Panathinaikos Athens’s star guard Vassilis Spanoulis was selected Euroleague Basketball’s 2009 Final Four MVP after leading the Greens to a 73-71 victory over defending champion CSKA Moscow in the title game on Sunday night at o2 World in Berlin. Spanoulis was selected in a vote of media after leading the winners with 31 total points in the Final Four, including 13 in the final. At his very first Final Four, Spanoulis showed no signs of nervousness, scoring his team’s first basket and 7 points overall in the first quarter to keep the Greens in the game when CSKA started strong. He added another three late in the second period in helping his team to a 20-point halftime lead and scored his final basket with just less than three minutes to play, helping Panathinaikos stave off CSKA’s final surge en route to lifting the Euroleague crown for the first time. http://www.euroleague.net/final-four/berlin-2009/main-page/i/49297/2772/item Just thought you guys would wanna know...
V-Span on fire with 13 points on 5-10 shooting, no rbs., no assists, no steals. The bar for MVPs in International basketball (might want to put this in the right forum) is awfully low . Grats?
Seeing as how he's winning multiple playoff series, I guess calling him V-Mac would be an insult now.
jannero pargo: nba 2007/08: 8.1 ppg, 2.4 apg, 18.7 mpg euroleague 2008/09: 3.5 ppg, 1.4 apg, 12 mpg josh childress: nba 2007/08: 11.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 30 mpg euroleague 2008/09: 8.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 24 mpg european basketball is totally different than nba basketball. the players are less athletically gifted but the game is a lot more team orientated and physical. that's why you can't just look at names and stats and jump to conclusions. also, the talent level in the euroleague top 4 was quite good. any of the 4 teams could probably win a playoff series against an average non playoff team from the nba. maybe they could do even more if they played with fiba rules.
we gave him a shot. he just blew it. he was never going to make it in the nba with his playing style and his work ethic. he hasn't the athletic ability nor the skills to play like he does in fiba basketball. he was a turnover machine and totally ineffective as a point guard because of this. he had to learn how to shoot and how to play when he's not in a pick and roll situation with the ball in his hands. he didn't want to and so he is where and what he is now. i can't blame him, though. he chose the easy and more fun way.
Way off on both accounts. We gave VMac a shot, he flopped. Scola's situation with the Spurs was more complicated, but suffice to say it was not Pops call to trade Scola to us, that was RC Buford and the Spurs owner's call.
I remember I went to a Rocket's preseason game and it was one of VSpan's first game. He did pretty well and the Rowdies shouted "We love Greece! We love Greece!"
I hope he comes back to the NBA and gets a coach that has a bit more patience and lets him learn from his mistakes. He would thrive playing for Adelman, Popovich, D'Antoni, and a few others.... I just am not sure he wants to come back...I hope he does though....I like how he plays. But let's not rush to judgement on a players abilities as a rookie adjusting to a new league, tons of rookies get better in their 2nd and 3rd years....and then there is Luther Head. DD
I heard once that Kelvin Cato had an amazing preseason and it correlated into something good for the Rockets.
we did not give him a shot, review his minutes played, games played, all garbage minutes i don't regret getting scola for vspan, but people making him out to be the yi jianlian of europe, that's not fair
yeah, some rookies get better after the first year in the league but there are at least as many out of it after it because they didn't. it's always about talent, skill set and work ethic. spanoulis had none of it. he came in as a made player from europe. he was a pick and roll playmaker who was living by his penetration. that worked for him overseas and it still does. too bad that it didn't work in the nba because he wasn't athletic enough to blow by his defenders or skilled enough to beat them off the dribble. so there were basically two options for him to get better in year 2, 3 or 4: 1. get a new body somehow. 2. learn how to play a different role. that tells you that there really wasn't any chance that he could stay in the nba. he thought he was a made player and that he was good enough to play like he was used to in europe. it didn't work at all and anyone who has watched him play should know this. that was his shot right there which he blew when he recognized that he had to change for the nba. he chose the easy way out going back to europe where he could earn at least as much money while being a star player with the style of play that had always worked for him. but who can really blame him when he also had trouble adjusting to the american culture? i don't. but still be realistic about him. he hadn't nba game. he hadn't nba talent. he hadn't nba work ethic. he is what he is. a great player for fiba basketball.
He got by his man all the time, he just could not shoot the 3 ball..... Whatever, I hope he comes back, let's see what happens, some of the rumors I have read are that the Lakers, Knicks and Spurs have already contacted him about the possibility of coming over next year. DD
Are you kidding? Vspan's problem was never talent. He lacked experience and then later confidence after Van Dummy mishandled him. He schooled the USA boys in the world before he came here. And he had some flashes of brilliance here or at least 1 game. But JVG did not like him from the beginning because he was not his choice. Even though Vspan played good D and looked like he could play great d later. Offensively he was no worst than lowery. Again his was an issue of experience and opportunity. He got neither with the Rockets.
So did Carlos Arroyo and so did a few other guards overseas. Let me guess they were just mishandled though.
