The Commish Does Harlem

NBA Commissioner David Stern knows how to schmooze. That's no pejorative either - the man's just super business saavy and people smart. I remember meeting him in Istanbul at a preseason game where, with that ever-present smirk, he created instant banter with jokes about how bad my Turkish was, though he knew none himself. And, man oh man, can he offer a warm hand to shake.

Stern goes at it again in the video below, this time at Mosaic Cuts Unisex barbershop in the heart of Harlem. Watch him deftly deal with all questions flung his way. Despite youtube comments, I don't think the questions were prepared - queries on the dress code, age limit and court brawls should be pretty commonplace to him by now.



One of the more interesting sidebars - and apropos to the article I wrote in the previous post - deals with the possibility of talented players leaving to Europe, never to return/or enter the NBA. Stern responds that 1) With more than $2 billion shunted to players' pockets last year, the NBA is too efficient a money-making machine to worry about about mass defections to Europe and 2) With the likes of superstar imports Yao, Nowitzki, Parker, Gasol etc., foreign leagues are worrying more about the NBA siphoning their talent than the other way around.

Fair points, Stern, that may hold up well enough in the short term. But two emergent forces may turn, or at least stem, the tide: 1) the accelerated growth of GDP and basketball interest in China, and to a lesser extent south Mediterranean nations, will generate higher salaries to lure NBA players for longer and 2) More mid-tier NBA players (like Josh Childress or Fred Jones) may begin steering their careers to the Olde World because they, unlike superstars or marginal players, can lock multi-year, multi-million contracts eclipsing anything they could make stateside.

A Shower of Glass

This doesn't exactly qualify as breaking news, but what M.J. did 23 years ago was certainly shattering:



This happened in Trieste (Italy) August 25 of 1986, in a Nike exhibition game featuring Stefanel Trieste vs Juve Caserta. Michael Jordan scored 30 points. The priceless music was inserted afterward. It's interesting to note in those days of early international marketing, evidentally star NBA players would sometimes play with foreign teams.


Here's a parting shot from Youtube's Monsieur AceMasterBeanSkin:
"somewhere in the world today there is a 22 year old, half-Jordan half-Italian walking around, cause you know when you break a backboard, you get laid."

Yao Ming vs. the World's Giants

Of the NBA's giants, who stands tallest when it comes to free throw accuracy?

This question recently came to the fore during a Phoenix-Houston telecast. ESPN color commentator Hubie Brown said that 7-footer Dirk Nowitzki is the best 7-0+ player in NBA history.
Close behind him is Yao Ming, who hit his first 17 free throws this season. Here's the breakdown:

Highest Free Throw % for 7-footers in NBA History

Dirk Nowitzki 87%
Yao Ming 82.6%
Brad Miller 79.9%
Steve Stipanovich 79.6%
Joe Kleine 79.4% (n.b. Kleine played for the University of Arkansas)

I wondered, however, how Yao Ming compares to the tallest of the tall? Arbitrarily, I defined the "tallest of the tall" as 7-2 and above. I wondered how Yao Ming's accuracy compared to 7-2+ giants in NBA history and those now playing abroad. I researched keyhoops.com, eurobasket.com and basketball-reference.com. I will publish my NBA findings at the comprehensive interbasket.net site.

Below, I present my findings in leagues in Europe and Asia. I found that many leagues do not have 7-2+ players, but that many have 7-footers. I have ordered the leagues by the number of 7 footers they have.

1. China's CBA has 16 7-0+ players, including Shandong's 7-4 Priest Lauderdale, Dongguan's 7-3 Sun Zhe, Zhejiang's Jindi Zhang and Quingdao's 7-2 Frans Steyn.

2. Greece's Heba 1 has 6 7-0+ players

Russia's Superleague has 6 7-0+ players, including ex-NBA player Lokomotiv Novosibirsk's Pavel Podkolzine

7-3 Pavel Podkolzine
Career FT % .709
Best Season FT %: 2007-08, .822

4. Turkey's BL - 6 players 7-0+

P.S. Robert "Tractor" Traylor now plays for Kepez Beledeyesi Antalya. He averages 11 points, 8 rebounds, 5 fouls a game while shooting 62.5% from the field and 28.6% on free throws. At 6-8, he's no 7-footer, but his weight doesn't know the difference. Big man used to tip the scales at 285 pounds.

5. Spain's ACB has 5 7-0+ players, including ex-NBA player Fuenlabrada's Peter John Ramos

7-2 Peter John Ramos
Career %: .623
Best Season %: 2008-09, .833

6. Italian Lega A1 has three 7-0+ players, including Lottomatica Roma's NBA-to-Europe returnee Primoz Brezec.

7. France's NM1 has 2 7-0+ players

8. Iran's Superleague has 2 7-0+ players, including Zob Ahan's 7-4 Jaber Rouzbahani, who attempted to enter the 2004 NBA draft but wasn't selected.

9. France Pro A has 1 7-0+ player - Nancy's Zaki Aboubakar

10. German BBL has 1 7-0+ player - Alba Berlin's Patrick Femerling

11. South Korea's KBL league has 1 7-0+ player - 2004 NBA draftee Ha Seung-Jin, who shot 59% in free throws last year in the NBDL.

Belgium's LB - no 7-0 + players

France's Pro B - no 7-0 + players

Israel's Safsal - no 7-0+ players

Unfortunately, statistics concerning Asian players are difficult to obtain. If you know where to find them, please let me know. It would be especially interesting to discover if China's plethora of big men tend to shoot as well as Yao.

ESPN 360's Euroleague Schedule

For Americans who have an interest in Euroleague basketball, ESPN's online station - ESPN 360 - will air 40 Euroleague games this season. It sounds all good and dandy, until you read the fine print - and find out that ESPN is in cahoots with certain cable internet providers but not others. Meaning if you use Comcast, only the largest provider in the nation, you cannot access this potentially wonderful feature. Instead, you must have:

AT&T, Verizon, RCN, Insight, Frontier, Cavalier, Charter, Mediacom, Conway, Grande Communications and many more. It is also now available at no cost to approximately 18 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via on-campus educational networks (with a ".edu" domain) and military networks (with a ".mil" domain).

Even if you have an AT&T account, as I do for my cell phone, still no cigar. You gotz to have that cable provider!

For those of you blessed with the above, go here for a schedule of upcoming games.

Oct. 29
Panathinaikos Athens at FC Barcelona

Nov. 5
Alba Berlin at Tau Ceramica

Nov. 12
Virtus Roma (Brandon Jennings' team!) at Tau Ceramica

Nov. 19
Real Madrid at Efes Pilsen (read my preview for this Turkish team here)

The low-down on Earl Boykins

He's 5-foot-5 of pure electricity, energy and enthusiasm and he now plays in Italy.
The 32-year old, Earl Boykins - the second shortest player in NBA history, signed a one-year contract with La Fortezza Bologna for $3.5 million to become the highest-paid player in Italy this year.
Not bad for the 9-year NBA vet, who only averaged 5.1 points a game last year with Charlotte after averaging over 12 ppg the previous four years.
He's doing much better this year after three games with Bologna - a non-Euroleague team - which is 3rd-place in the high-caliber Serie A Italian league.
His averages: 15.3 ppg, 5 apg, 3.3 rpg, and shooting more than 51% from the field.

Here are his game-by-game stats courtesy of keyhoops:

Age : 32 Height : 5'5'' Weight: 166 Position : Point Guard Birth : 02/06/1976 | Cleveland (OH) Nationality : American In Career : 236victories | 254defeats

Team For 2008-2009 La Fortezza Bologna

2008-20092007-20082006-20072005-20062004-20052003-20042002-20032001-20022000-2001

REGULAR SEASON | ITALY LEGA A1				Shots				Rebounds
Day	Opponent	Score	Min	2%	3%	S%	1%	Or	Dr	Tr	Ass	Ste	To	Bl	Fo	Pts	Eff
01	vs Angelico B.	83-72	32	75.0	100	80.0	83.3	0	1	1	5	0	3	0	2	14	15
02	@ Armani Mil.	68-70	35	40.0	50.0	41.7	75.0	1	2	3	3	2	4	0	1	17	12
03	vs Snaidero U.	91-74	34	60.0	0.0	50.0	75.0	0	6	6	7	0	0	0	3	15	21

G = Games W-L = Win-Lost Min = Minutes 5 = Starters	1M = Free Throws Made 1A = Free Throws Attempted 2M = 2Pts Made 2A = 2Pts Attempted 3M = 3Pts Made 3A = 3Pts Attempted SM = Shoots Made SA = Shoots Attempted	S1 = Free Throws S2 = 2Pts S3 = 3Pts ST = Shoots 1% = Free Throws Efficiency 2% = 2Pts Efficiency 3% = 3Pts Efficiency S% = Shoots Efficiency	Or = Offensive Rebounds Dr = Defensive Rebounds Tr = Total Rebounds Ass = Assists Ste = Steals To = Turn-Over Bl = Blocks Pts = Points
Eff (Efficiency) = Pts + Tr + Ste + Bl + Ass - To - missed shoots and free throws

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Jennings: TrailBlazer; More Smoke than Fire? Part 2

In my last post, I discussed potential roadblocks on 18-year old Brandon Jennings' path to success in Rome.

His new team's coach, Jasmin Repesa, is one.

I saw the sideline-stomping, crew-cut sporting Repesa in action last fall and wrote after the game:

Lottomatica Roma head coach Jasmin Repesa is the single most intimidating coach I have ever witnessed. Our group sat just a couple of rows behind the visitors' bench and watched, slack-jawed, as Repesa tore into his players with a ferocity and laser-eyed intensity that simply had to be experienced to be understand. As I looked into Repesa's cold, black, beady pupils, I can only liken my impression to him as a combination of Dennis Hopper and Jaws. I do not think that his players made eye contact with him one time the entire game. I once read that there are two types of coaches - the kind that teaches through fear and intimidation (the "Bobby Knight" type) and the kind that teache primarily through patience and positive reinforcement (the "Mike Kryzewski" type). Well, in Europe, clearly the master of the "Bobby Knight" style of coaching is the Croatian Jasmin Repesa.

Chances are this won't be the best coach for a young, albeit talented, player just learning to play with grown men, learning the new FIBA rules and experiencing a trans-Atlantic cultural transition.

Then again, as easily as for a jumper, Jennings may rise to the occasion.

Jennings: TrailBlazer; More Smoke than Fire? Part 1

Nobody has ever done what Brandon Jennings is about to do.

The Oak Hill Academy superstar, a flat-top sporting wizard with the ball, will play in Rome this fall as the first recent high school graduate to attempt using European basketball as a springboard to NBA riches.

Other Americans have played in Europe before, but generally after college or a fruitful NBA career (think: Dominique Wilkins). One, Kobe Bryant, played in Italy from age 7-14, but only because his father was already playing there.

But by signing with Pallacanestro Virtus, aka Lottomatica Roma, this summer, Jennings has bucked the standard thinking about what a 18-year old star should do when NBA don't permit draft entry until age 19.

Instead of waiting around this summer to see if he could play in the desert sands of Arizona, he decided to bolt for the cultural riches of Italy. Watching his progress abroad will prove fascinating, and there are a number of threads to follow. DX Draft Express International Scouting Director Luis Fernandez examined one:

1. Is the Italian domestic league the best fit for Jennings?

Jenning's new team is in the Italian domestic league A1, which is - no surprise - better than the other domestic league - A2. It rates only behind the Spanish ACB league as Europe's top domestic league, so it's no place for daisy-pushers, nor a place where teenagers can easily make a mark.

Why?

Fernandez breaks it down:

This is a very physical league where strength and mental toughness is at a premium, two things a player like Jennings cannot be expected to bring to the table at this point in his career.
Roma enjoys a deep roster and a very structured game on both ends of the court. There are no one-man shows here, the ball needs to flow and the team works united for a purpose. A player like Jennings, who loves to jack up shots and to dribble looking for the final definitive pass, probably doesn’t enjoy the experience and maturity to adjust quickly enough. Playing in a top league, you need to be extremely mature and consistently effective in order to enjoy significant freedom within the system, certainly not the easiest task for such a young kid playing the point guard position.

I watched Lottomatica Roma play in person, and in my next post I will discuss why meshing with its stentorian coach Jasmin Repesa may prove a difficult task for our young wunderkind...

This and That

This (International Basketball rules to change in 2010!)

Ever wonder specifically wonder HOW International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules favor tall, outside shooting men? And if this will change? Howard Beck answers these questions and more in a recent article.

• 
  
• FIBA's 3-point line is 20.5 feet away from the basket, mere child's play compared to the NBA's 22.75 feet distance.
• FIBA's trapezoidal lane encompasses 19 feet, 8 inches along the baseball while the NBA's lane is 16 feet wide. This means a) The area in which a player may called for a 3-sec. violation is wider, and so less posting up is done b) When FIBAllers do post up on the edges of the expanded trapezoidal lane, perimeter defenders, who are guarding a closer 3-point arc anyway, have an easier time doubling-down on the post-up player.
• After the 2010 world championships, FIBA will abolish the trapezoidal lane and institute the rectangular one favored by the NBA. FIBA will also move the 3-point arc to 22.1 feet, still not at NBA length because of the women's and youth teams playing on the same courts.
• FIBA wants to lessen the number of 3-pointers, which it feels is no longer an "exceptional shot." To wit: In 1984, when the 3-pointer was added to the international game, only 14% of all shots were of trifecta ilk. Fast forward to 2008, where 40% of all field goals thrown up are long-range bombs, falling at a clip of nearly 40%, and one can see influence this shot has had on the game.

That (Will an NBA megastar ever play abroad?)

Ian Whittel discusses how economic factors may preclude it from happening and then Henry Abbott, with his usual blog-condensing aplomb, breaks it down:

There are lots of reasons to think that the only way such a deal could happen would be if a very deep-pocketed owner just decided to be extraordinarily irrational. For instance:

• ... many U.S. basketball fans may be surprised at the modest size of European attendances, although they generally make up in enthusiasm and passion what they lack in size.
• Only three Euroleague teams averaged five figures in attendance last season (Maccabi Tel Aviv, 11,000; Panathinaikos of Greece, 10,357; and Leituvos Rytas of Lithuania, 10,296), while Olympiacos averaged a modest 6,071 for games in Europe, just over half capacity.
• Obviously, the signing of James would increase crowd size at home and on the road. And the Euroleague's current boom is such that Bertomeu has had conversations with eight different clubs this summer about their plans to build new arenas.
• But even these new arenas will be smaller than their NBA equivalents, and crucially, average ticket prices, particularly in southern Europe, are much lower than in the NBA. An increased attendance, on its own, will not be enough to finance the signing of a Bryant or James.

Aha, you might say, but what about if an owner decided to give a player like Bryant a chunk of ownership! That's all fine and dandy. No rules against it. But remember that if you own something that loses money, ownership comes with negative cash flow. What kind of benefit is that?