Blah blah blah blah blah lies blah blah blah lies blah blah lies troll blah blah blah troll blah blah blah troll blah blah blah troll Go stare at your Jeff Van Gundy poster with bedroom eyes some more. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Euroleague Awards Ceremony http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLwkorPyxvs Vassilis Spanoulis Euroleague MVP Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWhq6rDfHHo
edit: Euroleague Awards Ceremony [youtube]LLwkorPyxvs[/youtube] Vassilis Spanoulis Euroleague MVP Interview [youtube]LWhq6rDfHHo[/youtube]
Unable/too afraid to address the basic truth: the NBA throws out its refuse, and the European teams polish the refuse into their version of "All-stars."
Toni Kukoc won it 3 times. Dimitris Diamantidis has won it twice. Now VSpan has won it twice. If Dimitris Diamantidis in his prime played in the NBA, he'd be a top 10 player. NBA coaches, scouts, and front office people acknowledge that. VSpan is one of the best point guards in the world and Van Gundy botched it. The kid was promised playing time by the front office. JVG dishonored it. Looking back on that era, Van Gundy was starting Rafer Alston and complaining that VSpan wasn't ready because of his turnovers. That was one of the years Yao got hurt. Rafer took the second most shots on the team behind McGrady and we lost in the playoffs with Rafer taking the 3rd most shots after Yao recovered. Rafer shot mid 30s for the season, and hardly ever got to the FT line and was the OBVIOUS weak link that UTAH funneled the ball to so he could miss shot after shot after shot after shot in the playoff series. Jeff Van Gundy's stubbornness of refusing to develop VSpan cost us all what could have been a great season. He played VSpan at off-guard, spotted him up in the corner and then had Rafer throw him the ball with 2 second on the shot clock. Plum stupid. One of the 2 absolute worst things Van Gundy ever did here including burning up Yao and McGrady by overusing them during the regular season. VSpan was a creator who could get to the rim, dish, and draw a ton of fouls and get to the foul line. Rafer would go to the paint and jack up that stupid tear drop shot that clanked 2/3s of the time. We needed that third guy out there to take the pressure off 111 and Van Gundy refused to put him out there. By the way, the front office promised Spanoulis playing time because they knew he was ready and knew he was a better option than Rafer. If Van Gundy had played him early, had endured his turnovers, VSpan would have improved on the fly and we might have wound up with a higher seeding. After that, who knows what happens. That team had everything else but a 3rd primary scorer. Great, great defense. And a good offense that needed a third scorer. Rafer was the default 3rd primary scorer and he absolutely sucked at it. There is simply no way, LOOKING IN HINDSIGHT AT VSPAN'S CAREER NOW, that anybody can claim that Van Gundy made the right decision to keep VSpan benched and keep running Rafer out there and making him the third scorer.
By the way, how Van Gundy dealt with Spanoulis was a major factor in him not getting retained to coach the team. You gotta work with the front office.
The fact that you thought he would do so well is purely opinion. Its just as possible he kept playing horribly and turning the ball over and over. Just for reference, what rookie has had a turnover problem and fixed it mid season? We lacked a third scorer, are you saying vspan could have been that guy? LOL And you know what, he could have shut up the Rockets, Van Gundy and anybody who doubted him by staying in San Antonio. That was his chance right there. But what did he do? Instead of earning his keep, he decided to go back home to his cush job. Fact is, we don't know how well he could have done in the NBA, because he chose to go back home. Major factor?
Thanks to whoever tipped me off that this clown is jopatmc returned from the dead. You suck jo, that is all.
LMFAO I would like a link where "NBA coaches, scouts and front office people" acknowledge that Diamantidis "would be a top 10 player in the NBA".
You know what point guards sucked in Euroleague? Goran Dragic Ricky Rubio Patrick Beverley Jose Calderon Gary Neal Ty Lawson Brandon Jennings All of them were absolute trash in Euroleague. Interesting that not only do they have value in the "vastly superior" NBA (despite being Euroleague's discarded trash), but the Euroleague's trash seems to be of particularly high value to the Houston Rockets. Euroleague's trash is the Houston Rockets' treasure.
Answer: All of them. Because they were playing in a terrible awful D-league lite. Omar Cook and Acie Law say holla. That's why they aren't/weren't playing in the NBA and are instead plying their trade with has-beens (or as the euroleague calls them, "the all euroleague selections" like Nenad Krstc and Magic Lampe (remember that guy? a former scrub for the rockets) now one of the top players in the continent...! ) Hell, the best guard in the Euroleague tourney this year wasn't Spanoulis - it was the immortal Bobby Brown; not the former recording artist, though I don't dobut he could probably outball most of the stone-footed Demetrioses and Vladimiro's that populate that sorry lot. Here's his NBA cup of coffee. Over in Europe, he's the reigning Alphonso Ford Trophy holder which i guess is a Coke can with tinfoil on it or something, given to the best scorer. Anyway, clearly the best guard in all of Europe this year (leading scorer, 5th in assists). The only reason why he didn't win the MVP is the clear, obvious abject racism that Europeans sports fans are famous for, particularly in the backwaters of Southern Europe. The somewhat, shall we say, unenlightented fans there unfortunately make up most of the Euroleague's flagging support. That fanbase is why the strangely overly haired yet balding sort of plodding butterfingered bricklayer like Spanoulis is somehow considered good.
I did NOT compare Beverley's stats to V-Span's stats AT ALL I said the correctly applied term "limited sample size" . I DID NOT ignore ANYTHING. (I CLEARLY said its the ATTITUDE, not the SKILLS) Because...... those were listed in the direct links YOU PROVIDED? There's DIFFERENT levels in there. I mentioned TWO of the levels where he shot "ALMOST" 70% (from 2). in LIMITED MINUTES SAMPLE SIZE. I even mentioned the Dnipro team of the 62 blocks, to show that I actually LOOKED OVER the stats to see if maybe they're even INCORRECT. Why would I MAKE stuff up?
Congrats Vspan on being the best of the not good enough for the NBA group. It is like dominating Junior Varsity in high school.... Cool I guess.
No worries, I earlier pointed out how OHMS' claims are just flat out lies. Everyone except Igor and Vlad knew what you mean't.
I didnt think there'd be Japan-like xenophobia in Europe, but apparently there is. Not even feeling to debate anything, can just say about things - "no wonder" Though I don't need to prove anything cuz I didnt have much emotional stock in Spanoulis anyway and it ended up working out for all sides, clarifying my positions - ~ I said Spanoulis coulda been a best case "white Kyle Lowry". Worst case an Ish Smith/Tierre Brown 3rd point guard type. You can say that about....darn near every guard coming in the league. Thats not a slight. ~ I think its evident enough Van Gundy miscoached Spanoulis. Though I don't think its TOO much young player disrespect. Van Gundy played Luther freaking Head (which is why people wanted Spanoulis to begin with) and undersized Chuck Hayes plenty in rookie and 2nd years, and he had issues with veteran Bonzi Wells. Van Gundy probably had issues with certain TYPE players more than their years in the league. During the '05 season with the Sura/Barry/Wesley/Mike James bunch funning & gunning to success, there wasnt a peep from Van Gundy during that time about anything cuz they were playing pro basketball in a good way. ~ Spanoulis still HANDLED things POORLY. No, he should not have been a spot up shooter off T-Mac and Yao in the Luther freaking Head mold. He was a mediocre to bad shooter even in that celebrated Olympics game. (Actually what Spanoulis did show was he had some good on-the-ball defensive tenacity in some .... yes Patrick Beverley style.) But that shouldnt make him want to run back to Greece tail between his legs either. And thats pretty much it. People want to see "Spanoulis vs Beverley" skills vs skills and for ME its NOTHING to do with that. Its not even anti-Spanoulis, or pro-US style. Alright then (And again, "no wonder")
I can't believe people still defend Jeff Van Gundy, there's really not much you can say to that. I'll be impressed if he coaches again.
