It’s the game that has taken over the lives of so many, exciting as much as it infuriates, but what Pokémon match which Euro ballers? Emmet Ryan investigates
The Olympics are just around the corner so we are about to hit some serious basketball coverage. With that in mind, we need something a little lighter for y’all ahead of the wall to wall sportacular that is ahead.
With that in mind and with many of the players y’all usually follow not getting a look-in over in Rio, we’ve decided to focus on European or Euro-based ballers who match up well with some of the Pokémon we’ve found while out and about.
Snorlax – Sofoklis Schortsantidis
Two things: 1. Being able to spell Sofo’s name with confidence is second only to Giannis Antetokounmpo in my book. 2. Sofo as Snorlax was basically the inspiration for this list. Snorlax spends most of the day eating or sleeping, making it my spirit animal, but when it wakes up watch out because it will just plain end you. All it needs is Sofo’s goggles.
Aerodactyl – Jan Vesely
So here you have a Pokémon that is good in the air but was resurrected in order to be as effective as it is today. Sounds an awful lot like a talented Czech big for whom things didn’t work out before he landed in Fenerbahce.
Electabuzz – Sergio Llull
A controversial call but like Llull this Pokémon divides opinion. It’s got a heap going for it in multiple areas but no one spot where it can be trusted to be the total package.
Mr Mime – Rudy Fernandez
You find it hard to explain exactly why you don’t like him yet you know, solidly in your heart, that you really can’t stand the sight of him…unless he’s with you in which case not a bad word can be said of him.
Onix – Dimitris Diamantidis
The recently retired Euroleague legend gets the call up here because of his natural fit. DDD had flexibility far greater than a man of his size or build normally delivered, making him an obvious match with Onix.
Geodude – Joey Dorsey
A Pokémon that is basically a head with monstrous arms and shoulders…nope, can’t see how I felt this suited Dorsey at all.
Arcanine – Luigi Datome
Looks at Arcanine’s facial hair, looks at Datome, looks back to Arcanine, back to Datome, and on, and on, and on
Bulbasaur – Milo Teodosic
Teodosic’s arms are European basketball’s answer to Bulbasaur’s vines.
Zapdos – Vassilis Spanoulis
Both are leaders of the red team so it just makes sense.
And we can’t let this go without a shoutout to the Russian basketball federation whose video with Alexey Shved gave us the original idea for this. We would link to it but the video appears to be down.
Leave a Reply