Boris Diaw's 2011 trip to India inspired him to become a serious wildlife photographer

Boris Diaw is a lot of things. He's a 6-foot-8 chubby remix of a ballerina on the basketball court who has shown the ability to play all five positions with equal clunky grace. He's a legend of the French national team, bagging big medals in international tournaments over the past decade. He's a crucial part of the funky and selfless depth for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, a 2014 NBA champion who will be challenging for the title once again in 2016. He's a connoisseur of good food, good wine, and frogging.

He's also a serious wildlife photographer, who takes safari trips to Africa nearly every off-season and returns with a litter of wonderful images of animals and scenery observed by his expert eye and captured by his ever-improving camera skills. Back in 2012, ESPN profiled Diaw's fascination towards photography and shared some of his best images in an article by Theresa Manahan. The story also featured that how a 2011 trip to India as a photographer's intern boosted his love for the art.

Earlier this week, in an interview with CBS Sports' Ananth Pandian, Diaw further expanded on how India inspired him to become a serious wildlife photographer. Diaw accepted a week-long internship under National Geographic photographer Steve Winter, who went to India in 2011 to capture images of tigers at the famous Bandavgarh National Park in Umaria, Madhya Pradesh. Diaw 'passed' the internship with flying colours, which soon led to his own partnership with National Geographic.

Via CBS Sports

Diaw has been regularly going on safaris since his rookie year, taking pictures and marveling at the wildlife. In fact, it was after shadowing acclaimed National Geographic photographer Steve Winter on a trip to India to photograph tigers that Diaw took his passion for photography to next level. Winter complimented Diaw's work and encouraged him to continue taking pictures, so he did.

"The first step was that I reached out to the NBPA (NBA Players Association) to get in contact with National Geographic a few years ago because I wanted to do some kind of internship with them. They put me in touch with a photographer named Steve Winter, who takes a lot of photos of big cats like tigers.
When I was talking with him, he said that he was going to India on a Tuesday for a story on tigers. So I said I'm coming with and booked a flight for that Monday and went to India to take pictures with him. He told me that he first started doing kid books for Nat Geo kids before working with Nat Geo, so that also helped plant the seed for me to come out with a kids book.

With an area of 105 square kilometers, Bandhavgarh is one of the most popular national parks in India. The density of the tiger population at Bandhavgarh is one of the highest known in India, and the park also has a large number leopards and various species of deer.

Unfortunately, not much more is known of Diaw's week in India. Did he take a selfie with a real white tiger in honour of Aravind Adiga? Did he go out and try some Daal Bafla in Madhya Pradesh? Did he head over to Khajuraho and blush in front of the ancient erotic temples?

Ananth's article above won't have those answers, but you should skip over to CBS Sports to read the rest of the interview to learn about Diaw's passion for photography, animals, wildlife preservation, and more! Indian Spurs fans can have yet another reason to cheer along during Diaw's next "slow break".

USA wins 6th consecutive gold at 2015 FIBA U19 Women’s World Championship

Different group of young stars, same result.

While the home crowd at Chekhov provided hosts Russia the boost they needed to end the American’s dominance, the USA eventually pulled away in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter to capture their sixth consecutive gold medal at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Basketball Championship for Women. USA’s A’ja Wilson turned out to be the hero of the night, scoring 30 points along with eight rebounds to help her side stun the Russian home crowd.

Click here to read my full article on SportsKeeda.

Gasolina: A celebration of Pau Gasol as one of basketball’s All Time great international players

Few international players have had his measure of success in the modern era as Pau Gasol, who helped usher in Spain's golden generation and made La Roja the world's most feared basketball team outside of USA. Here's a celebration of Gasol's stellar international career.

Click here to read the full feature.

International Watch: Ranking the top 10 FIBA World Cup players outside the USA

Although the USA – the world’s number one ranked team – were an automatic favourite to be crowned champions at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain, few predicted that they would achieve the feat with such relative ease, winning each game by an average margin of 32.5 points per game and continuing their 63 game unbeaten streak in international basketball contests. But don’t let the Americans’ dominance distract you from the top performers from the rest of the world, many of whom, even in defeat, used the World Cup stage to further define their legacies.

Here are the top 10 players from the 2014 FIBA World Cup outside the USA. Click here for full feature.

USA stamps basketball dominance with another FIBA World Cup win

Without Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Blake Griffin, or Carmelo Anthony. Without even Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Kevin Love, or Paul George. On paper, the 2014 World Cup featured a younger and 'weaker' USA side. This wasn't the 'redeemed' USA side that - since their last competitive loss in 2006 - had been undefeated and dominated opponents in every international basketball tournament since. This was, what many critics called, the 'C Team', the youngest USA side since the NBA began sending professionals back in 1992.

But basketball games aren't won on paper; Team USA's so-called 'C Team' turned the 'C' into 'Championship', defending the rebranded FIBA World Cup title for the first time in their history with a dominant performance that easily blew out the rest of the global competition. Winning every game by an average margin of 32.5 points, Team USA went an undefeated 9-0 at the World Cup in Spain, capping off their wonderful tournament with their best performance in the final: a 129-92 victory over Serbia in Madrid on Sunday, September 14.

After a slow start as Serbia raced to a 15-7 lead early in the game, USA bounced back with a 15-0 spurt and never looked back. USA made the most of the shortened international three-point line, hitting 11-16 threes in the final. Kyrie Irving (26) and James Harden (23) were the chief perpetrators as Serbia had no answer for the American onslaught. By the end of the contest, eight of the 12 USA players had scored in double figures en route to the 37 point win.

This was USA's fifth gold medal at the FIBA World Cup, tying for top slot with the former Yugoslavia. They have now won 63 straight games - 45 in official FIBA events and 18 in exhibition play - and are automatically qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

USA won all of their group games with relative ease, yet, because of their slow starts and the quality of their opponents, doubts remained about the true talent of this young team. By knocking out Mexico, Slovenia, Lithuania, and then Serbia on the way to the gold, USA went on to erase all such doubts. Kyrie Irving was named tournament's MVP, but this was far from a one-man effort: the likes of Kenneth Faried, James Harden, Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry, DeMarcus Cousins, Klay Thompson, and more came up big from game to game to keep the Americans at the head of the race.

Since breaking up with Yugoslavia, the silver in 2014 was Serbia's first ever medal at the tournament. Serbia were the competition's unlikely finalists: they won only two of their five group games to sneak into the knockout stage, and then, they suddenly found a way to turn their performances around. The Serbs blew out favoured opponents like Greece and Brazil and held on to win in a classic Semi-Final over France to reach the final.

France won the bronze medal by scraping past Lithuania 95-93 for a close win on Saturday. Led by 27 points by Nicolas Batum, France bounced back from a fourth quarter deficit to claim victory. Lithuania's high scorer was their young center Jonas Valanciunas, who finished with 25 points and nine rebounds. France, who won last year's EuroBasket, will be happy with their performance at the World Cup, especially since they were able to win a medal without the likes of Tony Parker or Joakim Noah in their lineup.

The biggest disappointment at the World Cup was the performance of hosts Spain. Featuring the likes of Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Ricky Rubio, Serge Ibaka, Jose Calderon, Juan Carlos Navarro, and Rudy Fernandez, Spain entered the tournament at full strength and seemed to have all the pieces to be the only true challengers to USA's ascent. This was perhaps the last opportunity of Spain's "golden generation" heralded by Pau Gasol to beat the USA and claim their second World Cup win after 2006. Alas, after a fine start in the group stage and the round of 16, Spain were shocked in one of the great upsets in world basketball by France in the Quarter-Final. A defensive masterclass by the French knocked out the Spaniards and ended any hopes of the dream USA-Spain clash in the Final.

Final Standings

• 1. USA
  
• 2. Serbia
  
• 3. France
  

All Tournament Team

• Kyrie Irving (USA) - MVP 
• Kenneth Faried (USA) 
• Milos Teodosic (Serbia) 
• Nicolas Batum (France) 
• Pau Gasol (Spain)

Nanjing 2014: Lithuania (Boys) & USA (Girls) secure 3x3 basketball golds.

The 3x3 halfcourt basketball tournament at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympics concluded in Nanjing (China) on Tuesday, August 26th. 20 teams participated in each of the men's and women's sections in the nine-day tournament. Lithuania's Boys and USA's Girls emerged as champions after victories over France and Netherlands respectively on the final day of basketball. The Youth Olympics also featured a dunk contest and a shoot-out.

Lithuania defeated France in a thrilling boys final 18-16, while the American girls had little trouble steam-rolling their way through the course of the tournament before defeating Netherlands in their final game, 19-10.

Also on the final day of 3x3 basketball, Argentina's boys won the bronze medal after defeating Russia 17-14. The girls' bronze was settled in a tight contest as Spain sneaked past Hungary for a 12-11 win.

In the boys' semi-finals, Lithuania had defeated Russia 13-10, while France - led by 10 points from Lucas Dussoulier - beat Argentina 16-14. Netherlands girls shut down Spain 11-7 in the girls' semi-final matchup, while USA beat Hungary 21-14.

Medals were also handed out for the slam dunk contest (for boys) and the shootout (for girls) at the Youth Olympics. Karim Mouliom of France won the dunk contest while Spain's Lucia Togores Carpintero was the winner of the girls's shootout.

Final medal tally

Boys Tournament

• Gold: Lithuania
  
• Silver: France
  
• Bronze: Argentina
  

Girls Tournament

• Gold: USA
  
• Silver: Netherlands
  
• Bronze: Spain
  

Boys Dunk Contest

• Gold: Karim Mouliom (France)
  
• Silver: Ziga Lah (Slovenia)
  
• Bronze: Fu Lei (China)
  

Girls Shootout Contest

• Gold: Lucia Togores Carpintero (Spain)
  
• Silver: Ela Micunovic (Slovenia)
  
• Bronze: Katie Samuelson (USA)
  

USA win fifth consecutive title at FIBA U19 World Championship for Women

USA continued their dominance in the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women by winning their fifth consecutive gold (and sixth in seven) at the tournament with a final win over France at the 2013 championship in Klaipeda, Lithuania on Sunday. The American girls were undefeated in the tournament - which began back on July 18th - and dominated France with a 61-28 victory in the finale.

At the heart of their memorable final performance was their lock down defense in the second half, where USA only held France to eight points. Breanna Stewart led the way with 16 points and nine rebounds.

Stewart was also named MVP of the tournament, following up as her finish in the All Tournament team at the competition two years ago in Chile as well.

The final was America's second win over France in the tournament, after edging them 69-63 in the Eighth-Final round stage earlier.

On Sunday, the Bronze Medal game was also held between Australia and Spain, a close-fought contest as Australia made a strong second half comeback to edge Spain 73-68. Carley Mijovic (25) and Stephanie Tolbot (22) led the way for the Australians, while Leticia Romero Gonzalez had 16 points for Spain.

A day earlier, France had edged Spain 62-58 in a thrilling semi-final using a balanced scoring attack and overcoming 27 points and 10 rebounds by Spain's Astou Ndour. In the second semi-final, USA had no trouble cruising past Australia 77-54 behind 23 points and eight rebounds by Breanna Stewart.

Final Standings

1. USA
2. France
3. Australia
4. Spain
5. China

All Tournament Team

Breanna Stewart (USA)
Olivia Epoupa (France)
Jamie Weisner (Canada)
Stephanie Talbot (Australia)
Astou Ndour (Spain)

USA rules Olympic Basketball roost again

The Men's and Women's Basketball team from the USA ruled the Olympics roast again, both leaving London with gold medals around their necks. While the Men's squad sweated it out in a classic final against Spain, the Women strolled to their fifth straight gold with a blowout win over France. Here is a recap of the memorable Olympics Basketball Tournament.

Click here to read full article

Basketball at the London Olympics: US (A) against the World

This Olympics, like almost every year, it’s USA Basketball against the world. For anyone else in ‘the world’ contingent to pull off a victory, they have to expose any weaknesses that America’s squad of uber-duper stars may have and give in their perfect performance. Here are my predictions for the upcoming international tournament!

Click here to read the full feature!

Spain are once again Europe's finest basketball team

Did you follow the EuroBasket? You know, that thing featuring the best basketball teams in Europe, and the best European basketball players, and some incredible hoops in Lithuania the past three weeks? No, LeBron and Kobe weren't there. They didn't need to be: as the EuroBasket 2011 proved, we have come a long way in the last two decades. Basketball in Europe was always competitive and featured high-quality, but now, it is becoming mainstream too, and in my opinion, more exciting than ever.

With the NBA lockout threatening to keep us away from high-quality basketball for a long, long time, there was no better place to see the next best thing of competitive world class hoops action than the EuroBasket. No fear, NBA-philes, for there was a healthy representation of the league in this championship. The Final of the EuroBasket featured the two teams with the most NBA players: Spain and France. What does that prove? Well, first of all, NBA teams know what the hell they are up to and are signing the world's best players. And secondly, it's showing the confidence that European players are gleaning from their time in the NBA, which is helping up dominate back home.

The champions were once again Spain, who have now won the EuroBasket for the second time in a row, and are perhaps the world's best team outside of the mighty USA, and were the only team to push the 'Redeem Team' to the brink in the 2008 Olympics. Don't worry, Spain fans, your team will get that chance again: by qualifying for the EuroBasket finals, both Spain and France also booked their place for the 2012 Olympics. USA are already there because of their World Championship victory.

But back to the EuroBasket final, though: it was a fair final, featuring two of the best teams in the competition. Spain's NBA representation came in the form of the mighty Gasol brothers (Pau and Marc), Rudy Fernandez, Ricky Rubio, Jose Calderon, and newly nationalised Serge Ibaka. Funny, because the one man this list doesn't mention is the man who was actually named MVP of the tournament, Juan Carlos Navarro.

France had the likes of Tony Parker, Joakim Noah, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw, and Kevin Seraphin. Mikael Pietrus, another talented French player in the NBA, missed the tournament due to injury.

The final was more or less the Navarro show, as the talented swingman carried off the momentum he had going in the semi-final to pour in 27 points and added five assists in the final. The Barcelona player known as "La Bomba" had 35 points against Macedonia in the semis just a few nights earlier. The EuroBasket MVP averaged 18.7 ppg in the course of the tournament, but saved his biggest performances for the end.

Spain led most of the way and won the game 98-85, which is quite a high-scoring result for an international game. Pau Gasol, who I still believe is Spain's most important player, seemed to be playing hobbled through the course of the tournament, but he still poured in 17 points and 10 rebounds in the Final. Gasol averaged 20.1 ppg and 8.3 rpg in the tournament.

Tony Parker was easily the best point guard in Europe in the tournament, and scored 26 points in a losing effort in the Final. Parker was the leading scorer at the EuroBasket, averaging 22.1 ppg.

One of the stories of the championship was the team from Macedonia. Completely underrated, Macedonia had a fairy-tale run into the Semi-Finals, which included an incredible victory over the hosts and superpower Lithuania in the Quarter-Finals. Macedonia were led by Bo McCalebb, an American born Macedonia-nationalised player, who averaged 21.4 ppg in the course of the tournament.

And then there was Russia: a team which quietly and efficiently went about their business, losing only one game, that a semi-final to France, en-route to a third place finish in the tournament. Russia were led, as usual, by the brilliant Andrei Kirilenko (who has unfortunately not been that brilliant for the Utah Jazz over the past several years). Russia defeated Macedonia in a close game 72-68, to win third place.

The biggest disappointment of the EuroBasket was found in Spain too, and he went by the name of Ricky Rubio. Few 20-year-olds have had this many pendulum swings in individual form, team success, and public opinion than Rubio. A player who became a star at 15, was troubling the world's best at the Olympics in 2008, was drafted by the Timberwolves in 2009 and didn't show, won a lot with his club and his country, but somewhere in between, completely lost confidence and now seems to be a ghost of a player we once saw. And all this before he can legally buy himself a drink in America: which is something he should be thinking about right now, since Rubio is finally making his trip to the NBA to play for the T-Wolves when and if the Lockout ends. Rubio had a horrible championship, but hey, he was the point guard / floor general of the best team in Europe. His talent will never be statified, so I won't even try: you have to watch him play and see the team results to decide how good or bad he is.

So, to sum it up, Rubio was bad at the Euros, but he was good enough to win!

The other disappointment was Turkey, who, after a brilliant silver-medal performance at the World Championship, couldn't even make it past the group stage in this tournament, and ended at 11th place.

In the earlier rounds, players like Luol Deng for Great Britain and Dirk Nowitzki for Germany carried their teams as far as they could with good individual play - Dirk had a little more help by Chris Kaman in his side, actually.

Here are the final standings:

1. Spain

2. France

3. Russia

4. Macedona

5. Lithuania

Here is the All Tournament team:

PG: Tony Parker (France)

SG: Bo McCalebb (France)

SF: Juan Carlos Navarro (Spain) - MVP

PF: Andrei Kirilenko (Russia)

C: Pau Gasol (Spain)

Russia win EuroBasket Women 2011

Russian Women defeated Turkey in the Final of the European Women's Basketball Championship - or EuroBasket Women - to win the tournament's 2011 edition, which was held in Poland from June 18 - July 3, 2011.

In the Final, Russia were led by a 18 points and 12 rebounds by Maria Stepanova, as they eased passed Turkey, 59-42, to capture their third EuroBasket Women's title. Russia's Elena Danilochkina was named the MVP of the tournament.

Russia won the tournament's gold medal, Turkey was given the silver, and France defeated the Czech Republic to secure bronze.

The 'All Tournament' team was: Maria Stepanova (Russia), Elena Danilochkina (Russia), Nevriye Yilmaz (Turkey), Eva Viteckova (Czech Republic), and Sandra Mandir (Croatia).

Video: Vince Carter - The Dunk of Death

I want to take a short interlude from our regular scheduled programming here at the Hoopistani blog to talk about my favourite dunk.

AAAAAH... The dunk... Everyone has a favourite dunker, a favourite slam, whether it is in a Slam Dunk competition, during a fast-break in a game, or my personal favourite, an unexpected elevation from a freakish athlete right in the middle of the crowded lane. Usually, these are the dunks that make for the best posters.

With so many choices, how do you pick just one? I'm starting off my narrowing my field down a little bit - the dunk has to be elite and relevant - and by that I mean, the dunker has to be a relevant basketball player at his time and the stage has to be at the most elite/competitive. So, sorry random dunkers (with little other basketball skills) in Algeria (Kadour Ziani) or streetball dunkers (Taurian Fontenette), or our own Indian Blake Griffin, TJ Sahi (who dunked over a Mumbai taxi two weeks ago): I'm officially unconsidering you all for my list.

The next thing I want to count out are dunk competitions altogether. Yes, they are nice to watch, sometimes. Yes, the likes of Jordan, Dominque, Dr. J, Kobe, Vince Carter, Dwight Howard, Nate Robinson, and Blake Griffin have been spectacular in dunk competitions, but they don't count for two points and crushed souls of the opponents like in-game dunks do. This paragraph is officially dedicated to TJ Sahi, the finest dunker in India, who one-upped Blake Griffin in India's own slam dunk competition 10 days ago with a dunk for the ages in Mumbai, when he jumped over a kali-peeli taxi.

Anyways, now seeing that my field has been narrowed down so far, you probably expect an in-game NBA dunk. You probably expect to see a big man like Amar'e Stoudemire, Shawn Kemp, or Blake Griffin eating opponents alive here. Or a backboard breaker by Shaq or Darryl Dawkins. Or John Starks pulling out a classic. Or Scottie Pippen making Patring Ewing cry, or Dr. J, Michael Jordan, or Dominique, or Vince Carter making posters out of ordinary human beings in an NBA game.

Nope.

My favourite dunk of all time does indeed belong to one of the names above. The last one, actually. Vince Carter. But it isn't from an NBA game - it's from the Olympics.

To a new NBA fan, Vince might be that dude who comes off the bench for the Suns, behind Jared Dudley. He's that slow-footed guy who looks like he doesn't care about the game at all, and averages about 14 points a game. Well, my friends, you need to go back in time, about a decade back actually, to realise that at point, Vince Carter was the most unstoppable force in the league. Without going into superlatives, I'll just say that where other talented players choose to slide in a tough lay-up, Vince Carter chose to rise above and slam it in. He is the man behind countless SportCenter Plays of the Day, countless Slam Magazine SLAMADAMONTH's, countless in-game humiliation, and the single greatest slam dunk competition performance of all time.

But for me, Vince's finest moment came in the 2000 Olympics, where he was representing the USA Basketball Team. This moment came in the game against France on September 25, 2000. Carter (6"6), jumped OVER the 7"2 Frédéric Weis' head and slamming the ball in. This dunk was so famous that it made the man who was dunked on famous. Just think about that. Weis, A French player, who never played in the NBA, and was barely an influence in the French national team, is known amongst hoop-heads for one reason, and one reason alone - Vince Carter. Hell, this dunk is SO famous it has its own nickname: The French Media called it "le dunk de la mort", or "the dunk of death".

It's a pity that, being an Olympic game, there are few excellent copies of it available on the internet. I present you the best copy available. Enjoy!



The Dunk of Death, indeed.

Atanu Banerjee - The first Indian referee to officiate the Final of a World Championship

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Atanu Banerjee, the experienced referee from West Bengal, made the country proud as he became the first India referee to officiate the final of a World Championship game. Banerjee was one of three referees officiating the final of the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women (Toulouse/Rodez, France), which was held on July 15th in Toulouse.

"This was a dream come true for me," Banerjee said, "I had officiated a final in an Asian championship before, but the final of a World tournament is a whole different experience."

Banerjee became a licensed international referee in 2006 – he has taken part in several Asian Championships since, including the final of the 2007 Asian Championship in Bangkok. He was also one of the officials that travelled to Russia for the Women's U-21 World Championship in 2007.

In France, he officiated eight matches in total, including the finals. "This is a great honour for any ref," he said. The Final was held between USA and France, and the eves from USA won the game in a blowout, 92-62.

Banerjee feels that one of the most important lessons he picked up as a referee in the European atmosphere was taking part in post-game referee reviews, with a special ref instructor. "We used to watch the game tape and review the actions or the refs," said Banerjee, "It was good to see how we have performed and thus improve our job. This is normal in Europe and must be introduced to Asia/India as well."

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