Throwback Photos.

[lilmamba_]

[lilmamba_]

[lilmamba_]

[lilmamba_]

air canada and bench reactions are back!

[lilmamba_]

calm down leandro, calm down

[white men can't jump]

What I meant is that players who can not play for their national team are often given chance to play for a different nation on dual citizenship. Many Americans are doing it in Europe. Having said that, Serbian program is better than Greek. The list of 7 best Greeks players includes two Serbs (Stojakovic and Jaric) Slovenian (Nesterovic) American (Rambis) Georgian (Tsakalidis) Greek American in Saikally and Koufos. How many players did Serbia produce? Vlade Divac, Nenad Krstic, Darko Milicic, Prerag Danilovic...to name the few.

Also, players aren't given a chance to play for another team, they can play for either team, but once they decide, can never switch. As such, Peja played for Yugoslavia, I suppose choosing to represent his birth country, and the country he'd known much of his life up to that point. He also stopped playing for them in 2002. Maybe he had a hard time identifying himself with Serbia after the Yugoslav republic fell apart. Maybe what happened in the wars made him not want to. Either way, he also couldn't join Greece as well, even if he wanted to, because of that earlier experience. I'm somewhat sure he's mentioned he would've liked to, because he's basically adopted it as his home.

[white men can't jump]

What I meant is that players who can not play for their national team are often given chance to play for a different nation on dual citizenship. Many Americans are doing it in Europe. Having said that, Serbian program is better than Greek. The list of 7 best Greeks players includes two Serbs (Stojakovic and Jaric) Slovenian (Nesterovic) American (Rambis) Georgian (Tsakalidis) Greek American in Saikally and Koufos. How many players did Serbia produce? Vlade Divac, Nenad Krstic, Darko Milicic, Prerag Danilovic...to name the few.

This confuses things though. Those guys are guys you know. They are not necessarily the 7 best Greek players. And then your Serbian list includes two guys who never belonged in the NBA in the first place. There are definitely comparable or better players in Greece. Diamantidis and Spanoulis, to name two guys currently there. Nick Galis is maybe the best example, and one of the greatest players of all time to never play in the NBA, which he chose to do largely because he was too patriotic and didn't want to give up playing for Greece (because it was pre-Dream Team and so if he joined the NBA he could no longer play for Greece).

The Greek system has consistently been one of the best in the world for decades. The Serbian one's glory faded slowly after the collapse of Yugoslavia. In the 80s and 90s, maybe that team was better, but it wasn't Serbia. I would argue that now, the Greek program is superior. And that the Serbian one has been stuck in the muck since the early 2000s when the old generation stopped playing. They lost talent pools over the last 2 decades as every country has become independent and they can no longer get all the athletes funneled into one system (that was centralized in Belgrade).

[Karl Marx.]

Also I find your last paragraph pretty questionable. Serbia does produce many good basketball players. So does Greece. The Serbian program is no way definitively better than the Greek. To say if they weren't good enough to play for Serbia, then maybe they'd play for Greece, is pretty messed up.

What I meant is that players who can not play for their national team are often given chance to play for a different nation on dual citizenship. Many Americans are doing it in Europe. Having said that, Serbian program is better than Greek. The list of 7 best Greeks players includes two Serbs (Stojakovic and Jaric) Slovenian (Nesterovic) American (Rambis) Georgian (Tsakalidis) Greek American in Saikally and Koufos. How many players did Serbia produce? Vlade Divac, Nenad Krstic, Darko Milicic, Prerag Danilovic...to name the few.

[white men can't jump]

If Jaric and Stojakovic are Greek, how come they played for Serbian national team?
As some of you might know, the number of foreign players on European teams in limited which is the reason players often take dual citizenship in order to be able to play as domestic players. After spending their youth careers in the same club Red Star Belgrade (in Serbia) both Jaric and Stojakovic have taken dual citizenship in order to be able to play as domestic players. It was the same way with Rambis who even had to change his name to Kyriakos Rambidis for a year in order to play as domestic player.

If Stojakovic and Jaric were not good enough to play for Serbian national team, they probably would play for Greek or some other national team as so many American players do. Bo McCalebb from New Orleans has taken Macedonian dual citizenship in order to show his skill on the big stage.

You're wrong about Peja though. If you see interviews of him, he definitely considers himself at least as Greek as he is Serbian. He was never able to play for the Greek team because of FIBA rules. It was not citizenship he acquired simply for convenience.

Also I find your last paragraph pretty questionable. Serbia does produce many good basketball players. So does Greece. The Serbian program is no way definitively better than the Greek. To say if they weren't good enough to play for Serbia, then maybe they'd play for Greece, is pretty messed up.

[Karl Marx.]

We're opening up a can of worms here. From our friend Basilis (not me):

http://www.raptorsrepublic.com/forum...ghlight=pappas

We can add Giannis Adetokunbo to the list now.

If Jaric and Stojakovic are Greek, how come they played for Serbian national team?
As some of you might know, the number of foreign players on European teams in limited which is the reason players often take dual citizenship in order to be able to play as domestic players. After spending their youth careers in the same club Red Star Belgrade (in Serbia) both Jaric and Stojakovic have taken dual citizenship in order to be able to play as domestic players. It was the same way with Rambis who even had to change his name to Kyriakos Rambidis for a year in order to play as domestic player.

If Stojakovic and Jaric were not good enough to play for Serbian national team, they probably would play for Greek or some other national team as so many American players do. Bo McCalebb from New Orleans has taken Macedonian dual citizenship in order to show his skill on the big stage.

[The Great One]

I did.
http://www.raptorsrepublic.com/forum...l=1#post225641

Will never forget about those guys.

Ha! Chris Jeffries. How can i forget. The year he was drafted, people(mostly Raps fans) were comparing him to a young Scottie Pippen!!

[stretch]

He is Serbian actually. Greeks did not have recognizable NBA players other than Seikally.

We're opening up a can of worms here. From our friend Basilis (not me):

Rasho Nesterovic

Kurt Rambis

Rony Seikaly

Peja Stojakovic

Kostas Koufos

Jake Tsakalidis

Marko Jaric


All of those Greek players had an impact in the NBA.

http://www.raptorsrepublic.com/forum...ghlight=pappas

We can add Giannis Adetokunbo to the list now.

[Karl Marx.]

He's Greek don't be so ignorant and racist

He is Serbian actually. Greeks did not have recognizable NBA players other than Seikally.

[lilmamba_]

give me a hug son

[lilmamba_]