Whitlock: Boyz From the Hood Triumph over Whimpy Euros

Yes -- and that is saying something.

 

I think the column is stupid.

But the point about the Olympics is just as ridiculous.

International basketball is a completely different game than the NBA.

Like I say to everyone who claims the world is catching up....

Let us put our best players together for one year and compete internationally.

Let us play the games on NBA floors with NBA rules and NBA ref's.

Then let's see if any of those Eurotrash teams comes with 35 points of our team.

Our teams have been thrown together in a few weeks, many of our best players have opted to stay home (and rightfully so), we're put into a tournament against teams that have primarily been playing together for years, playing under a different set of rules, with a different court and ref's who have clearly not given the USA teams a level playing field -- and then wonder why they can't win.

 

100% correct.

 

Apostrophes are not needed to make things plural.

 

Wow, a year after the Spurs win with a lineup consisting of Parker (France), Bowen (US), Ginobli (Argentina), Duncan (Virgin Islands) and Oberto (Argentina) Whitlock has decided you can't win with foreign players...

Ok...

 

So that's two of you who don't know shit about international sports. This notion of "our teams have been thrown together in a few weeks" is absurd, as if the Argentine, Italian or French national teams spend all year playing together. That hasn't happened since the Cold War ended. No national team plays together for a year. The Argentines play for various teams in disparate pro leagues on multiple continents, then they come together in the summer for international competitions. Don't act like it's the 1977 Red Army hockey team which moonlighted as the Soviet National Team.

 

Good point, Boomer. It's amazing how often that "just thrown together" excuse gets accepted without anyone pointing out that the players for Croatia, Lithuania, Argentina and Spain are ALSO all playing somewhere else in the winter and just thrown together in the summer.

I've also been skeptical about the "International game is like an entirely different sport" excuse. Yeah, there are rule differences, but the goal's still 10 ft high, the foul line still 15, the ball's the same size and weight, the object of the game is the same, dribbling, shooting and passing are the same, the rules on what's a foul are pretty much the same. I've a hard time seeing how a slightly shorter three pt line and wider lane converts into an alien sport.

I'm sure it makes some difference, but does it really explain things like getting blown off the court by 20-something to freakin Puerto Rico or finishing SIXTH at the 02 World Championships?

But god forbid we acknowledge that it's because the rest of the world is catching up to us and might just be legitimately kicking our ass in some of these games. No, not when there are still excuses we can milk.

 

Since I know you follow basketball, give your take: Do or do not the international rules better reflect the way basketball was designed to be played vs. the NBA? Given what we know about the NBA - players' league, driven by stars, etc - do you think NBA basketball, as a style, is more evolved than international basketball?

To whit: If you suddenly imposed international rules and enforcement on the NBA, would the game look better or worse in five years?

 

Anybody who doesn't think that the international teams made up mostly of international players that play together for long cycles is clueless playing the international game is clueless. These teams compete in European championships, world championships, play international tournaments.

That is a fact.

Look at the rosters of our teams and look at the rosters of the other top teams in the world and further WE ARE PLAYING THEIR GAME BY THEIR RULES AND WITH THEIR REFS.

Again -- bring the top teams in the world to Chicago to play our best team by NBA rules with NBA refs and see if any of them come within 30 points of us.

International basketball -- especially because of the lane difference -- is a completely different game.

And the bottom line is we haven't sent our best team -- or anything close to it most of the time -- since the original dream team in 1992 and that year we had to listen to all of the whiners talk about what a bunch of meanies we are because we beat the shit out of everyone.

The changes we have made to our roster, our team selection and the process by which we train will pay dividends as we'll win the Gold in a few months -- then we will hear about how mean we are again......

 

Considering we invented the damn game -- why is the game not played by our rules.

And unless you think having 7-footers shooting from 25 feet is a good thing, no the game would suck, much like the international game.

It is a completely different game.

 

That D_B didn't post this from a BLOG! is a minor upset.

 

The invented game is nothing like either game today, but I will say that the first game ever played was decided by a 25-foot shot.

At any rate you didn't answer the question: Is the NBA better with international rules, courts, and most importantly, enforcement?