Barcelona 109 Sixers 104

Maybe the NBA doesn't even have the best athletes who play basketball in world.

 

Well, if the Greeks, sans any NBA players, can beat The Nightmare Team, I'd say it's safe to say the best basketball in the world is no longer in the NBA.

 

But were they playing the right way?

 

Completely false and a silly statement.

Which European professional club teams could finish above .500? Nobody in Europe would dream of doing that. Which European club teams could win 25 games in the NBA?

The best players in the world outside the US come to play in the NBA. There are a lot of players in international basketball who are great shooters and anything can happen in a game if somebody gets really hot shooting three-pointers, but that doesn't carry through over an 82-game season or even a best-of-seven series.

 

Not only that ... let's see the result of this matchup if played in mid-February.

Iverson shoots 12-for-47 from the floor ... and the Sixers win by 20.

And he won't even practice the day before.

 

It's just a practice game ... we're talking about a practice game!

 

well played

 

I admit, that was a somewhat silly statement on my part, but at the same time, there's some truth to it don't you think? The United States is no longer the basketball capital of the world. And that our "club" teams are losing to foreign teams shouldn't really surprise anyone.

 

On reflection, maybe I was a bit harsh.

I would say the US is still the basketball capital, but it's not the only place and there are other important places. Which is a good thing, because it means the overall quality of basketball is better.

In international basketball, the game is wide open and you have a lot of people who can shoot the lights out from three-point range. If there was a three-point shooting competition like there was at the NBA All-Star game between US players and foreign players, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the foreign players won

 

Paging Larry Bird ...

 

MLS teams kick the shit out of European soccer powers every summer, but that doesn't mean anyone in Europe is worried about an American soccer explosion.