What happened this summer?

[by Tobias Seitz] - It has been a long summer for me with a lot of basketball - on and off the field. There happened so many things since the NBA Finals between Cleveland and San Antonio. Tony Parker got married, Greg Oden got drafted on #1 (plus he had two surgeries since that drafting night), the United States national team won the FIBA Americas and the FIBA Europe Basketball championship is going on right now.

Yeah, think about it There is no NBA season going on and so many things still happened. I got more traffic on my blog HoopNation during the off season than during the regular season. Well, we will see if that is a good thing.

What else happened? My friend and blogger colleague Ryan McNeill stopped blogging. Sounds sad? Well of course not for good. He joined the world of the lucky bloggers like Henry Abbott (truehoop) who are getting paid by writing for hoopsworld and ESPN. Ryan will cover the Raptors and even get the chance to come to Europe to follow the Raptors' training camp in Italy.

I spent my summer in Philadelphia to get ready for the new season and I got the chance to work out with some interesting people at Drexel University like DeSagana Diop and Drexel athletic strength and conditioning coach Michael Rankin.

Have you ever heard of "south street" in Philly? No? Make sure you will check it out next time you get to go to Philly if you are looking for the latest and coolest styles. I always check out one store which is called "Pedestrian" and the owner showed me his new collections related to basketball. This was the first time I saw the upcoming brand Undrcrwn. I have read many things about this brand and their style but never actually hold on in my hands. I always read slogans like " for the love of the game" and things like that and I was always laughing about that. It took me to see this new label to understand that. Basketball shoes made out of basketball leather and basketball courts with so many details - I was amazed.

Normally you can't get shoes like that in Europe but since this label that made the ADIDAS shoes even better is so unique it was imported to Europe and you can get them all over Europe too.

Check out their web site where you can get the shoes even Agent Gil Zero Arenas was wearing during a NBA game.

Talking bout Europe - Germany will face Italy in one of the most important games in German basketball in about 30 minutes. Do or die. I am sure my colleague Thomas will explain it after the game in Spain...