Belgium would not be able to recover from.

France to take a commanding 48-23 advantage into halftime, and would go on to win 92-54, a margin of 38 points. The French shot a scorching 71% from two point range; hitting 30 of 42 shots.

Since both teams each won one game, the cumulative score of both games determined who would advance on. France took that tiebreaker in spades, winning the series 158-124.

With the win, Tony Parker, Ronny Turiaf, Nicolas Batum and crew advance to the European Championships of basketball. They finished a disappointing eighth place in the 2007 tournament.

Turiaf led team France with 19 points and 9 rebounds. The Belgium-born Parker finished with 16 points, Boris Diaw had 13 and both Nando De Colo and Ali Traore 12. Christophe Beghin led Belgium with 11 points.

In the European Championships, France will play in Group B along with Germany, Latvia and defending European champions Russia. Les Bleus opening game in the EuroBasket will be on September 7 vs. Germany.

Two NBA teams re-signed their backup centers.

Yeah, it’s the NBA off-season, so this qualifies as news.

The New Orleans Hornets brought back Kiwi Sean Marks. The 6-foot-10, 250-pound New Zealand native averaged 3.2 points and 3.1 rebounds in 14.1 minutes for the Hornets last season.

The 34-year old Marks is a nine-year NBA veteran journeyman, having spent time with four other teams: Miami, Phoenix, San Antonio and Toronto.  He was the first player from New Zealand to play in the NBA.

Nuggets sign Petro
The Denver Nuggets re-signed Johan Petro of France to a one-year, league-minimum deal for $825,000.

The 23-year old center spent his first three and a half seasons with Oklahoma City/Seattle Sonics before being traded to the Nuggets during the 2008-09 season for backup guard Chucky Atkins.

Petro was recently cut from the French National Team in favor of Ian Mahinmi, another NBA player.

“We decided not to keep (Petro) for more defensive reasons than offense. We believed that Ian Mahinmi had a profile that had more mobility and gives an advantage to the national team.” said France’s head coach Vincent Collet.

The 7-0 Petro has NBA career averages of 5.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in 270 games with the Nuggets and Oklahoma City/Seattle Sonics.  The Parisian native was drafted in the first round of the 2005 NBA draft with the 25th pick overall.

Antwerp - Belgium is one game closer to advancing to the Eurobasket 2009 tournament after winning a close game over France 70-66.

The two teams are playing a two-game series, home and away, to determine the final selection to the Eurobasket tournament starting September 07, 2009.

The tightly-contested game was opened up when Belgium’s long range specialist Dimitri Lauwers hit two three-pointers in consecutive possessions with over a minute remaining to break a 64-64 tie.

Belgium hit eight shots from three-point range in the game.

6-8 Belgian forward Axel Hervelle was the top-scorer with 14 points. Roel Moors added 13, and Lauwers 12 in a balanced Belgian attack.

NBA forward DJ Mbenga had 7 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots for team Belgium.

Tony Parker, who was born in Bruges, Belgium but raised in France,  had 26 points for France in the loss. Golden State Warrior’s forward Ronny Turiaf added 14 points and 11 rebounds for Les Bleus.

France, who was defeated by four points in the game, must now defeat Belgium by more than four points in order to reach Eurobasket. The next game will be played in Pau, France on Sunday, August 30th.

Links and Resources: France – Belgium Boxscore (Eurobasket2009.org)

Fifteen of the sixteen Eurobasket teams have been determined, and they await the winner of France and Belgium, who will compete in a two game series for the final berth to Eurobasket.

The two teams will play a home-and-away two-game series for the right to move on to Poland, where Eurobasket is being held this year.

Belgium reached the finals of the Additional Qualifying Round by virtue of winning the top spot in Group A, which featured Bosnia & Herzegovina and Portugal. France won Group B by accumulating the best record against Italy and Finland.

NBA stars Tony Parker (21.2 points) and Nicolas Batum (17.3) have led the way for France, while the Belgians have counted on their frontcourt players Axel Hervelle (16.4 points, 8.3 rebounds) and Christophe Beghin (12.7) on the offensive end.

The victors of the the Additional Qualifying Round will be placed in Group B along with defending Eurobasket champions Russia (without Andrei Kirilenko), Germany, and Latvia.

The first game between France and Belgium is set for Thursday, August 27 and the second game will be on Sunday, August 30 (local times).

The French National Team is doing their best to qualify for the 2009 Eurobasket, a key tournament in earning a berth to the 2012 Olympics in London.

However, Les Bleus has had to fight battles on and off the court concerning three of the NBA players on their roster, Joakim Noah, Tony Parker, and Nicolas Batum.

Joakim Noah
Three weeks ago, Joakim Noah’s participation for the French National Team was a cause of concern for the Chicago Bulls.

During Noah’s exit interview with the Bulls, the team set up a summer, strength-training regimen for the 6-11 power forward/center, that allowed Noah to practice with the French National Team for two weeks at the end of July.

Noah headed to Strasbourg, and played well for Team France, helping them defeat Austria and the Czech Republic in the preparation games.  Noah averaged 13 points, 7.5 rebounds, and provided much needed toughness for the French interior.

The problem began when France wanted to keep Noah on their squad for the Additional Qualifying Round. France confirmed that they were attempting to persuade the Bulls to let the 24-year-old play in the AQR games against Italy and Finland.

However, Bulls made it clear that Noah should not play past the preparation round. Noah supported the Bulls in this decision.

Noah, the son of French-born tennis star Yannick Noah, agreed with the Bulls and returned stateside to begin his weight-training.

Tony Parker
After the preparation game against Austria, Tony Parker injured his foot which caused moderate drama between France and the San Antonio Spurs.  The injury forced the star guard to fly back to San Antonio to have the Spur’s medical staff examine the injury themselves.

The move clearly incensed Parker, who was forced to spend several days in Texas rehabbing his injury, when he obviously would have preferred helping his country qualify for the all-important Eurobasket.

“Honestly, I don’t understand this decision, because of all the tests done with the French doctors and the Spurs,” Parker said. “I regret what is going on.”

Fortunately, Team France was fine without Parker in the one game he missed, defeating Italy 80-77 in the initial AQR game.  Parker rejoined the team for their next game.

Nicolas Batum
Recently, Batum’s ailing shoulder gave cause for concern to the Portland Trailblazers, who summoned the 20-year old back to the United States so the Blazers’ doctors could look at the shoulder first hand.

Batum, who had just helped France to victory in their second game against Italy, was distressed by the news, “It was perhaps my last match, so I wanted to win at any cost before leaving the team.” Batum said, “Tony Parker got back quickly, so I’m hoping that the the same thing happens for me. I’m just taking off to be examined over there, and after that, we’ll see what happens.”

Without Batum, who is averaging 17.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in the AQR, France lost to Finland 77-73.

Tony Parker managed only 4 points and 3 assists in the game, but the loss was meaningless to France, as they had already clinched the top spot in their group. France will play either Belgium or Bosnia and Herzegovina to determine the final Eurobasket berth.

“I love playing for France. If we are able to quality for the EuroBasket, we will be in a good position to do well at the tournament.” Parker told FIBA.com

In the last month, France has had no less than eight NBA players on their national team roster – Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum, Joakim Noah, Boris Diaw, Ronny Turiaf, Nando De Colo, Ian Mahinmi, and Johan Petro.