Friday, 28.07.2006	posted by Jeff Taylor 10:00 am
Category: FIBA World Championship

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LET'S SHIP 'EM OUT!

It's only three weeks before things tip off in Japan and our heads are spinning.

I find it difficult to keep up with the player movement in Europe.

If the match-fixing scandal in Italy's Serie A led to a slowdown in football transfers this summer, well, it's certainly had no effect on players and coaches in basketball.

Hoopsters seem to always be on the move.

There were a couple of days of madness in Spain and Italy this week which really shook things up.

Unicaja Malaga's Jorge Garbajosa clinched his much-anticipated move to Toronto to join the Raptors' European revolution.

Unicaja showed they can recover by first beating Real Madrid to the signature of Estudiantes' Spain national team captain Carlos Jimenez, and then by signing Erazem Lorbek, a Slovenian who will be in Group D action in Japan.

Akasvayu Girona, having made such a big deal about beating the Orlando Magic to Fran Vazquez's signature last summer, transferred the Spanish international to Winterthur Barcelona.

Girona, having early in the week appointed Svetislav Pesic as coach - he left Lottomatica Roma - then decided to part with Raul Lopez, sending the playmaker to Real Madrid.

Hmmm, does this mean Pesic brings Vlado Ilievski from Roma to Girona?

The biggest events in Europe have been taking place in Italy, however, and this doesn't make me happy. I love Italian basketball. If you watched the game last year, it was by far the most exciting league going.

Forget the fact that Benetton Treviso's team has been torn apart with not only Andrea Bargnani and Uros Slokar going to Toronto, and Ramunas Siskauskas moving to Panathinaikos.

The club with the most upheaval has been Climamio Bologna, a team that has proved over the last couple of seasons that one doesn't have to sell the farm to build a good team.

They did not have a big budget.

Having parted with Gianluca Basile, Matjaz Smodis and Ruben Douglas from their 2005 Italian-title winning side, Fortitudo remained competitive this year and reached the Lega A finals before losing to Benetton.

The club was sold after the season, and the new owners do not appear willing to commit themselves to a level of spending required to be among the leaders in Lega A, and competitive in the Euroleague.

Lorbek is gone, and Repesa is about to go. I feel bad for the fans at the Land Rover Arena who are among the best in Europe.

But the real head-turner of the week is Yakhouba Diawara, a talent who is often packing his bags for a new team.

In France with Dijon at the start of the 2005-06 campaign, he left for Climamio in February and the 23-year-old was so good that Stefano Mancinelli, who is supposed to be NBA-calibre swingman, became Stefano Who?

Diawara hit 66.7% of his three-pointers (18 of 27) in the regular season and, when it really counted in the play-offs, he was even better at 46.8% (22 of 47).

France coach Claude Bergeaud does not have him in his preliminary squad.

Whatever the reason, I learned last year not to question Bergeaud. He took the bold move of dumping Alain Digbeu in favour of seven-footer Frederic Weis at almost the last minute before EuroBasket 2005 and Weis didn't let his boss down, playing a key role in France's run to the bronze medal.

It's no disgrace to be left out of the France team. They have the Pietrus brothers, Boris Diaw, Tony Parker, Mickael Gelabale.

Diawara, though, was clearly miffed at not being in the French team.

"I have not been called up for the team so I don't know what to think," he had said on June 26.

Claude, we trust you have called him and offered an explanation.

Diawara did not let it bother him for he left Italy and played with the Denver Nuggets' Summer League team, impressing enough to earn a contract.

His arrival means there are now seven Frenchman in the NBA.

Hold on to your seats. There is surely more activity on the way.