"Polish euroleague team Prokom bought Tim Kisner for the remainder of the season. He will be missed in Espoo."
Sadly, it appears friend of the blog Tim Kisner is moving on. In case you're new here, Tim is an American who had a standout NCAA career before taking his career to Europe. He's provided us with a lot of insights on teammate Petteri Koponen, as well as filling us in on being an American pro-basketball player in Finland. It was obvious he liked living there, so a return someday wouldn't surprise me. He would always talk to us, and we love when players do that. Good luck Tim.
I asked, and Finnish Hoops Correspondent H.T. responded. Here, we have an update on The Finnagler and his Honka Playboys:
The last three weeks have been kind of slow for him, because Honka Playboys have been recovering from dreadful injury situation and it takes time before the engine gets running. American forward Matthew Williams (6-7", 1977, Montana State) returned to Honka after spending the first half of the season in Switzerland, Tim Kisner just played his first game in nearly two months after suffering a back injury and starters Jukka Matinen and Monte Cummings have only played a couple of games after injuries. Honka was able to beat league underachiever KTP Basket 94-87 after 25 minutes of struggle and 15 minutes of good team basketball. Petteri netted 21 points (FG 6/8 FT 7/8) and delivered three assists, but turned the ball over five times. Anyway, don't be alarmed; when the meaningful games begin in March and April, he'll be ready, steady and truly motivated for his (last?) stint in the Finnish league.
With DeceptivelyQuick's powerful and dark association with the Invisible Finnish Hand, it is no surprise that we were very excited about all this Scottie Pippen in Finland business. This anticipation was heightened when we learned he would be playing against he, Petteri Koponen, The Finnagler, and our beloved Honka Playboys.
The epic battle went down January 5, and Pippen's squad came out on top. Thanks to a rally from 16 down, Pippen and his team Torpan Pojat prevailed over our Honka Playboys 98-85. True, his team was already favorites going in, having been riding an 17 game Finnish League winning streak and all, but let's hope Pippen added something. He struggled with his shot on his way to 9 points and 9 rebounds. After checking in with Tim Kisner, an American who plays for Honka, any struggles could be understandable:
Pippen played two games here one on Friday and then against us on Saturday. He missed his original flight here so he did not arrive until Friday morning, so needless to say was not in the best physical shape to be playing, besides being 42 years old with creeky knees. I thought Pippen played ok, he could not make a shot, I think he was 8-28 in the two games, but played good team basketball and they won both games. It is crazy to see guys that you grew up watching, it is also hard to watch them being a shadow of their former selves. The people of Finland were very appreciative of him and both games were well attended with a good atmoshphere, which is saying something for Finnish basketball.
Strange indeed, seeing a former NBA great show up in Finland for a few runs, but remember this sort of thing isn't exactly unprecedented. Tim was around when Rodman blew into town as well ,"two years ago Rodman came and played for the same team against us and it was huge, but Rodman is more famous over here due to his off the court stuff."
Which champion Bull will be next? The obvious choice to pull for is Jordan, but don't sleep on Ron Harper.
UPDATE: Ball In Europe has the best coverage of Pippen in Finland, including links to his boxscores. Also nice to see the Finnagler still putting numbers up. They also showed a clip from Pippen being introduced, they pulled out the classic Bulls intro. In Finland, no expense is spared.
I was a little freaked out yesterday when our manifest destiny friends at Blazers Edge reported that He, The Finnagler, Petteri Koponen, had suffered a concussion. I was also a little freaked out that Blazers Edge has a source in Finland. The Invisible Finnish Hand: No longer content with only controlling the most obscure of blogs. Ambitious and deadly as ever.
Tim Kisner, an American teammate of Koponen's, has been nice enough to give us some insider insight on the situation:
"He did suffer a concussion. From the sounds of it, kind of like a football player concussion. Remember, Doctors in Europe are much more cautious than ours I have come to find out. He is doing fine now, no problems, so I think he will miss about a week and he missed one game so that will be it. Because he is in the army though, and cannot play, he has to stay in the army full time now until he can play. So not really nice for him. He feels fine they just want him to avoid contact for a few days."
Good to hear he's ok. Interesting that he can get a break from his military service only when he's actually playing in games. Looks like its back to the barracks and ski-warfare until he can resume jump shots.
The basketball career of Tim Kisner is one of those stories that shows just how interesting a path such an occupation can take one on. He was a four year starter at Central Michigan University, where left with his name all over school record books: first player in school history with over 1000 points and 400 assists, third in made three-pointers, fourth in assists and steals, Captain of the squad that won the 2001 MAC Championship. Later in 2001 he was drafted by the NBDL, and a professional journey began. He played in the CBA (alongside the legendary Olden "Golden" Poly-NICE!) before taking his game across the Atlantic to Poland, and then off again to a new country and team you probably know if you read this blog, The Honka Espoo Playboys of Finland.
He's been a teammate of Petteri Koponen for three years, and has watched him mature from a substitute with minimum PT to an NBA first round draft pick. I'm still waiting to hear back on any insights into this scary concussion business, but Tim has been nice enough to fill us in on some perspective for exactly what things are like over there.
Oh, and he has a Scottie Pippen in Finland update too. Apparently its happening. Word is, Tim and Petteri's team will face off against Scottie and the Helsinki team that paid him on January 5th. There's some buzz, but not as much as when Dennis Rodman showed up for that same team a couple years ago, Tim was there, "Two years ago Rodman came and played for the same team against us and it was huge, but Rodman is more famous over here due to his off the court stuff." I vote for Pippen to wear a wedding dress in promotion of the event.
I asked Tim some basic stuff about what Finland is like, culturally and basketball wise:
"Finland is really a small country, Helsinki being the Capital only has basically a million people, so everyone knows everyone. People are very smart here, almost everybody speaks English and Swedish along with their own language. Technology here with Nokia being from Finland is unbelievable, how far they are ahead of us. This time of the year it sucks here, it is dark by 3 in the afternoon and does not get light until about 9 or later. Summer time here is great though because it is light all day. Basketball is about the 3rd most popular sport here, Hockey is huge. They have one of the best leagues in the world. There are 3 teams in the Helsinki area and they pack out the arenas on game nights. Basketball does not have much of a following because there has not been a whole lot of succes by teams in Finland (national teams) or by players in the NBA. They show one game a week here from the NBA so there is not that great of an influence as other places like China, or spain where games are on all the time."
Oh Finland, to know you is to love you. Expect more updates soon.
