Insulting Sam Mitchell and the Raptors

December 12, 2007

We already found out that Sam doesn’t really follow European basketball – with five guys from Europe on his team. Now we found out through the Toronto Sun that he even feels insulted when you try to tell Sam Mitchell they are playing European-style basketball:

"I feel insulted when I hear that," Mitchell said. "I don’t see NBA players wanting to get out of their contract to play in Europe. you don’t see college kids leaving school early to play in Europe. Nothing against Europe, but this is our game … You watch European basketball and all they want to do is play like we play. All they want to do is dunk the ball."

Well we did see players wanting to get out of their contracts – and we did see player getting out of their contract to play in Europe. Not because Europe is better, but something must have made them leave the NBA.

In the NBA’s conference call on September 19th Sam was asked why the Toronto Raptors have so many European players:

I don’t think we favor one player. We try and find the best players. Andrea was our No. 1 pick and when you look at the money we had to spend last year and the players that were available to us, Jorge Garbajosa made sense; and we signed Jose Calderon two years ago, so we’re not picking one player over another. If you look at the free agents, we didn’t just sign European players. We signed Jason Kapono and some other guys, so we’re just trying to get the best basketball players for our team, regardless of color, nationality. We’re just trying to find a good basketball player.

What does that mean? I guess Sam considers his European players as good, right? So – the Raptors’ Europeans’ are good because all they want to do is play like the NBA plays and because all they want to do is dunk the ball?

Maybe Sam Mitchell should give Kerry Gibson a call. But this is exactly why I love writing this blog – to see what both sides really think – I am sure my European friends see things differently..

Dec 12, 2007ballineurope

This post was published on December 12, 2007

Comments: 12

Dagomar Degroot
17 years ago
Well there’s little doubt the NBA is the best league in the world, if only for the money they can pay: they can afford to take the best players from Europe, the NCAA, the CBA (what little remains of it), countries like China or regions in Africa, and (formerly) highschool. The best players come to the NBA because the NBA gives the most money, the most exposure, and the game is played at the highest level.

As for the players Mitchell signed – well, nobody was saying European basketball doesn’t boast some good players. The best simply leave for the NBA. That’s why Calderon, Parker, etc. were signed by the Raptors. But having good players does not a good league make. And the very best players are, of course, in the NBA (Lebron, Kobe, etc.), which the best European players (or those who played in the European leagues) become better after spending time in the NBA. I remember, Calderon came to the Raptors as a star in Europe, but he had a long, long way to go before he could become a truly competent NBA point guard.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.
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Vic
17 years ago
To Dagomar.

You are wrong about the best players in Europe leaving for the NBA. True, some of them belong to the best, but not all of them. Some of them are very average. Like Ersan Illyasova who went to play overseas last year. Bargnani was nothing special when he went to the NBA as first pick. Just a young talent, that’s all. Anthony Parker, Garbajosa, Ginobili were one of the best. But in many cases there are still beter players in Europe who choose to stay in the old continent.
Bodiroga was long for a long time considered the best but he never left. Papaloukas is considered one of the very best European players in the world, but he stays.

What’s funny is that some very good European players fail in the NBA, while some very average ones succeed. If you watch teams like Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Lithuania during the international Championships you’ll notice that their no1 players play in Euroleague teams.
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migala72
17 years ago
Isn´t Mr. Mitchell one of the worst NBA coaches despite the honors? He is lucky to have Delfino, Calderon and Nesterovic. Nice suit, but soul full of prejudices.
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Robuka Kenderle
17 years ago
Look, lets not beat around the bush, we all know why the Raptors are going european: american players are hothouse flowers who wilt when away from their home land.
While professional athletes EVERYWHERE on the planet in EVERY SPORT play their sport in foreign countries, americans act like its some supreme sacrifice. This is probably due to their isolation. The neighbor to the north is an exact duplicate and the one to the south speak this weid language. Go to Munich, Milan or Barcelona and chances are everyone you meet has travelled elsewhere in europe.

Anyways, we saw the problems Vancouver had with players not wanting to go there (and it is a gorgeous city) as well as Toronto with Antonio Davis (who was union head) and others.
And Toronto is as american in look and feel as any other US city. The language, culture, music, tv, economy is a duplicate. Were not talking Montreal and all that strange french they speak. No. Yet, Toronto always had problems.

You think Garbo who went from south america to europe will bitch that he isnt in atlanta instead?.

Mitchell+Colangelo+europeans players isnt a good combination. One of the three is going to have to go eventually.

> but this is our game

Wow! Talk about a deconnect with reality.
Its the number two sport on the planet and was doing very well BEFORE 1992 when the NBA claims it brought basketball to the world.
Supposedly nothing existed before.

As for copying the game, every player is a showman. They want to be on the clip shows. Its human. But while most euros might want to dunk, their teams are infinitely better coached.
Of course, Mitchell is not really and X and O’s kind of guy. I believe he is even insulted when someone brings this up. Problem is he now has an award that he won in spite of himself.

Let’s hope he feels dissed by the questions and decides to take a big payday elsewhere.
In NYC perhaps?
No europeans there.
All guys from the hood playing ‘their’ game with astonishing results.
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Slobodan Chutzpah
17 years ago
Yup, really inane and unintelligent blabbering from Mitchell. Not all Europeans want to play the way the game is played in the NBA. It is typically arrogant to suggest that, of course, especially coming from a guy who doesn’t follow European basketball. Basketball has been played in Europe for as long as in America. There are grand traditions and storied franchises in European basketball to rival any of their US counterparts. Also, unlike NBA teams, European teams actually play a lil’ something called defense; you know, the single most important factor in winning games.
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Javier
17 years ago
Robuka, point taken. But Garbajosa is a Spaniard. Following your argument he spent 3-4 years in Italy playing for Benetton Treviso (former team of Maurizio Gherardini)
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chnews
17 years ago
So…doesn’t the diminished value of the US$ vs. the Euro figure into this discussion, at least a little?

Forgive my ignorance here…don’t European teams limit the number of Americans who can play there? In other words, wouldn’t more Americans play there, if allowed to do so?
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John
17 years ago
European teams at the highest level would be 70% American if the Euro rules allowed for it. The remained would be mainly Eastern Europeans, Spaniards, and either Italians, or Greeks. Also, to the guy who said that that “most Europeans have traveled to other countries in Europe”… well most people from Nebraska have been to Oklahoma. The distances are about the same. Big whoop.
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USA Baller
17 years ago
USA basketball is the best. The only reason we have Europeans in the league is to fill our white qouta. There aren’t enough non black talented players in the USA, so they import them. The league wouldn’t survive being all black. Society here is too racist to support that. Why do you think the last 3 mvp’s were white and foreign born. It wasn’t because they were the best players. I don’t mind it though. I understand marketing what sells. As long as I get to watch Lebron, DWade, Duncan, Kobe, Garnett, or Howard. I don’t care who they use to sell tickets.
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Swede in the US
17 years ago
I think the whole discussion has gone off track. It’s not whether american players are better than european players, it’s about the style of basketball being played in toronto as well as the rest of the NBA. In the NBA today they allow for zone defenses, with the added defensive 3 seconds rule. The development of the NBA game since the 90’s has definately been more in line with FIBA basketball. If you look at offenses today we see a lot more drive and kick, and all 5 players actively involved in a play. In the 90’s Charles Barkley would start on the 3 point line and back himself in for 15 seconds or until someone came over to help, which was made a lot more difficult because of the illegal defense rules. So I would agree that the NBA is moving towards a brand of basketball closder fitting the stereotype of ‘Euro” basketball. I don’t think anyone is saying the European teams are better than the NBA teams, or that the NBA is going to lose players to Europe anytime soon.
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Able
17 years ago
to Vic:
You’re absolutely right. Garbajosa was considered to be one of the best (if not the best) power forward in Europe, the same applies to Ginobili and Calderon (not that much to Parker and Bargnani, I think, as they didn’t play long enough in Europe).

And Bodiroga was… awesome, he could play every position but center. He did everything right, never a mistake and was unstoppable. And he was well paid also; maybe not for NBA standards but at his peak in Spain and Greece he was making Euro 3-4 mln a year net. Not bad.
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yekcim
17 years ago
When a few Euro players started coming in the late 80’s to the NBA the players laughed…Isiah Thomas, Rodman and others. They thought basketball was not only an American sport, but a black one. There are many blacks in America today that still think basketball is their game and they are the best. Probably, Sam Mitchell has some of this still in him.
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