I thought this might interest some of you since it is the parallel flipside of our Yanks Abroad interest. In my mind these trends (Yanks in Soccer, Internationals in Basketball) are the two most interesting stories in sports. http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=211&xlc=1013570 "Back home, editors have elevated Manu, a Spurs' reserve, to Jordan-like status. Stripped across the front page of Monday's La Nueva Provincia, the paper in Bahia Blanca, was this headline: "Manu, champion of the world."
And the Rockets pocketed an extra few million for courtside advertising from Chinese companies... In baseball, there are more and more Japanese stars, and the number of islanders is well documented... However, I think that it's more exciting for me to follow the yanks in soccer, because while the NBA and NFL and MLB spent the last century essentially as American only leagues, in american only sports, the rest of the world was shipping players around in soccer. It's just that we were missing the party. Nice post though. Liked the article.
I saw an article in Ole on Ginobili, and I thought about posting it, but with it being in Spanish, requiring registration, and not about soccer I decided against it. The columnist basically said that it's great to have Ginobili doing so well, but if the local press didn't start covering the domestic league in Argentina, the league might not last to keep developing players like Giinobili. Sound familiar?
Re: Re: Re: Ginobli Mania -- The Flipside of YA From what I've read on BS, i'm pretty sure BF and LD alone won a world cup or two. maybe five.
Re: Re: Re: Ginobli Mania -- The Flipside of YA Kirovski led his team in the Champions league Didn't he?
2 points: 1) Manu is certainly good, but what about Tim Duncan and Hakeem Olijiuwan? They've both been the best player in the NBA at various points in the last 20 years (and Nowitski is still getting better, which would make 3). Why can fer-ners make basketball players better than we can make soccer players? (Note: this line of conversation will expire in '05 when ADU signs for Real.) 2) My favorite Foreigners in Yankee Land story took place in Croatia during the last WC. Despite all the soccer on tv, the entire country took time out to watch the Drazen Petrovic story (a made for Croatian TV special) during prime time one evening. Every bar I went into was showing it and every local was watching intently. I get the sense he's sort of like a Dale Earnhardt type figure over there...
I watch maybe one basketball game a year, if that, but this is what I think: It's a helluva lot easier to adapt to sports where guys use their hands than it is to a sport where guys use their feet. Only a small percentage of soccer players in the U.S. actually spend significant amounts of time with the ball at their feet when they are U12, unlike in all those ferun lands. The rest put on their ManU club jersey and only play 2-3 times a week and don't touch a ball the rest of the time. In basketball and hand sports you could get away with that as a youth, and then spend 3 NBA seasons honing on your jumper while your athleticism gets you by. 'Pure' athleticism gets you maybe a spot as a keeper on a soccer field, especially if you don't have ball skills.
Here we go, another of those "there's just something about soccer" posts... Well, maybe you're right, but I don't buy it. You're selling basketball incredibly short here. Remember that the basketball "system" runs pretty much the same as the soccer system in most foreign countries. Kids sign professionally as teens, and we don't need to get into the "pros should develop pros" thing here again... I've also read that the quality of coaching overseas (in Europe especially) has really boomed in recent years. Basketball as a spectator sport overseas has almost certainly grown more quickly than soccer in the US in recent years -- well, that's a guess -- and that is quite likely increasing the demand and payouts for qualified, talented coaches. And the NBA has certainly helped things along.
I think you're selling feet incredibly short. Just think of the hundreds of fine motor skill things a person does all day long with their hands. Then think about what they do with their feet. Is it really that difficult to see? Soccer requires much more development time than other sports. Try developing a first touch and learning how to dribble at 23. It requires specialization at young ages, and most Americans aren't used to that. We would have won the World Cup already if you could get by in soccer by half assing it and playing other sports. Pros develop pros is not even a debatable subject anymore. System in the NBA? Hah. Today's game revolves around beating guys off the dribble and going to the hole with the occasional pass thrown in. Notice how half court situations with lots of off the ball running has diminished over the years in the NBA? How many passes are actually strung together before scoring?
I'm not even going to debate this as there are too many points (some of which I agree with, some of which I don't) in this paragraph. You'll just have to trust that I'm not selling soccer short -- soccer is my first game, my favorite, and the one I'm best at. Suffice it to say that I think I have a pretty good idea what it takes to be a soccer player. (This is in no small part thanks to my experience facing down my own pretty considerable limitations...) That should be in the BigSoccer TOS. Just to clarify, I was talking about the way players are developed and selected -- not how the game is played.
Ginobli plays forHotspurs? never heard of him. hes like Jordan? how he likes to gamble and cheat on his wife also?
The Wanderer's basic point is correct, but he misses the huge obvious factor that separates the two sports: SIZE. If you are 7 feet tall and even a decent athlete, you can get drafted and be an effective NBA player. Most foreigners in the NBA have tended to be big men. Now recently, the Ginobli, Nash, Stojakovic types have been coming along, which is nice to see. Also, US basketball has actually regressed--there are fewer pure shooters today, as "ghetto" ball has been so marketed. The style that everyone plays is "clear out and let your top athlete go 1v1 for the dunk." Look at the drop in scoring and field goal percentage over the last 10 years. The top stars seem as interested in their marketing contracts and rap deals as they are in playing the game. (Obviously a wide brush, but too often true) In general, I'd say the NBA has become more an "entertainment corporation" than really a professional sport. Whose name have we heard more recently: Tim Duncan or LeBron James?