Vassilis Spanoulis: Thibodeau Was The Real Head Coach Of The Rockets, Not Van Gundy

I don't think JVG likes gay jokes.

And you can scratch SamFisher too. JVG wouldn't be knowledgeable about what's going on in European countrysides.

 

A young Sabonis never played in the NBA. He was asked who is the best European player IN THE NBA. Not who is the best European player. Two different things.

For example, Petrovic and Galis are almost universally considered the best European players of all time, but Dirk and Gasol are considered the best European NBA players.

You would have an argument about Sabonis being better than them if it was the question of "who are the best European players of all time". The question was the best Europeans that played in the NBA.

Sabonis, the NBA version, was not as good as Gasol or Dirk. The pre-NBA Sabonis might have been in the discussion (debatable - his level in Europe is incredibly exaggerated in NBA lore), but the NBA version of him was not.

Otherwise, Spanoulis would have said the two best European players were Petrovic and Galis, because that is pretty much universally accepted in most top basketball circles in Europe. So you are talking about two different things.

Best European player that played in the NBA (as in NBA based play only), not the simple best European basketball player. If that was the question then he would have for sure mentioned Bodiroga, who is in Europe universally considered a much better player than Peja or Vlade for example. But he never played in the NBA, thus he would not be mentioned.

 

He was asked who are the best European NBA players. Not the best European players. BTW, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley both said Drazen is better than Dirk. And Drazen is universally considered one of the top 2 European players of all time amongst Europeans, along with Galis.

 

is that supposed to be clever?

i feel sorry for you parents.


i'm too tall to be JVG...and Sam is way too short

 

Pre NBA Sabonis was amazing. In fact, we can think of Yao as going from pre-NBA sabonis to post-NBA Sabonis.

Sad thing was that I once said Yao would be the next Sabonis. Now I would actually be really happy if that's how it turned out.

What a roller coaster ride it's been.

 

This is really the only comment needed in this thread.

 

It was clever.
My parents are fine thanks. How's your Grammar? :grin:

You know, people might not confuse you with a the short bald Leprechaun if you didn't call everyone morons and idiots for having an opinion about the man other than your own!! We are not all uninformed out here. Some of us are even open minded believe it or not.

Now this is clever....... Since you have been out of coaching for so long and nobody is interviewing you for NBA positions, are you considering the A&M job?:grin::grin:

 

my grammar could improve but not as much as my typing and proof reading.
What's important though, is my logic is fine. Something you could improve on.

there is a reason you have 1 green. no one likes you and you make horrible posts.

 

DINO RADJA?!?!?!

 

Spanoulis was a pick by the Rockets old Italian scout. He had been following him since the Under-18 European Championship. Spanoulis was unable to work out with any NBA teams other than the Pistons because he had to play with Greece's national team to get ready for the 2004 Olympics.

He was supposed to workout for about 8 teams. That hurt his draft placing. The only other thing NBA teams saw was one of those NBA draft camps, I don;t remember which one, where he dominated every American player and every GM and scout was drooling over him.

The reports were the Blazers, Heat, Mavs, Warriors, Spurs, Pistons were all in love with him at the time.

So it was considered a pretty good pick at the time when Dallas took him and they traded him for Flores.

Dawson really didn't have any involvement in that pick. Then after that it was basically Dennis Lindsey that followed Spanoulis in Maroussi and Panathinaikos.

Spanoulis had 3 big years in a row in Greece, then had a big rookie year in Euroleague and so Lindsey and the Italian scout recommended he be signed. It was not really a Dawson pick or signing.

The truth was Van Gundy asked for Mike James, and Dawson attempted to get him. When he could not get him, they signed Spanoulis who was the choice of the Italian scout and Lindsey.

Van Gundy never wanted Spanoulis and so then he went out of his way to play Luther Head (a SG) at PG. Lucas was brought to the team really as an organizational favor to his father. Van Gundy then had the excuse of playing him over Spanoulis also.

Dawson really didn't know anything about Spanoulis and Van Gundy never wanted him.

However, Lindsey, Morey, Adelman, Yao, and McGrady were all on record as wanting to keep him and felt he could be a very good NBA player. Spanoulis just never stood a chance with Van Gundy.

 

Here is the video interview. They moved it.

<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="269" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xik13u?theme=none&wmode=transparent"></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xik13u_y-yyyyyyy-yyyyyyyyy-yyy-nba-greece_sport" target="_blank">&Omicron; &Beta;&alpha;&sigma;ί&lambda;&eta;&sigmaf; &Sigma;&pi;&alpha;&nu;&omicron;ύ&lambda;&eta;&sigmaf; &sigma;&tau;&omicron; NBA Greece</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/NBA_Hellas" target="_blank">NBA_Hellas</a></i>

 

NOTE TO BBS.

do NOT click on this video, I made that mistake, it's basically the greek version of "2 girls 1 cup" but with a lot more body hair.

Nasty.

 

Enough with the constant excuses for Spanoulis

He, like so many other Euro leaguers couldn't hack it

If he is good as you and he thinks he is, he would still be here. Not for the Rockets, but for someone else

He just couldn't hang, he wasn't good enough, couldn't handle it mentally, so he went back home.

Period.

Trying to blame JVG for his failure is just lame.

 

Rafer Alston was the Real Point Guard Of The Rockets, Not Spanoulis.

 

second this.
He said Thibodeau did a lot of coaching in practice. That's just what assistant coaches do.

 

Why are we still talking about this LOSER, Spanoulis?

I'll tell you why: Because another LOSER, OHMSS/KillBillPana/BballScientist/etc., is determined to convince us, years after V-Span couldn't cut it in the NBA, that he actually was and is better than most NBA point guards. One person keeps making this argument, month after month, year after year, regardless of how many times the rest of us tell him to shut up and go away. And it's not just here, either: the same LOSER is a major troll on other NBA forums as well.

Is there ANY way we can ban him for life and prevent him from starting up again under yet another pseudonym? He's just a total waste of time and adds nothing here, other than pissing everyone off.

 

Rhino, I'm sorry to break it to you. But, Sabonis in the 80s, was considered by some to be the best center in the world NBA; college; or Europe.

He didn't play in the NBA that long, because he was already in his 30s when arrived here, while he had some very devastating injuries. He wasn't lacking in any area of basketball, unlike most players or even quality big men. He was as strong as he was deceptively fast; while his passing skills were at worst on par with Bill Walton; Bill Russell; and Wilt Chamberlain. His vertical was insane for someone that height (just look how he gets off the ground vs. other 7,3+ players).

Outside of Shaq and the "Akeem," the other person really put it to David Robinson was Aryvdas Sabonis of the Soviet Union. He's probably a big reason to why the USA started to use pros, instead of college kids (other countries were fairly competitive in basketball). He played against Robinson, twice. You'll see who the superior player is. I know David was young, but he was very much at his athletic peak.

That 1988 USA team was no joke, either. I know why people pine for having kids stay in school longer.

David Robinson
Danny Manning
Dan Majerle
Mitch Richmond
Charles Smith IV
J. R. Reid
Bimbo Coles
Hersey Hawkins
Jeff Grayer
Charles D. Smith
Willie Anderson
Stacey Augmon


I think almost every player on that list had decent NBA career or was multiple all-star, down the road.

 

Nowitzki and Gasol at their best have nothing on Sabonis at his best. I've never seen either one move like that on basketball court, or show that type skill from outside the post as well as inside post. Hell, he was a better defender at 30 something than both of them put together.

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<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/06usV6451ik" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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Well Thanks Donkeybrains. I would explain the comment on grammar being just a play on you mentioning my parents so I was playing on asking how was your grandma by misspelling it. That is why there was a smiley face there. Most people got it and thought "nice play on words". I now realize you just aren't bright enough to get it.


There is a reason I have one green and it might be because nobody likes me. If that is the case, I really won't lose any sleep about it. I don't spend any time trolling for votes to become popular like some people on here do. I post when I have something to say or I feel I can add insight or to be funny. If I had my friends on here rep'n me for every moronic thing I posted, as you obviously do, I would have greens across my name too. I tend to believe the reason I don't have a lot of rep is because I don't post. If you look at all the big rep people on here, most have 6000 or more posts. Out of you and I, one of us has 1100 posts in 8 years or one post every three days. The other one of us is trolling 24/7 looking for people to slam and degrading anyone with a differing opinion all the while making a jackass of himself or herself?? This person has 12000 posts in 6 years averaging 6 posts a day all of the highest intellect . I would ask you which one should have more rep points based on those numbers but I fear it might cause you an intellectual meltdown if you had to think that hard and, judging from your posts, you just can't afford the loss. As it is, when people whisper in your ear you say "Thanks for the refill" followed quickly by "your a moron" then "Van Gundy is the greatest" (think genius......air-head reference). It is a conditioned response just like Pavlov's Donkey would bray at the sound of a bell.:grin: (after you look up who Pavlov is and you see it was a dog and barking in the experiment, i am explaining now, so you will understand, it is meant to be a play on words using your handle. let me know if I am typing too fast. And bray is the sound a donkey makes.) I really don't want to take up anymore valuable board time trying to defend my right to have an opinion to a vengeful troll such as yourself. So I will let you get back to cleaning the litter box at Van Gundy's house. No genius, put those down. Those are not chocolates. I am sure you have others to make fun of and slam for their opinions!!