Roster is set for 2013 adidas Eurocamp

By Brett PollakoffJun 4, 2013, 11:38 AM EDT
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The roster is in place for this year’s adidas Eurocamp, the annual event where the top international prospects get the opportunity to practice, compete and interview with NBA teams and other professional leagues leading up to the NBA Draft.

From the official release:

“More than 45 early entries and NBA Draft-eligible participants, including projected 2013 NBA Draft picks Rudy Gobert (France), Lucas Nogueira (Brazil) and Nemanja Nedovic (Serbia) will participate in adidas EUROCAMP 2013.  Former adidas EUROCAMP participants include 62 NBA Draft picks and including Danilo Gallinari, Nicolas Batum, Andrea Bargnani and Omer Asik.  23 former participants currently hold NBA contracts with 57 playing in Euroleague Basketball.  In 2012, seven adidas EUROCAMP players were selected during the NBA Draft including first-round pick Evan Fournier of France – the No. 20 overall selection by the Denver Nuggets.”

The camp will once again be held in Treviso, Italy, and we’ll be there in person to provide complete coverage for the second straight year.

Read up on all of our reports from last year’s event to get familiar, and check out the full roster of this year’s participants below.

2012 adidas Eurocamp preview

2012 adidas Eurocamp: Day 1 recap

2012 adidas Eurocamp: Day 2 recap

2012 adidas Eurocamp: Day 3 recap

Kevin McHale teaches, talks post play at adidas Eurocamp

Players go through BAM testing at adidas Eurocamp

2013 adidas EUROCAMP Early Entry and Draft Eligible Participants 

NAME HEIGHT POSITION HOME COUNTRY TEAM
Danilo Andjusic 6’5” Shooting Guard Serbia Partizan
Ondrej Balvin 7’1” Center Czech Republic Cajasol Seville
Janis Berzins 6’8” Power Forward Latvia Valmiera
V’yacheslav Bobrov 6’7” Small Forward Ukraine BC Kiev
Ryan Broekhoff 6’7” Small Forward Australia Valparaiso – NCAA
Clint Capela 6’9” Power Forward Switzerland Chalon
Aquille Carr 5’8” Point Guard United States Princeton Day Academy
Vitalis Chikoko 6’10” Power Forward Zimbabwe TBB Trier
Linos Chrysikopoulos 6’9” Small Forward Greece Paok
Nemanja Dangubic 6’5” Small Forward Serbia Mega Vizura
Daniel Diez 6’8” Small Forward Spain Lagun Aro GBC
Bojan Dubljevic 6’10” Power Forward Montenegro Valencia
Dante Exum 6’6” Point Guard Australia AIS
Jaime Fernandez 6’2” Shooting Guard Spain Asefa Estudiantes
Viktor Gaddefors 6’8” Small Forward Sweden Virtus Bologna
Alessandro Gentile 6’7” Small Forward Italy EA7 Milano
Rudy Gobert 7’2” Center France Cholet
Guillermo Hernangomez 6’10” Center Spain Real Madrid 2
Nikola Ivanovic 6’3” Point Guard Montenegro Buducnost
Livio Jean Charles 6’9” Small Forward France Asvel
Dmitry Kulagin 6’6” Shooting Guard Russia Triumph
Mindaungas Kupsas 7’1” Center Lithuania Lietkabetis
Louis Labeyrie 6’10” Power Forward France Paris Levallois
Andrew Lawrence 6’1” Point Guard Great Britain Charleston – NCAA
Augusto Lima 6’9” Power Forward Spain Unicaja Malaga
Marko Lukovic 6’9” Small Forward Serbia Mega Vizura
Oleksandr  Lypovyy 6’7” Point Guard Ukraine BC Donetsk
Lucas Mariano 6’9” Center Brazil Franca – Brazil
Nicolo Melli 6’9” Power Forward Italy EA7 Milano
Vasilije Micic 6’5” Point Guard Serbia Mega Vizura
Boubacar Moungoro 6’6” Small Forward Mali IMG Academy
Nemanja Nedovic 6’3” Point Guard Serbia Lietuvos Rytas
Raul Neto 6’1” Point Guard Brazil Lagun Aro GBC
Lucas Nogueira 7’0” Center Brazil Asefa Estudiantes
Jakub Parzenski 7’0” Center Poland Virtus Bologna
Achille Polonara 6’7” Power Forward Italy Varese
Klemen Prepelic 6’3” Shooting Guard Slovenia Union Olimpija Lubljiana
Artem Pustovyi 7’1” Center Ukraine Khimik
Nikola Radicevic 6’5” Point Guard Serbia Cajasol Seville
Joan Sastre 6’7” Small Forward Spain Cajasol Seville
Emir Sulejmanovic 6’9” Power Forward Bosnia and Herzegovina Union Olimpija Ljubljana
Janis Timma 6’7” Power Forward Latvia Ventspils
Vladislav Trushkin 6’7” Power Forward Russia Spartak Vidnoye
Edgaras Ulanovas 6’6” Small Forward Lithuania Pieno Zvaigzdes
Adin Vrabac 6’8” Small Forward Bosnia and Herzegovina OKK Spars
Andrey Zubkov 6’9” Small Forward Russia Lokomotiv Kuban

All Cedric Maxwell got for winning NBA Finals MVP was this janky watch (video)

By Dan FeldmanMay 25, 2020, 11:00 PM EDT
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Just two NBA Finals MVPs who are eligible for the Basketball Hall of Fame haven’t been selected for induction:

  • Cedric Maxwell (1981 Celtics)
  • Chauncey Billups (2004 Pistons)

Andre Iguodala (2015 Warriors) could join them, but he at least has some Hall of Fame chatter surrounding him. Billups is absolutely a legitimate Hall of Fame candidate, even if not enshrined.

Maxwell, on the other hand, wasn’t on that level. He never even made an All-Star team. He was just a good player who had an excellent six games against the Rockets in the 1981 NBA Finals.

Really, it’s a neat distinction to be the lone NBA Finals MVP who was never a star. Maxwell can cherish that.

And this watch, which he reveals in this entertaining video.

NBPA reaching out to players, getting feedback on return scenarios

Michele Roberts
David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images
By Kurt HelinMay 25, 2020, 9:00 PM EDT
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NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been in information gathering mode since the day he was forced to shut the league down. He’s gathered information from medical experts on how a return would work, talked to owners and GMs about the financial end and what they hope to see, and had conferences with the league’s broadcast partners.

Most of all, Silver wanted to know what the players thought. With the NBA closing in on a return strategy — Friday Silver and team owners will have a conference call that could lead to a decisive plan — players’ union executive director Michele Roberts is taking the return plans to the players for feedback, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

It looks like the NBA will return to play in Orlando, with training camps starting in late June and games in mid-July.

The questions to be answered are:

• Do all 30 teams report to Orlando to play a handful of regular season games, getting teams over the 70 game threshold?
• Do just the top 16 teams report with the league jumping straight to the playoffs?
• If the league does go straight to the playoffs, how will that impact player pay, which is tied to the regular season?
• Will there be a play-in tournament for the final playoff seeds?
• Should the NBA do a 1-16 seed playoff format, or keep the traditional Eastern/Western conference format?
• Will each playoff round have seven games, or will the first round (or two) be best-of-five?

Everything option is still on the table (as officials will be quick to say). However, the buzz around the league has grown louder that just the top 16 teams will go to Florida, and there will be seven-game series for every round, as the league tries to squelch any asterisk talk.

We may know a lot more on Friday. And the players will have their say.

Michael Jordan on tape saying he wouldn’t play on Dream Team with Isiah Thomas

Pistons guard Isiah Thomas and Bulls guard Michael Jordan
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
By Dan FeldmanMay 25, 2020, 7:00 PM EDT
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In “The Last Dance,” Michael Jordan was asked to react to Isiah Thomas’ explanation of the Pistons’ infamous walk-off. Jordan replied immediately:

I know it’s all bulls—. Whatever he says now, you know it wasn’t his true actions then. He’s had time enough to think about it. Or the reaction of the public, that’s kind of changed his perspective of it. You can show me anything you want. There’s no way you can convince me he wasn’t an a—hole.

Maybe there was some projection in that answer.

For years, Jordan has denied any involvement in Thomas not making the Dream Team. Rod Thorn, who was on the selection committee for the 1992 Olympics, has backed Jordan’s version of events.

But Jordan once revealed a different story.

Jordan on Jack McCallum’s “The Dream Team Tapes:”

Rod Thorn called me. I said, “Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team.” He assured me. He said, “You know what? Chuck doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team.”

Yes, the Pistons were being poor sports when they left the floor without shaking the Bulls’ hands in the 1991 playoffs. But that neither began nor ended the story.

The Bulls repeatedly disrespected the Pistons while finally overcoming Detroit. That particularly bothered the Pistons, because, on their way up, they paid deference to to the Celtics and Lakers. So, while the walk-off was – even according to Thomas – regrettable, it happened for a reason.

Jordan carrying his vendetta to the Dream Team only escalated matters. Yet, unlike the Pistons for not shaking hands, Jordan receives minimal scorn for his poor sportsmanship. Threatening not to play if a rival player is also included is the antithesis of what people want the Olympics to stand for.

And Jordan is now on published audio admitting that’s exactly what he did. You can listen to him for yourself.

As the best player and marketing giant, Jordan had the power. Thomas felt the consequences.

In 1992, Thomas was a marginal choice for the Dream Team. He wasn’t clearly better than the players who made it on current ability. He wasn’t as great as the players – Magic Johnson and Larry Bird – who made it on career accomplishments. It would’ve been fine to select Thomas. It would have been fine to omit him.

But it’s a shame he never got proper consideration on merit.

It’s also a shame Dream Team coach Chuck Daly, who coached Thomas in Detroit, is no longer alive to give his account. Did Dally really tell Thorn not to put Thomas on the Olympic team? Did Thorn really tell that to Jordan? Jordan and Thorn are just so untrustworthy on this matter.

Kendrick Perkins: LeBron James-Paul Pierce rift stems from Pierce spitting at Cavaliers bench

By Dan FeldmanMay 25, 2020, 5:00 PM EDT
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In 2004, Celtics forward Paul Pierce got fined for spitting at the Cavaliers bench during a preseason game.

Why did Pierce do that?

Apparently, LeBron James.

Kendrick Perkins, via ESPN:

When LeBron was coming into the league, he was getting a lot of heat from players. “Oh he’s not going to do that to us. The Chosen One. Wait til he play against grown men.”

So, Paul is talking noise to the bench, right? He’s talking big noise to the Cavs bench. And they’re sitting over there. Bron and them, they’re all sitting over there.

Paul actually spits over there at the bench, right? The ultimate disrespect, OK?

It ended up turning up. After the game, both teams were meeting in the back. Guys was ready to fight. We had to hold people back. It went up from there.

Ever since that moment, LeBron James and Paul Pierce hate each other. They don’t speak to each other.

This was entering LeBron’s second season, not his rookie year. But Pierce was still the established star, LeBron the riser trying to prove himself. As we’ve seen since, Pierce is very protective of his place in the game.

The feud deepened over the years as Pierce’s Celtics battled LeBron’s Cavaliers and Heat in the playoffs. Pierce took other shots at LeBron, even indirectly. Most recently, Pierce named a top-five list that didn’t include LeBron.

But spitting? That’s low.

There’s just something about Boston players from that era.