Ibrahim Jaaber's stock on the internationl basketball circuit appears to be ascending. So far, he's gone from an obscure conference in Greece to a pan-European competition in Italy and, most recently, added Bulgaria too, where he holds official citizenship and suits up for the national team.
His first international gig after graduating Penn in 2007 landed Jaaber with Elegao BC of the Greek League. By midseason, he was leading the conference with 22.4 points and 2.8 steals per game. But after 15 games Elegao traded him to Lottomatica Virtus Roma, a Euroleague mainstay located in, you guessed it, Rome.
His initial contract was set to expire in June 2008, and reports at the time suggested that Panionios, another Greek League team, wanted to steal him away from Roma at the end of the season and bring him back to Greece with a multi-year deal.
But Jaaber is with Roma still, according to both Eurobasket.com's listing and the team's own site, so I assume he got a new contract there last summer. This year, he's started 11 of 12 games, averaged 27 minutes and 9.6 points, shot 46.5 percent from the floor and hit half of his 22 free throws. Full stats are here.
Euroleague is one of three major international basketball circuits in Europe and is more prominent than the other two, Eurocup and Eurochallenge. The Barcelona-based Union of European Leagues of Basketball runs both Euroleague and Eurocup. Every year it selects which teams — 24 for Euroleague, 54 for Eurocup — to give invitations to. The selection process is influenced by money and is not a pure meritocracy, but each domestic-league champion of the ULEB's 13 member-states usually gets a Euroleague bid. Here are this year's participants.
Roma competed for the third year in a row for the first time in club history, 25 years after its first and only Euroleague crown. Of course, it would benefit Jaaber's standing on the international scene and the NBA radar if Roma made it four in a row next season, assuming he continued to play there. Interestingly, Panionios, the Greek League team I mentioned earlier, was a selection this year for the first time since 1996.
Euroleague's postseason is a weird, four-round playoff system, where teams are divided into divisions and the field is pared from 24 teams to 16 to eight to four to two. Roma went 6-4 in conference play, which was good enough to squeeze into the six-game round of 16. That round is ongoing, and Roma is 0-2 so far.
As for his diversion in Bulgaria — I'll have to read up on that some more.
Tags: basketball, ibrahim jaaber
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February 12th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Andrew, your stats on Ibby are outdated and wrong. He's averaging 13.3 points/game and has better other stats that you stated. He's also relegated (and really nailed) Brandon Jennings, the NBA impending lottery pick, to the bench. Ibby's been Roma's best player and in the last eight or so games has consistently lit up the stat sheet (and improved all his numbers). He's getting major minutes as a starter and finisher of Roma's games. Roma is on a major roll, as well. I'd suggest you access the team's website (not the translated site, which is limited) for current stats. Jaaber is playing awesome ball.
February 13th, 2009 at 2:34 am
Steve, where are you getting your numbers? According to Andrew's fifth link, Jaaber is averaging 9.6 points. So until you can provide a link with your 13.3 stat etc... there's no reason to call out Andrew.
February 13th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Zach, if you go here:
http://www.virtusroma.it/internal.asp?category_name=La%20Squadra&cat_id=1
you'll get Roma's detailed team site; go to "statistiche" and you'll find Jaaber's current stats. Scurria undershot Ibby's stats.
February 13th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Umm, couldn't the DP like call the guy and interview him instead of making assumptions about where he's playing?
February 14th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Reporter makes a good point. Why am I, an old Penn grad, doing this legwork?
February 15th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Mr. Becker,
I looked into your complaint and I believe that you used Jaaber's overall statistics this year; whereas I used only his conference (Euroleague) stats. I apologize for the mistake but it was not intentional and I believe I gave Jaaber plenty of credit for his fine season. It would be great for both him and for the Penn program's reputation if he continues to make noise on the European circuit.
February 16th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Andrew. I think you need to learn more about how European hoops works. The numbers used by the posters were for games within Serie A, which is the Italian League (his conference, if you will). The Euroleague is a competition pitting teams from different countries that placed at various levels in their domestic leagues in the years prior. It is certainly not a conference in the way you mention above...it is a separate league. This day and age, there are plenty of readily accessible articles on sites like wikipedia that should be able to inform you of this so you don't make the multiple mistakes you have made above.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serie_A_(basketball)_2008-09
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallacanestro_Virtus_Roma
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euroleague