http://www.nba.com/news/Sixers_Winterthur_061005.html I'm not one of those fatalists that mourns the lack of skill and team-play in American basketball, but this it's not good when an NBA team loses to a Euro team.
This is not evne close to the first time that has happened, I believe Buckler Bologna beat the Celtics back in the 80's;Honestly who cares about exhibition basketball? Athletes-in-Action has upset Top 20 NCAA teams -- this is only slightly more valid than the Washington Generals losing streak vs. the Globetrotters.
it doesnt matter if its an exhibition game or not--it doesnt count, but its a huge frickin deal. an nba team just lost to a european team. what the hell. when maccabbi beat toronto it was like whatever-toronto sucks, but we cant keep making excuses. on the bright side, at least we have actual competition from the rest of the world now. ****.
No more self claimed world champion until play the Euro Champ, the Asia Champ, and the South America Champ, that's for sure. Why do we have to add that stupid title. What's wrong just say the champ of NBA.
LOL, well the leading scorer for the Sixers was Samuel Dalembert, so does this mean that Europe is catching up to Haitian basketball? We can't keep making excuses, we better get off our Port Au Prince asses and fix this....... Maccabi Tel Aviv beat the Bullets in 1978, btw, in another meaningless exhbition. Those were the World Champion Washington Bullets, featureing Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes - etc. Does it matter or does anybody care? No. Was the NBA doomed to failure afterwards? No, in fact its best days were ahead as well as its most spectacular growth period. You're right, we should take away the 76'rs trophy. What's wrong with it is that we wouldn't have people whining about it, which is a valuable diversion when you don't have any fresh paint to watch dry.
I think we are missing a big factor here: The NBA sent one of its crappiest teams in the 76ers to face a good Euro team that has played together an is genuinley much better than the 76ers are.
Doesn't matter, back in the day, a US team could come to play half drunk and not get beat. The rest of the world has caught up with the US, even a US team made up of some NBA all-stars couldn't win the gold at FIBA. On a positive side for the Rox, Yao's series leading average during the world championships shows how dominant he'll be this year in the NBA.
Back in the day, the 1978 world champion Bullets got beat by Tel Aviv. I don't know if they were drunk or not, but I know they lost. No it doesn't. Yao's dominant NBA season last year shows how dominant he'll be this year. If I'm not mistaken, Sarunas Jasikevicus and Carlos Arroyo didn't exactly tear up the NBA in 2004-05, did they?
FT: FC Barcelona 1 Chivas Guadalajara 1 (August 6, 2006) Defending La Liga and UEFA Champions League champion drawn by Mexican club in exhibition. Therefore European soccer is falling behind. Mexican soccer is surpassing it...this is a HUGE embarrassment for European soccer...the world is catching up...
first off i believe winterthur? is FC barcelona, i may be wrong. if so, theyre a pretty good team, secondly, the sixers suck so the rationale that the raptors lost to a euro team cos they suck and the sixers shouldnt have isnt really good. the sixers are a bad team. Third, its PRESEASON. i dont know if winterthur have started their season yet but i do know its preaseason. It happens a lot in soccer. Most big time soccer teams tour different countries over preseason and its quite common to hear of a big team losing to some small team in south africa or one of the MLS sides here in America. Sh*t, just a few months ago, the great Chelsea FC of England, brimming with talent bought with stolen russian money lost to the MLS allstar side, yeah it sucked for chelsea but it was preseason and they realized that.DC united have whupped the behinds of several euro sides that come to america for preseason and think it'll be a cakewalk, thats just how it goes, its preseason for one side and the other team is more motivated to win. If the sixers lost to the euro team at some time in the middle of the season( i know there's no way a game would be played between a euro and nba team in the middle of the nba season), then i'd be worried. Its preseason, it probably wont be the last defeat to a euro team for nba teams in the next two weeks.
The NBA isn't exclusive to Americans, it has the best players from around the world, it is the world's toughest league to play in. Do you think any european team minus the NBA players it has would fair well if joined the NBA?? The NBA champions are justified by the label World Champions because it is the best team from the worlds best players, not America's best players. The reason why the NBA is so great because it includes the greatest players from around the world.
Save it, you're going to be blasted by people who think the geographical location of the team is the end-all/be-all and nothing else could possibly matter....of course they're posting this from around the globe on an NBA team fan board.
Didnt we started calling ourselves World Champion way before the current increase of European imports. Ok, best players, best teams of the world. I am not saying they are not.this self claimed title is just a little ludicurous to me without proving it by playing best teams from other continents. The rest of the world might be laughing when a NBA team loses to Euro team like today. Just tiny little bit embrassing. No? Now you may say we dont care what the heck others think. Then there is no point of arguing about this. This is our sports, so we call whatever we want, might as well let it be the Universe Champion.
You're presuming that hte rest of the world gives a rat's ass about exhibition games. I've been to the rest of the world. They don't. I'm sure FCB's fans were happy, just like the few thousand DC United fans were excited when they beat Chelsea in a meaningless exhibition this summer. Otherwise...no, nobody's taking too much notice. Well I'll change that I guess Haiti is probably embarrassed since their best player (Dalembert) cost them the game by missing all their free throws. Ha ha stupid haitians, good to see those high and mighty Haitians taken down a few pegs!.....
