If you’ve ever seen a Euroleague basketball game, then you know the roster is littered with foreign talent and a few American players. By the looks of the NBA’s lone foreign franchise, the Raptors continue to go that route. After Toronto acquired David Andersen yesterday from Houston for cash and a future second-round draft pick, that brings their total of foreign-born players to six.
While I used to be a huge fan of Bryan Colangelo, his recent moves don’t seem to be making much sense. While the European style of game is exciting to watch, just look at the Raptors’ playoff success as an indication of how well it translates to the NBA. Andersen joins Leandro Barbosa, Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli, Jose Calderon and Linas Kleiza. And who knows, they might decide to bring Rasho Nesterovic back.
While I used to be a huge fan of Bryan Colangelo, his recent moves don’t seem to be making much sense. While the European style of game is exciting to watch, just look at the Raptors’ playoff success as an indication of how well it translates to the NBA. Andersen joins Leandro Barbosa, Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli, Jose Calderon and Linas Kleiza. And who knows, they might decide to bring Rasho Nesterovic back.
Ok, I have a problem with this. In North America the same prejudiced that once existed in hockey still exists in in basketball, that players foreign to the center of the sport(for Basketball it's America) are inferior because they're not from the center. It's a crap idea based on stereotypes and misconceptions. The place a birth does not decide if you can rebound or defend or be successful. Colangelo values a certain type of player and certain system that hasn't seemed to translate to success, that's the problem. It has nothing to do with where the players are from. I don't see him criticizing Jerry Buss for having Pau Gasol on his roster or R.C. Buford for drafting Parker, Ginobili and countless others.
Oh and for the record Barbosa is Brazilian. Aron needs to invest in a map and find out where Brazil is. Not to mention it's obvious that he knows nothing about Kleiza. If he even searched Wikipedia he would have learned that Kleiza played high school and college ball in America. Ugh...
The prejudices the Raptors have to deal with are because of the American public voices who don't spend the time researching and thinking things through. Instead they phone it in with their prejudices. People(current and future players, agents, coaches and management) then pick that up and read it, take it as fact and so the cycle continues.
Comment