Not Just the Green

In my previous article about NBA-to-Europe posterboy Josh Childress, I mentioned that his primary reason for playing in Europe is the vertitable Aegean sea of Euros he'll swim in for making the jump.

Still, saying that was his sole reason is cynical and short-sighted.

Instead, as this interview with Frank Lawlor of euroleague.net shows, he's thinking of more than buckets of purple, yellow, green, orange, blue, a kind of mauveish rouge, and grey.

To wit:

As a player who proved himself at all levels in your own country, what attracted you to the European game in the prime of your career?

"I think just seeing the style of play here in terms of getting back to a team game was something that really attracted me. I had been four years in the NBA and it's a different game. This is little more team-focused, team-oriented, which is something I felt like it would be good to get back to."

Some people have called Euroleague game a perfect hybrid between the NCAA and the NBA: the very passionate crowds and team basketball of the former, with a skill level that is always getting closer to the latter. Do you see that comparison as accurate?

"I think it's a very accurate comparison. It's the same exact thing that I would say, both ways. And I think that year after year that skill level is getting higher. European basketball is getting better and more skillful at the same time."

Do you consider yourself a trailblazer?

"People have called me that, and I do agree to an extent. I guess I am just the first guy in my position who wanted to try Europe at this stage of his career. And I'm going to give it my best shot. Whether a trailblazer or not, I felt comfortable that this was a good fit for me. I am sure it will be an eye-opener for other guys who will see me and maybe give Europe a shot, too."

Wristy Business

My main man, Ricky Rubio, will miss the Euroleague preseason with surgery for a wrist injury. Although he's supposed to only miss the preseason, but you never know. I hope he's able to rebound soon and hit the Euroleague regular season pavement running.

From Euroleague.net:
DKV Joventut teenage superstar Ricky Rubio will undergo surgery on his right wrist, the club announced Monday. Rubio has been sidelined for the entire preseason due to this hand injury and will undergo a wrist arthroscopy as soon as tomorrow to investigate if ligaments are damaged. The arthroscopy will also allow DKV Joventut to estimate how long Rubio will be sidelined. Rubio helped Joventut to win the Spanish King's Cup and the ULEB Cup titles with Joventut last season, as well as reaching the 2008 Olympic final with Spain this summer.

Continental Creme de la Dunk Kings

As mentioned in an earlier post, Victor Claver is one of the up and coming small forwards in Spain. How up this Iberian pogo-stick can actually get is now fully viewable in this footage of an ACB dunk contest.


And who's the African guy throwing dunks with vicious regularity?
That's 19-year old Serge Ibaka, a 2008 draft pick who could become the sickest slammer to ever play in a European leage.

Josh Childress - Hotlanta'ed No More

Like Brandon Jennings, Josh Childress is about to embark on an unprecedented voyage.
In signing with the Greek team Olympiacos Piraeus, he became the first upper-tier American NBA player still in the prime of his career to choose to jettison the League for Europe.
He chose to do this in part b/c

1) he was a restricted free agent over the summer, meaning he essentially was not able to sign with any other NBA team offering more money unless the Hawks allowed him
2) the Hawks did not want him to go to another team for more money this summer and did not want to pay him more money. They thought they had him cornered
3) Being "cornered" does not scream "trusting relationship" and, expectedly, when Childress and his agent discovered a way out - to the Athens' port city - they acted quickly.

Why?
Mainly for more money.

• Childress will make more per year with 20 million dollars over three years - a Euroleague record. Additionally, as the dollar devalues, his euros will become more valuable in his U.S. savings accounts.
• He also gets perks such a car and a nice house paid for by Olympiacos, benefits unknown stateside.
• Finally, he can opt-out and come back to the U.S. after any season. That should soften any regrets if he undergoes severe culture shocks a few months in.

Childress' progress will be as important to mid-tier NBA players looking for a market alternative for their services as Jennings' progress will be for high school players not wanting to undergo a year of collegiate seasoning / familiarization with the American public for future NBA marketing purposes.


It looks like our ex-Hawk hasn't forgotten how to take flight.
Here's footage of Josh Childress' first action in Greece - an intrahellenic preseason game.

Joe close to LeBron?

Mike Kahn of foxsports.com has made an interesting comparison with two members of the U.S. national mens team selection pool - Joe Johnson and LeBron James. He claims that Johnson (in his estimation the NBA's 5th-best shooting guard) has a "combination of size, strength, ballhandling ability and shooting range which make him the closest player to LeBron James."

Although Johnson is no longer a mystery to NBA observers, his performance in the Hawks' first-round playoff series loss to the Celtics cemented his status as one of the top shooting guards in the game today. At 6-foot-7, 235 pounds, his combination of size, strength, ballhandling ability and shooting range make him the closest player to LeBron James. Questioned for his leadership ability and sometimes vanishing act, in his three seasons since coming to the Hawks from the Suns, Johnson has averaged 22.0 points, 5.7 assists and 4.3 rebounds — frequently rotating between point guard, shooting guard and small forward. With the reconstruction of the team and its success a year ago — plus a training camp with point guard Mike Bibby, who was acquired at midseason — Johnson, 27, should have an even great comfort zone at shooting guard and more productive season.

The LBJ-JJ comparison made me pause.
While I know Kahn is not making a direct comparison, saying Johnson is the closest player to James in physique and skill-set is suprising when I remember the Joe I saw play 10 years ago.
As a student journalist, I reported on Johnson when he played at Little Rock Central High School 1997-1999. At 17, he was a skinny kid, like most kids that age. Physically, he was no where near the freakish "beastliness" King James had attained by the same age. That may make Johnson's ascent all the more impressive, though. For fun, let's compare the two with hard data. Here's a quick side-by-side of the two players from when they were aged 17/18 and last year:

Joe Johnson 1998-1999
L.R. Central senior
Height: 6-6 Weight: 215
18.5 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.2 assists and two steals a game.

LeBron James 2002-2003
St. Vincent-St. Mary senior
Height: 6-8, Weight: 235
Averaged 30.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.9 steals a game.

Joe Johnson 2007-2008
Atlanta Hawks All-Star
Height: 6-7 Weight: 235
Averaged 21.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1 steal a game.

LeBron James 2007-2008
Cleveland Cavaliers All-NBA
Height: 6-8 Weight: 250
Averaged 28.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 7.6 assists and 1.8 steals a game.

As you can see, LeBron is superior to Joe in every statistical category. Still, that is not surprising for somebody who was the most hyped prep ball player of all time and may go down as the greatest forward the game has ever seen.

Joe has traveled much farther - and worked every bit as hard as LeBron - to achieve his current stature.

He's done quite well for someone who was rated the 39th best H.S. player in the nation the summer before his senior year.

C'mon, Snapper!

Maybe NBC should start paying its international basketball color commentators to travel to game sites instead of calling them from their New York studios.

Some of Steve "Snapper" Jones' less-than-enlightened comments during the Lithuania-Spain Olympic semifinal (I had DVR'ed it), left me shaking my head.

3-time ABA all-star "Snapper" is an amiable enough guy, with merriment dancing in his eyes and all that good stuff, but he has a thing or two to learn about the role of language in international basketball. Par example -

1) In the first quarter, "Snapper" discussed how Juan Carlos Navarro wasn't playing because of a minor injury. He decided to impersonate Navarro - who'd just finished playing an NBA season - discussing the issue with his Spanish coach. İn halting English, he said "Coach... I... play... in... NBA... now. I play."

C'mon, Steve "Snapper!" Snap out of it!
As a pro player, did you speak broken-ass Spanish with your English-speaking coaches, just for fun? I'm sure Navarro does the same with English with his Spanish coach.

2) Later, the "Snapper" exposited on how quickly the Olympic officials were calling "unsportsmanlike" fouls. He said: "The good thing about international refs is that most aren't multilingual. So the player can complain to him all he wants in his native language and the ref will just shrug his shoulders and call the foul."

Most international refs aren't multilingual? These are European professionals. They eat multilingualism flakes for breakfast every morning. Most of the refs are native, Spanish, Greek or a Slavic-language speaking but they all have to know English to call games.. It's the lingua franca of the basketball world.


I don't want to spill too much Haterade down the Snapper's gullet, though.

He did make a good observation: The older players on the Spanish team have their last names on the back of their jerseys, which is traditional, while the young players have their first names on the backs.

I wonder if it's all the rage on Spanish youth teams?

What is the ACB and why is it "Ballerific"?

ACB means Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto or Associaton of Basketball Clubs. Pardon my French, but this Spanish league is considered the creme de la creme of all domestic basketball league outside of the NBA. Spanish fans are rabid about their basketball and club owners are willing to pay top dollar to attract talent to the peninsula. This league is a lot less cookie-cutter than its logo would have you believe!

For one, the color of the Spanish people absolutely pops off the league's English-language website. Go here and look at the graphic in the middle of the page by the words "El Crack." Hardly niño friendly, eh?

For two, this audaciously fun league also happens to be home to Ricky Rubio, the best young talent in Europe.

His team - DKV Joventut - is a based in Badolona, Spain, a suburb of Barcelona in the northeast of Spain.


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The 78-year old team is one of only three in the ACB to have never been demoted to a lesser domestic league and will this year place its chances for success in the hands of young Rubio.

Star Rudy Fernandez, Rubio's backcourt mate from last year, and the man who almost buried America's chances for Olympic gold in a torrent of threes, has left for the Portland Trailblazers.