To subscribe to the new feed, insert this feed into your podcast aggregator (such as iTunes): http://heinnews.com/feed/taking-the-charge/ and you are good to go!

We are new in iTunes so we have a new podcast feed, meaning this feed will no longer be current. We will run the next three episodes with his feed but then move to the new feed exclusively.

To subscribe to the new feed, insert this feed into your podcast aggregator (such as iTunes): http://heinnews.com/feed/taking-the-charge/ and you are good to go!

Taking The Charge Podcast Episode 31: Os Davis of BallinEurope and Dave of heinnews talk to Casey Jacobsen of Brose Baskets Bamberg about getting back in the right frame of mind for the Beko BBL playoffs and Esteban Apraez of ESPN International Marketing Solutions about the Basketball Capitals documentary series.

For our Movie of the Week, we watched took a look at three of those four series documentaries.

Emails to takingthecharge@hotmail.com

To subscribe to the show, insert this feed into your podcast aggregator (such as iTunes):

http://heinnews.com/feed/taking-the-charge/

Here is the trailer for the documentary series Basketball Capitals.

Episode 31: Breakdown of show

News: Euroleague quarterfinal playoffs, Lokomotiv Kuban winning Eurocup title, NBA playoffs picture, Nike Hoop Summit, Dario Saric, Alex Abrines: 3:10

Casey Jacobsen of Brose Baskets Bamberg: 1:02:30

This week’s music: “darix togni” 1:12:40 and “malva (instrumental)” 2:20:55 by Digi G’Alessio 

Esteban Apraez, senior director, ESPN International Marketing Solutions: 1:21:25

“Film” of the week “Basketball Capitals”: 1:56:25

To subscribe to the new feed, insert this feed into your podcast aggregator (such as iTunes): http://heinnews.com/feed/taking-the-charge/ and you are good to go!

We are new in iTunes so we have a new podcast feed, meaning this feed will no longer be current. We will run the next three episodes with his feed but then move to the new feed exclusively.

To subscribe to the new feed, insert this feed into your podcast aggregator (such as iTunes): http://heinnews.com/feed/taking-the-charge/ and you are good to go!

Taking The Charge Podcast Episode 30: Os Davis of BallinEurope and Dave of heinnews talk to Sam Meyerkopf of Euroleague Adventures about the Euroleague Top 16 and the up-coming Quarterfinal Playoffs.

For our Movie of the Week, we watched the fabulous baseball film “Sugar”.

Emails to takingthecharge@hotmail.com

To subscribe to the show, insert this feed into your podcast aggregator (such as iTunes):

http://heinnews.com/feed/taking-the-charge/

Here is the trailer for the film Sugar.

Episode 30: Breakdown of show

News: Talk NCAA Tournament final: 2:00

Sam Meyerkopf of Euroleague Adventures: 26:45

This week’s music: “You need help (Still A Snippet)” by Tha Silent Partner 1:56:20 and “Napoleonic Wars” by krackatoa 2:22:40

Film of the week “Sugar”: 1:59:30

Panathinaikos guard Michael Bramos talks about reaching the Euroleague Quarterfinal Playoffs and getting stabbed

Taking The Charge Podcast Episode 29: Os Davis of BallinEurope and Dave of heinnews talk to Michael Bramos of Panathinaikos of Panathinaikos about reaching the Euroleague Quarterfinal Playoffs, getting stabbed and the Greek national team.

For our Movie of the Week is “Rollerball” – again.

Emails to takingthecharge@hotmail.com

To subscribe to the show, insert this feed into your podcast aggregator (such as iTunes):

http://heinnews.com/feed/podcast

Here is the trailer for the film “Rollerball”

Episode 29: Breakdown of show

News: Talk NCAA Tournament, Brittney Griner, Steve Alford and UCLA, and Euroleague: 4:05

Michael Bramos of Panathinaikos: 50:35

This week’s music: “Mondo’s Disco (Studio Haen Remix) by Gorowski 1:18:45 and “Sardignia springtime tweak” by dr dub remixes Arrogalla 1:37:05

Film of the week “Rollerball”: 1:21:30

The 24-team field for EuroBasket 2013 is complete.

The EuroBasket 2013 Qualification Round has ended and it’s time to break down what happened between August 14 and September 11, 2012. heinnews’s David Hein called up Os Davis of BallinEurope.com to chat about who made it in to EuroBasket 2013, who didn’t, what we liked about the qualification system and what we didn’t and why, thanks to Taylor Rochestie, Montenegro could complete against Spain.
Enjoy!

Photo courtesy of K&M Ziolkowscy/foto.ZIOLO.eu

Gonzaga fans better freshen up on their Polish pronunciation as they look forward to the 2012-13 season, when Poland 7-footer Przemyslaw Karnowski arrives in Spokane for his freshman season.

Karnowski is pretty easy but then there is his first name. The 18-year-old Bydgoszcz native tried to pronounce it to heinnews recently and we had to ask some Polish colleagues for the phonetics on it. And this is what they came up with: Pshe-mi-swaaav.

The next question for the big man was easy. “What will the guys at Gonzaga call you?” Karnowski’s answer: “They all call me Big P.”

Yeah that works.

Well, thanks to the commitment and dedication of the Gonzaga coaching staff – especially assistant coach Tommy Lloyd – Zags fans will even get the chance to offer up their best pronunciation attempts.

Karnowski toured the U.S. in April and visited or spoke to California, Duke, Kansas and Ohio State among others. But Big P’s message to those schools was clear: “They asked me if I wanted to come. I told them: ‘You wrote me two weeks ago, and I’ve been in touch with the coaches at Gonzaga for two years.’ It was the main reason.”

Lloyd has been a master in overseas recruiting, bringing in Frenchmen Ronny Turiaf and Mathis Keita and Germans Elias Harris and Mathis Mönninghoff.

Another big reason was because Karnowski figured he would step right into the line-up with last season’s starting center Robert Sacre departing and getting drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers.

“It was the best option for me because I could play there,” said Karnowski.

Karnowski pretty much had his choice of school and college coaches recognized that he wasn’t just a big guy to go along with the motto ‘You can’t teach size’. But he is also technically skilled and physical left-handed center who flashes a fine passing ability with his fine low post game.

Karnowski himself – a very quiet, reserved individual despite his physical stature – is very low key on his expectations. That started with the announcement on May 2 of his college choice on his Twitter feed @PKarnowski: “In the next season I will play in Zags uni!”

When asked what he wants to accomplish with Gonzaga, Big P said: “I know my opponents will be stronger. But I just want to play the best I can. The main goal is to help my team to get better and help my teammates to get better. The main goal for me is to lose weight.”

He repeated his commitment to work on his body, adding: “I have to lose weight and be quicker, faster and stronger. But I think that the United States and Gonzaga are the best option for me to get better.”

Karnowski also will come to Spokane with a wealth of experience.

He played during the 2011-12 season with top flight professional Polish team Siarka Jezioro Tranobrzeg and averaged more than 10 points, nearly 4.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.2 blocks.

Despite not turning 19 years old until November 8, he has already played at five European youth championships (Under-16 in 2008 and 2009, Under-18 in 2010 and 2011, and Under-20 in 2012) as well as two world  youth championships (Under-17 in 2010 and Under-19 in 2011).

Actually the 2010 Under-17 World Championship in Hamburg, Germany ended up helping Karnowski decide on Gonzaga.

Poland took the silver medal and lost in the final to a USA team that included 2012 NBA first rounders Bradley Beal, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Andre Drummond, Anthony Wroten and Marquis Teague not to mention 2013 projected NBA lottery pick James McAdoo and first rounder Adonis Thomas.

Joining Karnowski, his Polish teammate Mateusz Ponitka, Beal and McAdoo in the U17 Worlds All-Tournament Team was Kevin Pangos from the bronze medal-winning Canada team.

Pangos and Karnowski then hooked up again at the 2011 Nike Hoop Summit and kind of built up a friendship, which eventually didn’t hurt in Gonzaga’s recruiting of the center to the Northwest.

“I was in touch with Kevin. He told me everything that’s good and not good. And I think he will be my roommate. It should work,” said Karnowski.

“I met all the players when I was there (for his campus visit). It was such a nice group to practice with but also off the court to be friends.”

Karnowski will arrive in Spokane not only with a good chance for lots of minutes and a motivation to work on his body, but he also will come armed with plenty of advice and tricks of the trade from an NBA center.

Polish 7-foot center Przemyslaw Karnowski decides to attend Gonzaga University in the U.S. – photo from fibaeurope.com

After playing at the Under-20 European Championship Division B from July 12-22 in Bulgaria, Karnowski started working out with Poland’s senior national team for the first time. And that meant trying to hold his own against Phoenix Suns center Marcin Gortat.

“Gortat is a great player, and I got to battle with him in practice,” Karnowski told heinnews at an international warm-up tournament prior to Poland’s qualification campaign for the 2013 European Championship.

“It’s so hard playing against him (Gortat). He’s stronger, faster, quicker than me. I want to give my best against him. He’s a good NBA center. He’s given me so much.”

When asked how Gortat helps him most, Karnowski says: “Lower legs and better foot work.”

While Karnowski works on his foot work and body, Zags can start working on their Polish.

Welcome to the first edition of the heinnews podcast, where we bring you the world of international of sports.

In this podcast we have an interview with Lithuanian international Rimantas Kaukenas in the aftermath of EuroBasket 2011. We discussed with him Lithuania’s somewhat showing at the tournament at home, though they did qualifying for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. Another issue was how he feels that 19-year-old Jonas Valanciunas is handling his stardom. Kaukenas also talked about the magical run of FYR Macedonia and his Montepaschi Siena teammate Bo McCalebb.

Hope you enjoy.

http://www.lernerleben.de/downloads/PodcastKaukenas.mp3

German basketball junkies will have an extra avenue to get the kick of the hardwood as the documentary film “Phoenix in der Asche” will enter German theaters starting on November 10, 2011.

The film – titled “No Ashes – No Phoenix” in English and made by Jens Pfeifer – brings filmgoers on an 88-minute odyssey during the German club Phoenix Hagen’s promotion season 2009-10 in the German BBL league, which ended in a relegation battle to stay in the top flight.

“Phoenix in der Asche” offers a unique glimpse of the everyday on-goings at a professional basketball club in Germany – with everything that includes from hope to doubt, praise to criticism, frustration to happiness, conflict to togetherness, drama to suspense and top level sports.

The film premiered at the 2011 Munich Film Festival on June 29, 2011 in German and was shown on July 1 in English.

The film – released by the Cologne-based film distributors Real Fiction Filmverleih – will have its big screen premiere in Pfeifer’s home town Hagen on November 8. Further dates and locations for the showing of the film will be available on the website www.phoenixinderasche.de.

Pfeifer told heinnews that he plans on sending the film to festivals abroad but there are no plans yet to have the film shown in theatres outside of Germany or the rights sold to a foreign film distributor. He does, however, hope the film can be shown in small art cinemas in the United States.

Here is a full review of the film.

And here is the trailer – in German

Transcending Geopolitics – While the American and Iranian governments talk trash, U.S. basketball players are a big hit in Iran.