European Prospects

Tomorrow, I will start a nearly 10-day long Scouting trip throughout Europe. For me, it will be the longest ever and there are at least 30 games on my plan for the next days. However, I am disappointed that not everything will work as planned.

In fact, my accreditation request for the Euroleague Final 4 in Paris has been declined. This means that I can not follow the main European competition live and scout some of the best talents in Europe right now. There won’t be any updates on Jan Vesely, Ricky Rubio or Branislav Dekic as the Euroleague thinks that being absent from this event will not “jeopardize” my coverage. In fact, due to security limitations, more than 250 requests have been declined, and among them was mine. I was really surprised by this decision and the criteria on who has been accepted and who has been declined look Greek to me, or should I say Spanish in this case.

Whatever, I will be on the train tomorrow morning and cover the full NIJT Tournament (free entrance) with eight of the best Junior Teams in Europe. Still, I have to find a place to watch the Final 4 in Paris, as unfortunately, my Euroleague TV package does not work in France for the Final 4 (see EL-TV Terms and Conditions: Live and on-demand of matches selected by the television licensee Canal+ are not available in France). So if any of the French readers has an idea, I am “preneur”. And anyhow, being in Paris is certainly among the better things in life.

After the trip to the French capital, I will fly to Stockholm in Sweden for a first time coverage of the Nordic Championships. The Scandinavian countries are making a lot of progress recently in the Youth Categories and that’s why I wanted to check this tournament out and see who are the next prospects coming from the North. I will be in Solna from Wednesday to Friday before flying back south and head to Bamberg. Here will be played the NBBL Top4, an event that I cover for the fourth time in four years of existence. Additionally, the newly created JBBL (under 16 League) will have its Top 4 event in the same venue, the famous JAKO Arena. On Sunday afternoon, the trip will be done and I will drive back home.

So be prepared for a lot of reports to come online in the next ten days. I suggest you also to follow me on Twitter as there will be regular updated through out the day and live impressions from the different sites. Feel free to come over and greet if you are present in one of the places.