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)…

Following Carlo Recalcati’s stepping down as Italy‘s coach, the new man at the helm of the national team will be Simone Pianigiani.

(Talk Italian Basketball in our forum)

The 40-year-old coach who is the current head coach for Montepaschi Siena, will take charge of the national team until July 2011. The only thing left is the signing of a contract and the official presentation.

The Federal Council of the Italian Basketball Federation has already given their blessing to president Dino Meneghin for the hiring… Read the full article at TalkBasket.

Whatever happened to Travis Best, the 6-0 guard who last played for the New Jersey Nets in 2005?

He’s been travelling since his days in the NBA; playing in Europe, with five European clubs in five years: Unics Kazan of Russia, Virtus Bologna of Italy, Prokom Trefl Sport of Poland, and Air Avellino of Italy.

And the 37-year old recently signed with another Italian club, Martos Napoli, a Serie A club for the Italian League in what will likely be his last professional season.

“I have always wanted longevity,” Best told Mass Live. “I’ve stayed in the gym, put in the work and absorbed a lot of punishment. All of that is paying off now.”

For his final season, Best will join fellow former-NBA players Damon Jones and Robert “Tractor” Traylor on the team.

The former Georgia Tech star played 10 years in the NBA with Indiana, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, and New Jersey before seeing his last NBA minutes in the 2004-05. For his NBA career, Best averaged 7.6 points and 3.5 assists in 706 NBA games.

In his first season out of the NBA, Best put up 11.2 points and 2.7 assists in 29 minutes per game for Unics Kazan. For Virtus Bologna (2006-07) Best averaged 8.4 points and 3.3 assists; and with Air Avellino last season, he managed 8.9 points and 2.8 assists.

Read more about Travis Best.

MSG.com was provided with some photos from Danilo Gallinari’s family, an album of Gallinari’s early years in basketball with a cameo by Omri Casspi when both were playing in the Italian league.

[Show as slideshow]

The 6-10 Knick’s forward is currently averaging 14.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.5 assists through 14 games with New York this season. Gallinari is also shooting 45.2% from the field, 44.6% from three, and 90.9% from the free-throw line.

Talk about Danilo Gallinari in our Italian Basketball Forum.

On a slow news day, we thought it would be nice to list out the top 15 international scorers in the NBA through 11/06/2009.

The list is certainly worth looking at, but obviously it’s not definitive as the most games any player has played has been five.

Definitely seeing some surprises on the list.

1. Dirk Nowitzki 26.2
2. Andrea Barganani 22.0
3. Steve Nash 19.6
4. Luol Deng 17.8
5. Marc Gasol 17.6
6. Danilo Gallinari 17.6
7. Tony Parker 16.3
8. Memhet Okur 16.0
9. Leandro Barbosa 15.7
10. Hedo Türkoğlu 15.3
11. Nenê 14.6
12. Manu Ginóbili 13.7
13. Andrei Kirilenko 12.8
14. Kelenna Azubuike 12.0
15. Oleksiy Pecherov 11.2

No surprise with Dirk Nowitzki at number one, and Steve Nash near the top. Pau Gasol hasn’t played a game for the Lakers yet, but could be back tomorrow when the Lakers take on Memphis.

Right behind Nowitzki is Toronto Raptors’ Andrea Bargnani, who is continuing his progress from his breakout last season and Luol Deng is back from injury for the Chicago Bulls, looking good and pulling in a career high 20 rebounds last night.

Two second-year players Marc Gasol and Danilo Gallinari have averaged 17.6 points in their first five games; the question is whether they will be able to maintain that pace. My guess is both players will fall off, and probably end up around 14-15 points per game.

Look for Gasol to continue pulling in double-doubles for the Grizzlies until his backups Hamed Haddadi and Hasheem Thabeet can pick up the slack.

Probably the biggest surprise is 7-0 Ukrainian center Oleksiy Pecherov, who didn’t have his contract extended by the Timberwolves. The 23-year-old Pecherov delivered a career-high 24 points in his third consecutive start.

Oleksiy is averaging 11.2 points and hitting 33.3% from the beyond the arc.

We’ll see what happens to Pechorov’s minutes when Kevin Love returns from a fractured right hand. One thing is for sure, I’ll miss Oleksiy’s weird looking three-point shots.

• The Toronto Raptor’s José Calderón has already missed four free throws this season, that’s more missed free throws in 3 games this season (9-13), than he had missed the entire last season (151-154). On the night Calderon was presented with an award for recording an NBA single-season record of 98.1% from the line, he missed two free throws.

• Calderon’s teammate, Andrea Bargnani has shot the most free-throws so far without a miss this season having hit all 12 of his free-throws. The Italian big man is averaging 22 points and 5 rebounds through three games.

• Through three games, Carmelo Anthony has been unstoppable on the offenseive end; scoring 30 points, 41 points, and 42 points. He is averaging a league-high 37.7 points per game on 53% shooting from the field, gone to the free-throw line 41 times and adding 7.0 rebounds for good measure. The Denver Nuggets are 3-0 with wins over Utah, Portland and Memphis.

• It hasn’t been a rough start for Hasheem Thabeet, the first NBA player from Tanzania. After playing a fruitless debut in which he missed all his shots (0-2 FG, 0-2 FT) and sitting out the next game with a DNP, Thabeet scored his first basket, blocked 4 shots and grabbed 6 rebounds in his third NBA contest, but also committed six fouls; fouling out in just 11 minutes of play.

• It’s going to be tough for Thabeet to uproot 7-0 starting center Marc Gasol, who has been playing great early in his Sophomore season. Through three games, Pau’s younger brother has put up averages of 20 points, 11 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, shooting 73.1% from the floor (19-26), and 84.6% from the line.

• I’m interested to see how many three-pointers Danilo Gallinari takes tonight as the New York Knicks look for this first win against New Orleans. As mentioned yesterday, the 6-10 Sophomore is attempting a league-leading 12 three-pointers this season, having hit 50% of those long-range attempts (18-36).

• Sasha Vujačić looked terrible in 12 1/2 minutes of play in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 94-80 trumping by the Dallas Mavericks. When he wasn’t committing ill-timed fouls, he was losing his defensive assignments, and complaining to the referees about every single call that went against him. What happened to that player that actually looked like he belonged in the NBA, much less the Slovenian National Team?

Despite losing their first three games, the Knicks must be excited about second-year player Danilo Gallinari.

Already labeled “the best shooter I’ve ever seen” by head coach Mike D’Antoni, Gallinari has walked into his second season guns blazing.

The 6-10 forward is currently leading the league in three-point attempts (12) and makes (6) per game while shooting 50% from beyond the arc in 30 minutes of play.

(Talk about Danilo Gallinari in our forum)

Already the 21-year old has set his NBA career highs in points twice in just New York’s first three games.

First he came off the bench to score a then-career high 22 points in the Knicks’ opener vs. Miami, and last night he recorded a career-high 30 points in an overtime loss to the Sixers in his first start of the season.

After a season of injury and inconsistency, Gallinari is averaging 22.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and six three-point field goals a game; makes not misses.

Gallinari is still shooting 46.8% overall from the field, great considering that of the 47 total shots, 36 of them (76%) have been from downtown.

The season just started, and it has been only three games, not enough data to to conclude too much.

However, Gallinari has shot and made enough threes in that time (18-36) to show his confidence and determination this season, not to mention the Knicks’ willingness to develop Danilo Gallinari.

The Toronto Raptor’s two Italian players Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli will make an appearance at this weekend’s Sport & Design.it event being held at at Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto.

The two will appear Saturday, October 24, 2009, from 3:00-4:00 p.m.

The Sport & Design.it exhibition is a ten-day event of Italian-made sporting goods and apparel held at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto from October 22-31, 2009.

To learn more about the Sport & Design.it exhibit, please visit www.italy4sportdesign.ca or check out the official press release here.

New York Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni recently gave one of Europe’s finest young players one of the biggest compliments he could ever muster when he tabbed Danilo Gallinari as the ‘best shooter I have ever seen’.

The Knicks are counting on the Italian to have a major role on their team this season, and he could well be in the starting lineup when they open the campaign at Miami on October 28.

Gallinari managed only one series in EuroLeague with Olimpia Milano but that would bring him fine averages of 14.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game when playing against some of the most experienced players on the continent.

Those performances would be enough to see him named as the league’s Rising Star, and it would also lead to projections of him going as high as fourth in the NBA draft.

He eventually fell to sixth where the Knicks pounced, but his first season in North America was a troubled one, where he was hurt in the Summer League and played sparingly before back surgery ended his season early.

This season is expected to be a big one for the small forward, who only recently turned 21, and he could start ahead of the less offensively-minded Jared Jeffries for the Knicks, if not at the start of the season then fairly early on.

At least this year Gallinari made it through his first day of practice at Skidmore College and he scored nine points in his first pre-season game on Sunday against New Jersey, adding in five rebounds and four assists in 26 minutes.

But Gallinari is not taking anything for granted, as he said after one exacting practice session: “I don’t want to do too much. That would be a mistake mentally When you try to do too much, you make a lot of mistakes.”

Danilo Gallinari spent the majority of his rookie year frustrated with a back injury that had him on the sidelines more than in the game (discuss Gallinari).

And when Gallinari was in the game, he played only sparingly.

The sixth-overall pick of the 2008 NBA Draft participated in only 28 games last season, but did average 6.1 points in his roughly 15 minutes per game.

With high praise come high expectations
With his second season coming up, the 21-year old is feeling the pressure and is welcoming it.

“I feel people want to see something from me,” Gallinari admitted. “I will tell you, I want to see the expectations. I want to feel the pressure because that’s what makes you a really good player.’”

And with coach Mike D’Antoni doling out high praise for the 6-10 forward from Italy before training camp commences Tuesday, the expectations will come strong this year:

“(Gallinari is) the best shooter I’ve ever seen,” D’Antoni said. “I’ll put him with anybody.”

Gallinari did shoot surprisingly high percentages for a rookie, 44% overall, 44% from three and missed only one free throw in 27 attempts.  Shooting stats normally improve after the first year, so you can see why D’Antoni is excited about his second year player.

“He’s got a great feel about the game, he passes the ball well, he’s a much better defender than anybody gives him credit for.”

D’Antoni did back down a little later in the press conference, “I don’t want to oversell it, which I will always do.” said the Knick’s head coach, “But (Gallinari will) give us something we didn’t have last year, and that’s perimeter shooting that might be the best in the league.”

Nicolas Batum” src=”http://www.interbasket.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/france-coach-nicolas-batum1.jpg” alt=”France’s coach Vincent Collet speaks with Nicolas Batum” width=”267″ height=”196″ />

Cagliari, Italy - Without Tony Parker, who is nursing a mild ankle spain in San Antonio, Team France squeezed out a 80-77 win over Italy in the EuroBasket 2009 Additional Qualifying Round.

With the win, France takes a key step in qualifying for the Eurobasket tournament in September.

After two free throws by Marco Belinelli with 33 seconds remaining, the game was tied at 66.  Ronny Turiaf and Nicolas Batum both missed as regulation ended, taking the game to overtime.  Les Bleus went on a 10-2 run in the extra period to seal the win.

Is France a stronger team with Tony Parker?  Without a doubt.  However, let us not forget that France still boasts a talented roster that features Turiaf, Batum, Boris Diaw, Florent Piétrus, Johan Petro, and 2009 NBA draft pick Nando De Colo.

Florent Piétrus, Mickaël’s older brother, and Batum led Team France with 20 points a piece.  Boris Diaw added 15 points for Les Bleus.  The 21-year old Batum added 8 rebounds for the winners.

Italy was led by Marco Belinelli’s 26 points while Angelo Gigli added 13 and Andrea Bargnani 10 for the Italians.

In Group A action, Bosnia & Herzegovina defeated Portugal 62-56 led by rising star Nihad Dedovic’s 15 points.

France along with five other teams, Italy, Finland Portugal, Belgium, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, are battling for the last berth to Eurobasket.  The tournament’s winner will head to Poland for the all-important Eurobasket 2009.

France’s next game will be against Finland on Saturday.  Parker leads the team with a 26.8 point average in AQR games and is expected to be back in uniform in time for the match against Finland.

Right now Tony Parker is somewhere in San Antonio rehabbing an ankle sprain, but no doubt the 6-2 point guard would rather be in France.

Alerted to a mild ankle sprain Parker suffered on July 23 in a warmup game against Austria, the San Antonio Spurs called Parker back to the U.S.A. so that he could be checked out by the team’s medical staff.

After Manu Ginóbili missed last season’s playoffs due to a late season injury, likely affected by his participation in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Spurs weren’t ready to overlook any injury, mild or not, to their star guard.

The 27-year old Parker averaged career highs in points (22) and assists (6.9) during the 2008-09 NBA season. Parker, who had a career-high 55 points against Minnesota, carried the Spurs last season as Tim Duncan slowed and Ginobili was in and out of the lineup.

With Parker closer to Paris, Texas, than Paris, France, the three-time NBA All Star’s absence could cost the French National Team a spot in the very important European basketball championships that are set to begin on September 7, 2009.

And no one knows this more than Parker.

“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.”

Though Parker doesn’t understand emotionally, he evidently understands the business behind the Spurs’ move.

“I am obligated to follow what my (NBA) club wants me to do,” Parker continued. “…but I hope to come back (to France) as soon as possible to participate in the qualification with the French national team.”

Parker’s is scheduled to return to Les Bleus next week, but it all depends on the progress of his injured ankle.  That means Parker will not rejoin France in time for the initial game of the qualifying tournament, a game against the Italian national team on Wednesday, August 5th.

The Eurobasket qualifying tournament will determine the final berth in Eurobasket 2009.  France is one of six teams, divided into two groups of three, that are vying for that last spot.  The tournament’s winner will head to Poland for Eurobasket.

Additionally, qualifying for Eurobasket gives national teams a much better chance to qualify for next summer’s World Championships in Turkey, and the 2012 London Olympics, so this qualifying tournament has huge raminifications for years to come.

France is grouped with Italy and Finland.  The other group features Portugal, Belgium, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Without Parker and Rodrigue Beaubois, who was injured in this year’s NBA Summer League, France has been leaning on Nando De Colo, whom the Spurs selected in the second round of the 2009 draft.

In the first game without Parker, De Colo stepped up and led the team with 18 points in a 70-69 comeback win over Hungary.

The French national team includes Boris Diaw, Ronny Turiaf, and Florent Piétrus (Mickaël’s older brother).

The senior national teams from Italy and Canada participated in a “friendly” game Saturday night that ended in a brawl between the two teams (discuss)

Physical play between Italy’s Stefano Mancinelli and Canada’s Aaron Doornekamp at the end of the game prompted the fight between the two teams. After being pushed, Mancinelli delivers an elbow to the back of the Doornekamp’s head.

Belinelli and Andrea Bargnani will suit up for the Toronto Raptors, Canada’s only NBA franchise, next season and are seen in the video trying to diffuse the situation between the two teams.

Italian team captain Matteo Soragna apologized on the Italy’s behalf after the game, “I am sorry that it happened. The team has responded as one and that is a positive, although we did not want the incident to happen.”

This was the second match between the two teams. Italy had defeated Canada 91-69 last week in the Trentino Cup and played each other again in preparation for upcoming tournament games..

On August 5th, Italy will face France on their quest to qualify for the Eurobasket tournament. While Canada is preparing for the Tournament of the Americas that begins on August 26, 2009.

This is the second fight in as many weeks that has occured in a “friendly” game. A brawl between Iran and Jordan erupted during the William Jones Cup last month that eventually cost Jordan the Cup championship.

In preparation for the FIBA Oceania Championships, the Tall Blacks of New Zealand set out on a eight-game European tour.

Unfortunately, they ended the stint with more questions than answers as the Tall Blacks dropped six of the eight games.

Their six losses came at the hands of Estonia (2), Canada, Italy, Belgium, and Finland respectively.

The Tall Blacks were able to pull out two wins; one over Portugal in the inital game of the Tretino Cup held in Tretino, Italy.  Their second win came in their second game against DJ Mbenga and Belgium on a buzzer beating layup by center Alex Pledger to give the Tall Blacks an 83-81 win.

1. Estonia – 58-49  (L)
2. Estonia – 57-54  (L)
3. Portugal – 98-91 (W)
4. Canada – 90-68 (L)
5. Italy – 88-70 (L)
6. Belgium – 98-76 (L)
7. Belgium – 83-81 (W)
8. Finland – 102-91 (L)

The Kiwis’ eight games in twelve days were unsuccessful for a variety of reasons.  Outside of their two matches against Estonia, they allowed their opponents to score 80 or more points in each game.  The Tall Blacks also lacked consistent offense.  Besides Kirk Penney. a former University of Wisconsin shooting guard and last year’s NBL MVP, no other player could be counted on for offensive productivity.

Turnovers were also an issue as the Tall Blacks turnovered the ball more than twice their opponents number in several of the games, and reached 20+ turnovers in at least half their games.

There were bright spots to highlight.  New Zealand does have a very promising future with young frontline players Alex Pledger (22 year old) and Westlake high school phenom Rob Loe (17), as well as 22-year old guard Tom Abercrombie.

As expected, the 28-year old Penney averaged 25 points per game in the eight game tour, and regularly looked spectacular.  The 6-5 guard is at his basketball peak, accumulating two games in which he scored over 30 points and four games in which he scored over 20 points.

New Zealand will partake in the 2009 FIBA Oceania Championships beginning on August 23, 2009.

The Toronto Raptors, already the third most-international roster in the NBA last season, just added to their global diversity.

The Raptors picked up 6-5 Italian Marco Belinelli to a roster that already included six international players.

Toronto traded 31-year old journeyman Devean George and “cash considerations” to the Golden State Warriors for Belinelli.

The 23-year old Belinelli joins newly-acquired Hedo Türkoğlu of Turkey, fellow countryman Andrea Bargnani, as well as José Calderón (Spain), Roko Ukić (Croatia), Rasho Nesterović (Slovenia), and Pops Mensah-Bonsu (England).

The addition of Belinelli gives Toronto seven legitmate international players that can realistically play anywhere from 7-42 minutes a game next season.

Belinelli never found touch in Bay Area
After being drafted 18th overall by Golden State in the 2007 NBA Draft, Belinelli first made splashes stateside with his spectacular shooting performances in the NBA summer league.

But he quickly found himself on the bench during the regular season with a glut of shooting guards ahead of him – namely Monta Ellis, Kelenna Azubuike, Mickaël Piétrus, and sometimes Stephen Jackson.

He played much more in his second season, but the Warriors still lost 53 games.  Going into his third season, the prospects of more playing time was not looking good especially with the development of Anthony Morrow and the Warrior’s selecting NCAA standout guard Stephen Curry in the 2009 draft.

With the Raptors, Belinelli will compete against rookie shooting guard DeMar DeRozan for playing time this upcoming season.  Belinelli averaged 8.9 points, 2.1 assists, and nearly one steal per game in 21 minutes last season.  He also shot 44.2% from the field and 39.7% from three.