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European Update

With nothing better to do, I did some checking up on European league players with ties to the Clippers.  

MBFGC - Sofoklis Schortsianitis - Definitive information is pretty hard to come by, or at any rate I can't find it.  There is news, and I guess I would categorize it as good, given how grim the situation seemed the last time we checked in.  

You may recall that Sofo was required to check into a Swiss facility that might best be described as a 'fat camp'.  The good news is that he's out of the spa, and back with his team.

His team, Olympiacos, is in the EuroLeague Final Eight right now.  They have a decisive game three in Moscow against CSKA on Thursday to determine who will make it to the Final Four.  There is a new coach at Olympiacos, and that may or may not represent a fresh start for Sofo.  Ball In Europe, in their Final Eight overview, offered this tantalizing tidbit:

Olympiakos after the loss at the Greek Cup final against Panathinaikos announced that Marc Jackson released from the club and until the return of Schortsianitis (approximately in 10 days according to rumors) Yannakis will have few choices in the low post.

That was written on March 30th, and if that 'rumor' were to be believed, he might actually be playing on Thursday.  Not so fast.  In a fanmail session with the new coach on the EuroLeague site, Panagiotis Giannakis had this to say when the question was whether Sofo had hopes of playing soon:

He's getting better and he's trying hard, but we have to be patient with him because he needs time and we need him healthy, not only for one game but for many many years. I believe that he and also the fans should be patient, because it's worth the wait.

So he hasn't written the guy off, but he clearly has no intention of playing him any time soon.  Stay tuned.

James Singleton - This is unequivocal good news.  James Singleton has recovered from his ACL tear, and is back playing basketball for Tau Ceramica, another Final Eight participant.  Considering that Singleton was injured on Sept. 29 and that there was damage to both his ACL and LCL, it's remarkable that he made his EuroLeague debut on March 5, just a little more than 5 months after he was injured.  He has played in four games so far, logging over 19 minutes a game - playing more minutes than Spurs first round pick Tiago Splitter in the two Final Eight games played so far.  If Tau can win Game 3 at home against Partizan Igokea, Singleton will find himself playing in the Final Four, the biggest stage in European basketball, six months after major knee surgery.  

Daniel Ewing - Ewing is the starting point guard and third leading scorer for one of the better teams in the Russian Super League, BC Khimki.  He has averaged 12 points, playing 26 minutes per game in 31 games this season.

Jared Jordan - Jordan spent the season with the top club in Lithuania, Lietuvos Rytas.  He plays behind Hollis Price, the former Oklahoma Sooners star, and got some nice minutes early in the season when Price was injured.  But with Price back, Jordan is buried pretty deep on the bench.  He only played 25 minutes total in the six group games in the EuroLeague Round of 16, logging DNP's in two of them.  

Yaroslav Korolev - Speaking of buried on the bench, Yaroslav Korolev has played a total of 32 minutes, scoring 21 points, playing in 4 games this season for Dynamo Moscow.  

Chris Kaman - I've seen nothing more on Kaman's pursuit of a German passport so that he can compete on the German National team for a spot in the Olympics.