Thursday, November 30, 2006

Euroleague Men´s basketball

RheinEnergie (1-3) hosts Group A rival Prokom Trefl Sopot (2-2)
Thursday, 23.11.06 in Dusseldorf, Germany


RheinEnergie is a rookie in the Euroleague competition, which is the NBA of Europe. Fresh off their historic road win at Climamio Bologna last week, the Cologne team was looking for their second win. This team features four players from the United States: Demond Mallet, Marcus Faison, Immanuel McElroy, and Ronald Burrell, while the coach, Sasa Obradovic, is from Serbia & Montenegro. Ronald Burrell averages 18.75 ppg over the last four games. Ronald Burrell was a big reason the German champs won their first-ever Euroleague game. Burrell had 21 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

I was was quite impressed with the game.. RheinEnergie beat Prokom Trefl Sopot 84-80 in a battle to the very end. The pace of the game was quick and exciting. The teams displayed a strong ability to find the open man. There was much less one on one and much more team play then in the NBA. Also, there are more pure shooters in the Euroleague. Plays are actually ran with picks and cuts, and team basketball is enforced. Also, it was amazing that all of the big guys can shoot, pass and put the ball on the floor!

Something that was surprising was that the facility was somewhat empty. In other words, the seats were not close to being filled. However, it was a Thursday night and in my experience here is the attendence count in German basketball is always almost cut in half during the week. For what reason, I do not know exactly. Also, soccer is the main sport in Germany of course. Basketball does not get the numbers like soccer does. The biggest difference between the NBA and the Euroleague is probably the amount of money. The chance to make millions of dollars lures players to the NBA, not the basketball.

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