Turkey Takes a Tumble

Tonight, the US defeated Turkey 114-82, a solid victory, though not nearly as diamond-like as the beating they gave Canada.

This game was of special interest to me because I'm half-Turkish and lived in Istanbul last year. I saw many of the Turkish players play live and it was fun to see them match up with some of my favorite NBA superstars, even if they outcome was, well, expected.

A few observations before I call it a night -

1. Bless Rick Kamla, the play-by-play announcer for ESPN. First off all - I have mad respect for the man. He gets PAID to write and talk about Fantasy NBA basketball. He has to have one of the coolest jobs on this terrestial orb.

BUT the guy couldn't pronounce Turkish correctly to save his fantasy squad. He repeatedly called Kerem Gönlüm, Kerem GONE-lume. It should have been more like "Gewm-leum". The ö and ü are hard for Americans to pronounce, granted, but still, maybe they could have gotten somebody to have shown him. Also, Ersan Ilyasova become "Arson." Such a mistake won't burn down the house, but it was annoying to those who knew better.

2.Fran Frashilla , the color commentator, was definitely more on target with pronunciation but some of his talent evaluation struck me as errant. Take his analysis of Semih Erden, one of Turkey's tallest and most athletic players. On the surface, Semih looks fine. Until you realize he's only half-way there. I remember watching him play with my Turkish friends and being awed by his inconsistency - he could turn in a highlight dunk one moment and churn out a dunce-headed blunder the next. My friends told me he wasn't the brightest lighthouse on the coast.

Yet Fran maintained that had Semih gone to an American college he would have been drafted in the top 20 of the most recent NBA Draft, instead of at the bottom of the 2nd round. The reason: "Because he's a young man with a lot of international experience." So if a 22-year plays four years with a Euroleague-caliber team but can never produce more than 7.1 points and 5.4 rebounds a game he is considered a potential top-20 pick. I don't think so.

He should have either a) produced more (and consistently) when he had the chance or
b) accomplished what he did as a much younger player.

3) Dwight Howard is the fearsomeist, slamjamminist, most awesome, glorified Garbage Man ever. His hands are hoover vacs and I swear his legs have rocket propellant in them.

China's Problems

Anybody who follows basketball knows China is an emerging force on the international scene. It is estimated that the population of Chinese NBA-followers is as large as the population of the entire United States. Yao Ming and Yi Jianlin are only the tip of a talent iceberg and will be melting into the NBA (and strong European leagues) over the coming decade.

But why has the matriculation of Chinese talent into the League not been faster? After all, Ming entered the league in 2002 and we waited another five years for Jianlin. Only one Chinese guard, Liu Wei, has had a shot in the interim and he did not progress past the preseason.

So what gives?

In the recent SLAM special Olympic issue (pg. 66), Alan Paul wrote that Chinese players are often overworked in domestic leagues. They "almost appear to be loafing when they are actually pacing themselves, the result of spending eight hours a day, six days a week playing basketball since they were 13 or 14. It is impossible to maintain high intensity for such long stretches and thus the system, which is designed to toughen up the players and almost make them basketball machines, eventually breaks down their will and teaches them that the smartest route is to rarely rise above a 75 percent energy level."

This observation is supported in a recent FIBA interview (FIBA Assist, Issue 30, pg. 45) with Tom Maher, China's womens national team head coach. He noted that China has a tradition of "committing itself to outwork its opposition" but that this isn't necessarily the "most productive method in a dynamic game like basketball."

"We have tried to change the philosophy of training from one of high volume to one of dynamic intensity."

It will be interesting to see how the Beijing games affect this aspect of Chinese training culture. The guess here is that intense exposure to the training methods of American and European coaches will leave a lasting impression on Chinese trainers and coaches - one that will hasten the nation's growth into an eventual basketball giant.

What's My Story?

I'm a Turk-American who plays basketball and loves professional basketball. I've grown up in America and know the NBA the best, but international basketball fascinates me. I had always followed the US "Dream Teams" and enjoyed the show they put on, but in 2004, when Argentina beat the US, it hit home how good the rest of the world had really become. I have been following the development of the USA Basketball program under the leadership of Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski with rapt attention ever since.

Regardless of the US's success in regaining its previous globe-spanning prominence, I think that basketball fans everywhere are now entering a golden age of mind-numbingly high quality competition. For not only is the US team improving, so is seemingly every other nation - especially young tigers like Spain, Russia, and China.

In 2007, I lived in Istanbul, Turkey and was a Turkish-English translator for the Turkish Basketball Federation's website. I watched many Euroleague games in the Turkish National Team's home arena - the Abdi Ipekçi arena - and saw first hand how good European basketball is. Here are the articles I wrote during my informative time abroad:

1. My experience going to the first NBA game ever played in Turkey I wrote for interbasket.net.
2. A 2007-08 Euroleague preview I wrote about Turkey's most historic basketball club team - Efes Pilsen - for my friend Julien DeBove.
3. Observations I made about my first Euroleague game in the Abdi Ipekçi arena for Julien's website - ballineurope.com.