Its pretty ignorant to ignore Schmidt's own comments bout his NBA potential. Its also pretty ignorant to say that I said Schmidt could never play in the NBA, when I didn't. I said that he was a great example of a player looking good in international competition, but not getting a sniff in the NBA because scouts didn't think he was worth it. I have been talking about Basile the whole team. Since you reponded to me, I can only assume that you were talking about him also. You are confusing yourself at this point.
It means that they are not always right. Your extrapolation is just as correct as if you were going to say "NBA scouts overestimated U.S. talent when Sam Bowie was drafted so, in many cases, they overestimate U.S. talent." Sometimes they overestimate, sometimes they underestimate. I don't think they overestimate European guys' talent more often than they do with U.S. guys, but I'm not sure about it. So you are saying the level of scouting has been the same for the LAST DECADE? This is surely an incorrect statement. As more and more European players get drafted, the scouting has intensified a lot during the last four or five years, I would say - based on some success stories and based on the level of international play overall catching up. Therefore, I am not surprised that you have still not addressed my point of the intensity of scouting having been different five to ten years ago and therefore there being a generation of players that might have enough talent, and that would be drafted nowadays if they were 20 like they were 10 years ago, but back then, NBA teams just drafted less European guys. Seems like you are ignoring the point because you don't know how to refute it, but we are used to that from you, so no surprise there .
I was not only responding to you. If you had read (and understood) other people's posts, as well as mine, you could have noticed that names were thrown around and that I didn't even know these guys, plus, I said about five times that I was not talking about any specific guy. Read to achieve.
Way to make things personal for no apparent reason, I guess you felt threatened or something. No need for me to continue putting up with you acting like a jackass for the sake of your personal thing with me. See you around.
Sir Jackie Chiles on Oscar Schmidt - "He was actually drafted No. 6 by the New Jersey Nets" You should be the last person giving me advice on understanding what I am reading.
didn't dallas draft some old french guy a few years back, who ended up being worthless? not meant as a supporting or counter argument, but teams can still draft "old" guys, but whats important is whether or not they can contribute. If a guy can contribute positively without high risk, i dont care if he's North Korean or a 50 year old hemaphrodite. we are at least overcoming a bit of our arrogant hegemonic beliefs and starting to respect the euro teams, how many times will they have to beat us before we accept that the playing field is more level? I hope we can see some more seasoned 26+ yr old players who can contribute immediately instead of guys like Darko, Skita and even Boki. That means more "any news on Badiane?" threads for another five years.
Poooooooooof... Didn't mean to hurt lil' Sammy's feelings . No, only sometimes sharing inferior opponents in arguments . codell, relax, I have no beef with you .
BTW, Italy just lost to Netherlands 78-85. Is anyone going to create a thread that suggests we sign the starting PG from Netherlands? He is the real deal.
Some Euro players who don't play here might be more skilled than some NBA bench players. But their skills might not fit better in the NBA. Almost all good Euros in the NBA take at least a couple of years to adjust to the NBA style before they can blossom. If they are young, teams will take a chance on their future development. If they are already in their prime, it's probably too late. My take is that, if teams would rather have an Eisley than a Euro star on their bench, that's probably because they don't think it's worth the investment to re-develop an already developed player, and not because they think Eisley is a better player. Plus, some Euro stars just don't think it's worth the risk to abandon a great career in Europe to take a chance at the NBA.
Think about it. Italy produces one of the best players in soccer and Volleyball. I have no doubt they are very good at basketball also but like it was said earlier, there aren't many scouting for european like 5years ago until recently. It's all to do with money and scouts aren't going to take chances with unknown and that's too bad. Imagine they've never scouted China and we probably never know Yao Ming.
By the way, didn't Italy offered Lebron to play for them instead of going to the NBA for more money? THe European league aren't poor you know. Look at soccer for example.
I am sure you've seen the complete article. You just chose to quote what support your theory! There are several points from this article: 1) The Nets spent a number of years trying to convince him to come over to the NBA. 2) Oscar could come to the NBA but his success'd depend on the team as much as on himself. Oscar feared getting "freeze-out" if he comes to the NBA and it is very realistic. I've seen him play and you can (among other players) compare him to Rudy T. Rudy could shoot light out if a coach ran play for him and team mates set multiple-pick for him to get free but he was not one who could create much (some but not much). Same with Oscar. 3) Oscar beat US team that featured David Robinson and Danny Manning. Are you telling me they are scrubs?
Who were the other ten guys? The Chinese National Team has Yao, but that doesn't mean crap cause the guards suck too much to get him the ball on a consistent basis.
Willie Anderson F 6-7 192 21 Georgia Decatur, GA Ricky Berry F 6-8 205 22 San Jose State Morgan Hill, CA Rex Chapman G 6-4 175 19 Kentucky Lexington, KY Fennis Dembo G 6-5 215 21 Wyoming San Antonio, TX Pervis Ellison F 6-9 205 20 Louisville Savannah, GA Dean Garrett C 6-10 230 20 Indiana Los Angeles, CA Jerome Lane F 6-6 215 20 Pittsburgh Akron, OH Jeff Lebo G 6-3 180 20 North Carolina Carlisle, PA Danny Manning C 6-11 215 21 Kansas Lawrence, KS Jerome Richardson G 6-1 177 20 UCLA Philadelphia, PA David Robinson C 7-1 230 22 U.S. Naval Acad. Woodbridge, VA Keith Smart G 6-1 175 22 Indiana Baton Rouge, LA http://www.usabasketball.com/history/mpag_1987.html I think Rex Chapman and Pervis Ellison, as well as Willie Anderson (?) and Dean Garrett had somewhat decent NBA careers... Keith Smart was NCAA tournament MVP...
