TalkBasket - Home of Basketball

The captain of Aris BSA made statements via the official site of the “yellows” about the beginning of the new year and the games that follow during the next month.

Union Olimpija loaned their best guard Vlado Ilievski, who came to club as a big einforcment this summer, to Tau Ceramica until the end of this season. Olimpija lost all chances to qualify for Top16 in Euroleague and chances to qualify for Final Four of ABA League are very slim.

Ioannis Bourousis will be out of action for at least a month. The twenty-five year old Greek center has a problem with his knee (torn) and is going to have an operation in order to fix it.

Ramunas Butautas was replaced by another Lithuanian coach Donaldas Kairys in ASK Riga. 31-year-old coach has already some serious experience having worked with Khimki, Lietuvos Rytas, CSKA Moscow and San Antonio Spurs.

Darko Milicic will be out of action for 4 to 6 weeks. The twenty-three year old Serbian center broke one of the fingers of his right hand during the game of his Memphis team against the Indiana Pacers last Friday. Milicic was the second overall draft pick in 2003 by the Detroit Pistons.

Infosport.lt reports that Zalgiris is close to signing Ukrainian center Vyacheslav Kravtsov from BK Kyiv. This signing could be a confirmation of a successful negotiations between potential investor Igor Kolomoysky and the club.

Czarni Slupsk announced via its official website, the arrival of Antonio Burks who has signed a contract until the end of the season. Former University of Memphis guard has played in NBA with Memphis Grizzlies. After one year in Europe with Red Star he has been inked by Lukoil Academic, in August 2007, but after he has been banned for a season from FIBA, because KK Crvena Zvezda had informed them that Burks had broken the rules of his contract by leaving 20 days earlier.

BC Triumph signed the contract with the center player of the Uruguay Esteban Batista (208, 1983). Batista will replace Nenad Krstic who moved to NBA. Last season Batista played for Maccabi Tel-Avi, and two seasons (2005-07) played for Atlanta NBA. His stats in NBA in 2006-07 season: 13 games, 1,5 ppg, 2,3 rpg per 6,2 minutes.

Gravelines inked American forward Russell Carter to replace Nick George who has been acquired by Casale Monferrato last 8th of December. Former Notre Dame University player has signed a contract until the end of the season.