Foreign Players are "fundamentally harder-working" - Popovich

I don't know about athletes. But European labor laws generally create more entitled workers than Americans. Asians on the other hand...

Also, European and Latin soccer has produced as many prima dona as the NBA has.

What Pop could be right is that perhaps basketball is not nearly as popular as soccer in most of other countries, so basketball players might not have the prestige they have here in the US, thus making them less entitled.

 

It's all about the Benjamins.... and what comes with it

 

Andrea Bargnani blows Poppovich's assertion out of the water.

 

I think it depends on how entitled the player ends up feeling.

 

you could make the same argument about foreign labor force in general.

I am talking about foreign workers that come to USA. Not necessarily in their own country.

 

Fundamentally hard working foreign guy agrees!

 

So funny how many armchair sportsfan posters think a HOF coach Pop doesn't know what he's talking about ...

Or that Euro busts means foreign players don't work out.

I'll guarantee that the percentage of American players that got drafted but doesn't stick in the NBA is much higher than the percentage of foreign players.

It's an attitude, a culture, and Pop is talking on an overall basis, painting a broad brush, not on each individual player.

Pop got lucky with Manu and Parker? Look where they were drafted? It's a combination of talent and hard work plus some luck, not Luck and Talent with some hard work.

 

I disagree wth pop on this. Look at the raising of these so called hard workers. Parker have been playing pro ball since he was 15. He didn't have to go to high school,take act or sat's,star test or anything. His whole teen years were just focused on basketball and being a pro. If young americans players were identified at that age and allowed to just focus on basketball,imagine how much further ahead they would be vs international players.

 

Well yeah, because the guys that usually do make it from other countries are usually the best players in those countries.

A guy like Varejao and Barbosa are starters on their national team...and this coming from Brazil a relatively good basketball team at times.

 

europeans are thrown into an adult professional environment at 17-18, or sometimes younger, whereas americans go through school/college hero worship environments.

In that, the europeans that make their way out are forced to be more responsible at an earlier age, so it gives a better feel for how that will transfer to the nba.

 

Spurs were lucky to get Tim Duncan.

To some older NBA fans who may remember, the Spurs have always been a winning team before Duncan came. David Robinson was the man and his team went far in the playoffs (even conference finals in 95). Then suddenly Robinson gets a bad back injury, then they implode enough to get to the lottery and lo and behold they get the #1 pick which turned out to be Duncan.

Lucky Spurs franchise. Duncan was the consensus #1 pick in 97 and would've been in 96 and 95.

 

That's because your a dutch douche.

 

lol, did you just say some American athletes don't end up being great because they had to study for the SAT?

That's too funny considering the bad academic rep that always goes with student athletes.

 

People also forget that the great Spurs organization was on the verge of moving prior to getting Duncan. This is with David Robinson on the roster.

And you can bet your jammies that Pop is on the first thing smoking as soon as Duncan retires. Then people can fool themselves into how great a coach he was instead of realizing he only coached teams led by Tim Duncan which is easy button express.

 

How about you provide an argument for why he isn't a great coach.

 

Well, generally speaking, American university culture doesn't exactly instill the finest work ethic into people (athlete or otherwise). This is not a surprise. It's up to the individual to find the drive himself.

 

In general,the outside basketball demands and time limitations are a lot dfferent. When dirk was 16,he was in a basketball academy. He had a private tutor,but all he had to do all day is work on his game. At that same age, lebron has class from 8-4 and they can't start practicing under a watchful eye until like october. The only other supervised practice he get before that is a 1hr basketball class. So while lebron or kevin durant is at school,dirk,peja,tony parker, and many other interantional players are running,shooting jumpers,going through drill after drill. A 19 yr old foreign player should be further ahead than a 19 yr old american player given the circumstances.

 

Your right, American-born NBA players are too academic, as opposed to the foreign players who ditched school and only played ball.

Give me a break, most NBA players barely picked up a book in college. Guys who made it to the NBA cared more about basketball than anything else and thats why they are in the league.

 

I'm not going to say the Spurs weren't lucky, but minus the Lakers, isn't every successful NBA team lucky? I mean, MJ could have been a Blazer if they hadn't drafted Bowie, but so what?

 

Immigrants start more businesses too.