Rise of International Basketball Talent

This is sort of a follow-up to my earlier basketball post about the foreign invasion of basketball players. REAL Sports With Bryant Gumbel had an excellent report on international basketball this week. (The show will be rebroadcast a few more times if you missed it.) Here’s a synopsis of the show:

For several years, a trend has been emerging in the world of pro basketball: The game once dominated by Americans is feeling the impact of players whose talents developed outside the United States. At the 2002 World Championships, Team USA finished sixth after stunning defeats to Argentina, Yugoslavia and Spain, in stark contrast to the Olympic gold medal-winning Dream Teams of the past. Certainly, an ever-increasing number of international talents are securing spots on NBA rosters. In addition to established European-born pros such as Vlade Divac (Kings), Toni Kukoc (Bucks) and Dirk Nowitzki (Mavericks), promising newcomers like Nene Hilario (Nuggets) of Brazil and Pau Gasol (Grizzlies) of Spain are blazing into the league. Yao Ming of China, taken by the Houston Rockets as the first pick in last year’s draft, was recently the runner-up for Rookie of the Year honors. Correspondent Frank Deford, in collaboration with Sports Illustrated, travels the globe to determine how and why the rest of the world is catching up to the Americans on the basketball court.

Here are some highlights:


  • There are at least 20 basketball farms/factories/camps in Europe. They take in kids as young as 9, board them for free, and teach them the game. La Ghirada, the top ‘farm’, is owned by the Benetton family.

  • Kids as young as 14 leave school to turn pro in Europe.

  • European teams don’t want American players who are fresh out of college because of their lack of fundamental skills.

  • The number of foreign players in the NBA has tripled in the last 10 years.

  • John Thompson says that European players are the new Black players because they see basketball as their way to economic salvation.

  • Thompson also says that many NBA coaches would rather have European players because they are more receptive to coaching.

9 comments

  1. I’ve had many discussions about this issue. A few things I consider facts (IMO):
    1. American players especially black players have terrible fundamentals.
    Even just playing pickup games at a variety of places will confirm this. Most of the black youth want to be “Hot Sauce” from the And 1 streetball. So much un-necessary dribbling and dunking. Having “handles” and “hops” is great, but if you shoot a jumpshot like you’re trying to read braille, what’s the damn point?

    2. At the heart of the issue is the age of the players and their immaturity. The goal isn’t to win games, the goal is to pad your stats and go pro after high school.

    3. The European players are just as young, but are forced into maturity. It does seem cruel to put a 14 year old in a pro-league. But, given their alternatives…. poverty. Who would resist.

    4. European players are taught to win as a team. Don’t believe this? Look at last years World Championships where the NBA had their heads handed to them by teams with less talent.

    Unfortunately, I don’t think there is an easy solution to the teaching of fundamentals to our inner-city youth. Quality coaching at the local park is unlikely, so the owness has to be placed on summer clinics, school teams where the coaches should be better trained.

    Also, like a lot of trends the Euro-rage will die a little after some of these high draft picks turn out to be busts, which some of them will be.

    sorry for the rambling.

  3. oh, that team play is also the reason the Europeans can’t play man-to-man defense, as well as all the zone defense they play.

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