Tried that, and you are right, rotating around the y-axis actually rotates it around the z-axis.

HOWEVER

when I loaded the sphere, the x-axis rotation was already set to 90 degrees. When I set that to zero, all three rotations worked properly. Then it's just a matter of getting the image mapped correctly!

Hope this helps.
Izi

"If I were a shadow, I know I wouldn't like to be half of what I should be."
Mr Otsuka, the old black tomcat in Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)