THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Who would have thought former NBA star Gilbert Arenas was a Euro-skeptic!
In early March, Arenas livened up his Gil's Arena podcast, whose subject was on restoring "competitive balance on both sides of the ball" (i.e. between offense and defense), with an unexpected suggestion worthy of Nigel Farage or 30p Lee Anderthal: "Get rid of all the Europeans!"
Now, we know Arenas was primarily looking for clickbait for his pod, but it was impressive for a guy perhaps best known for being suspended from the league for trying to restage the Gunfight At The OK Corral in the Washington Wizards locker room. He and teammate Javaris Crittenton reportedly drew down on each other in an argument over gambling debts. Arenas was discovered to have a cache of (unloaded) weapons in his locker, breaking the league ban on bringing guns into arenas. Not mention the real law: eventually he was charged by Maryland police with carrying an unlicensed weapon, and sentenced to a month in a halfway house and two years probation. The NBA's suspension came down right after Arenas' teammates greeted his pre-game introduction with smoking gun gestures; he was banned for the rest of the season.
Guns in the locker room is one thing, pot shots at European basketball players are less dangerous but more scattershot. Gilbert's argument was "You go to college to learn defense. What college do Europeans go to? They don't go to college whatsoever. They have no athleticism, no speed, no jumping ability. They are a liability on defense. There's 150 Euros in the league today. Name the top 10 defenders. None! Just Rudy Gobert (of Minnesota) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (of Milwaukee). They're just offensive players. They're not defensive players."
By the StatMuse rating system, Gobert was indeed the highest ranked defensive player and a number of other Europeans, mostly big men, featured in their top 25. It might also be worth noting that in last year's MVP awards, Giannis (the league's MVP in 2019 and 2020) finished third, and Denver's Nikola Jokić (the winner in 2021 and 2022) was second. The winner, Philadelphia's Joel Embiid, is from Cameroon but did play college basketball at Kansas. It may also be worth nothing that the NBA's biggest young star is France's Victor Wembanyama (see American issue #794, Sep-Oct 2023), a rookie with the San Antonio Spurs.
But that's not the problem. Gilbert believes the rise of Euro-stars was a result of a deliberate move by the NBA, who "took away aggression to open up the Euro league. When they first started getting here, it was too rough for them. They didn't make it. So eventually, they softened the rules. They didn't soften the rules for the Americans. They softened the rules to open it up internationally." That was why, back in December, Arenas had praised Golden State Warriors' forward Draymond Green when he was ejected from a game for slapping Bosnian center Jusuf Nurkić, who was guarding him too tightly. "I know what Dray doing. He's taking care of these Europeans one at a time. The media is trying to push these Euros, and you're choking and slapping them back. Do your thing!"
There hasn't been this much ill-feeling toward Euro-basketball since the Soviets (and basketball federation president Robert Jones, from England) stole the 1972 Olympic gold medal! But while many of us old codgers might agree with Gilbert that we liked the basketball of the Bird/Magic/Jordan era better, the changes in the NBA are not a deliberate swinging of the needle toward the other side of the Atlantic, but more the result of adaptation to the Euro-game, and adjustments made to the US game, and they both date back to the mid Eighties and early Nineties. The real key was the addition of the three-point basket, which had been part of both rival leagues, the ABL and ABA before the latter merged into the NBA. They added it in 1979; the late Chris Ford of Boston Celtics made the first official NBA three pointer. The three joined international basketball in 1984.
The difference was how quickly Europeans recognized the tactical advantages the three could provide. It's not just the math. In the NBA today teams average around 90 shots per game; 34-35 threes, of which they make around 12 (shooting around 35%). The average two-point shooting is around 55%. So: if you take 90 shots and make 55%, that's 49.5 makes, or 99 points. If you take 65 two-pointers and make 55% that's 36, or 72 points, while the 35 threes, at 35%, means 12 triples, or 36 points. Which is 108 points. And you win the game by nine.
As that recognition sunk in, the deadlier outside shooters, who may not have had much game inside due to lack of size, strength, quickness or whatever, became a weapon. And if you spread the court to take advantage of that weapon, you spread the defense. Which led to the classic European style of driving to the hoop, drawing the D in, and kicking the ball out for the open three.
The importance of this was thrust at the USA in the mid-eighties international play. Yugoslavia won the 1987 World Under 19 tournament, beating the USA with a team that featured future NBA stars Toni Kukoč, Dino Radja and Vlade Divac. Then Brazil won the 1987 Pan-American games in Indianapolis, coming back from as many as 20 points down, 14 at halftime to beat the USA 120-115. The legendary Oscar Schmidt, a 6-8 small forward, scored 46 points, including 7 of 15 threes, while guard Marcel de Souza added 36. The rest of the Brazilian team played physically, chasing Schmidt's misses, against future NBA centers David Robinson and Pervis Ellison, and with only Rex Chapman (1 for 7) trying to shoot threes, they couldn't compete. Schmidt and de Souza had long careers playing in Italy; Schmidt had been a sixth round draft pick by the Nets but turned them down.
Georgetown University coach John Thompson was in the stands at that game, but didn't take in the lesson. At the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul, his USA – built on athleticism and with Robinson returning at center – was beaten by the Soviets, the core of whose team, coach and stars, were Lithuanian. They weren't as athletic, but could shoot threes, led by Šarūnas Marčiulionis, and center Arvydas Sabonis could bang inside, shoot outside, and handle the ball anywhere - a sort of early version of Jokić. Finally, at the 1990 World Championships, the Yugoslavs, with Dražen Petrović and Žarko Paspalj added to that Under-19 squad, beat the US and the Soviets to win the title - the US beat Puerto Rico in overtime for third place, a sad end for the Puerto Ricans who'd beaten both Yugoslavia and the US in the preliminary stages. Schmidt, by the way, averaged 34.6 points per game and made the all-tournament team.
America was getting the message that Europe had caught up. George Karl spent four seasons alternating between the minor-league Albany Patroons and Spain's Real Madrid before settling into success with Seattle, where one of his stars was German Detlef Schrempf. Mike D'Antoni played 13 years for Olimpio Milano in Italy, and coached them and Benetton Treviso, before coaching with six NBA teams, most notably the Phoenix Suns. And Don Nelson's son Donnie, who played for Athletes In Action and then scouted Europe for his father, got Golden State to bring over Marčiulionis after the 1988 Olympics.
With Petrovic in New Jersey (until dying tragically in a car accident at home in Croatia), Divac with the Lakers and Kukoc with Chicago Bulls, the impact of the Yugoslav players alone was huge. Had the country not splintered it would still be a basketball power; there are NBA players from Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Montenegro. Similarly, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine had been the core of the old Soviet teams. All these teams compete with the bigger powers of the European game: Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, France and Germany.
And yes, the three pointer has opened up the game, and the 'Eurostep', which involves dragging the foot after the allocated second step without being called for traveling, has become commonplace. The master of the Eurostep, ironically, was Argentina's Manu Ginóbili, though he, like most Argentina stars, played in Europe, before moving to the NBA with Greg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs (where Wambanyama now plays). Ginóbili paired in a backcourt with France's Tony Parker on those championship Spurs teams led by Tim Duncan.
But though Arenas identified a real problem for the NBA, its proximate cause isn't really Europe. Look at that all star result. Although one player scored 50 points and another five were over 30, the three Europeans were more modest: Giannis scored 23 in only 23 minutes; Jokić scored only 13 in his 23 minutes, but added 9 assists, and Luka Dončić, who also played 23 minutes (coincidence or conspiracy?) added seven more assists. It seems the Euros were looking to pass.
Which is suggestive of one big difference. In many European countries, where the players grow up in club basketball, the coaching is built around the team game (think US colleges in the Sixties or Seventies). They adapted to the three-point basketball more quickly than the NBA, but their players also grow up playing a team oriented game. You can argue that you don't need to be super-athletic to do that, but there is still a place for that kind of orientation. One of the things that made the Magic-Bird rivalry so special was that both players played it; Michael Jordan was super-athletic, but he played it too (even with Toni Kukoč).
But US players play a more individually-oriented style, based on the mano-a-mano game played before you get to the team context. It's why Arenas defends Green for his slap – it's as if White Men Can't Jump was still playing in the multiplex down the street. These two styles can co-exist, and most of the time do, but the emphasis in the US is always on the slam dunk highlights for Sports Center on the World Wide Leader in Sports Television. Blame Jordan for that – his spectacular play drew the casual watchers to the 11pm highlights shows.
This also led to a loosening of refereeing. Prepare for a Grampa Simpson rant at the clouds. Many of the spectacular plays you now see involve players who dribble to control the ball, drop it or double-dribble it, start their dribble again, then tuck it under their arm like a football and Eurostep their way to the hoop. Everybody carries or palms the ball; it's not new. Earl Monroe couldn't have done his spin move without carrying it sometimes; it was rarely whistled. Now you can catch the ball on your upward dribble, hold it for two seconds, then direct it down for your next dribble, it's almost impossible for a defender to stop you. I've watched players walk with the ball, literally, then stop and begin their play. The step-back shot often involves taking two steps without a dribble – it used to be you got your free steps only at the end of your dribble, not before, or even worse, before and after. Pivot feet can be changed at will, a move that dates back to James Worthy's pivot shuffle which was his signature mark. If the NBA wants to be serious about defense, the first thing they have to do is control the offense. Have you ever played in serious playground ball? Where arguing fouls turns basketball into bocce? The NBA should let the players call their own fouls and violations for a few weeks and after they've survived the arguments and fights give it back to the refs. The players might then be relieved to have the zebras tell them they're traveling when they walk four steps to the hoop.
My brother calls me an old man because I enjoy watching the UConn women play – even though their game is part Euro kick-out and part Fifties set shots from the outside. But college ball, of both sexes, is just as sloppy as the pros, although the calls are even more random. You could argue the women's game is more team-tactical, like the Euro game, and the men's game more athletic (though the women's is every bit as physical). One of the biggest problems with Arenas' Euro-skeptic argument is that American players don't really go to college anyway. The best of them are one-and-done; one year in college ball then off to the NBA before they've learned much at all. Other promising teenagers skip the NBA completely, playing in academies or the NBA's own G League.
It's all a far cry from the days when Yugoslav Krešimir Ćosić somehow got to Brigham Young University after playing with a Finnish BYU player on an all-European squad. He was twice an All-American for the Cougars, led them to two Western Athletic Conference titles, and was drafted by the Lakers, though he returned to play "amateur" in Yugoslavia. But I can recall watching the 6-11 "Kreso" dribble between his legs and pass behind his back and realizing, even as a kid, there might well be some basketball somewhere else. So tell Gilbert Arenas I'm voting remain.
