Barcelona 109 Sixers 104

[heyabbott]

BARCELONA, Spain -- The Philadelphia 76ers were miserable at the free-throw line, barely put up any 3-pointers and allowed six Winterthur FC Barcelona players to score in double digits....Samuel Dalembert led Philadelphia with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, but the 76ers struggled from the foul line, hitting only 26 of 48 attempts. Allen Iverson was 3-of-13 from the field and 7-of-13 from the line.

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

 

[kingcreole]

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.

 

[Gutter]

But were they playing the right way?

 

[Flying Headbutt]

I guess they were playing the right way?

Dammit Gutter, you beat me to it.

 

[Gold]

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.

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.

 

[shotglass]

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.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

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

 

[leo1]

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

well played

 

[kingcreole]

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.

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.

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.

 

[Gold]

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

 

[joe king]

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 ...

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

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

 

[kingcreole]

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

Apples to oranges. The United States has also done well in the World Cup twice since 1950, and the USA has never been the top dawg like it has in basketball.

And Europe may claim they aren't worried about the explosion of soccer in America ... until the USA beats one of the "powers".

 

[heyabbott]

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.

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?

UMMM, 14 teams IN the NBA couldn't finish above .500(Philly being one) and the Knicks and TBlazers finished with less than 25 wins. The Knicks might not finish .500 in the top European league.

I don't get the inability to accept the fact that although the NBA may still be standard of the best basketball in the world, the gap between the best of the rest of the world and the best of the US is extremely narrow. And a mediocre team in Europe may be the equal of a mediocre team in the US.


\

 

[Johnny Rockets]

Nobody seems to have mentioned that the Sixers have only had a handful of practices, while their opponent's season has already been underway for some time. I'm not saying that it's a positive reflection on the Sixers, but let's keep things in perspective.

 

[shotglass]

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

Well, that's pretty much what I was alluding to.

 

[Gold]

because the best players in the world - foreign and US - play in the NBA. International play is one thing, because a lot of that might depend on a team playing together. The fact that the top international players want to play in the NBA and pretty much anybody who can start in the NBA wouldn't be likely to play in Europe tells you all you need to know.

In Europe, they don't play an 82-game schedule. It's not as demanding as the NBA in terms of travel and the number of games. The gap is narrowing but if you put the top 10 European clubs in the NBA to play a full 82-game season, how many would be above .500?

 

[Point of Order]

BARCELONA, Spain -- The Philadelphia 76ers were miserable at the free-throw line, barely put up any 3-pointers and allowed six Winterthur FC Barcelona players to score in double digits....Samuel Dalembert led Philadelphia with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, but the 76ers struggled from the foul line, hitting only 26 of 48 attempts. Allen Iverson was 3-of-13 from the field and 7-of-13 from the line.

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

Another America-hating lib thread.

 

[heyabbott]

Nobody seems to have mentioned that the Sixers have only had a handful of practices, while their opponent's season has already been underway for some time. I'm not saying that it's a positive reflection on the Sixers, but let's keep things in perspective.

the Sixers don't practice