Welcome to this week’s (read: last week’s slightly belated) Three Points, the weekly column in which the expatriate takes his shot (or three) at roundball from a galaxy far far away, a galaxy called Europe…
In the afterglow. An excellent, if sleep-derived weekend was had by all Eurohoops fans, with Euroleague Final Four and championship games punctuating the NBA playoffs.
(Incidentally, what a run for top-level basketball this year, eh? Just consider this calendar: March Madness, followed by various European league playoffs in April; Euroleague finals and NBA playoffs in May; NBA finals in June; the Acropolis-Eurobank International Tournament and Olympic qualifiers in July; and the Beijing Games in August. Sweet.)
As a personal note, i’d like to thank the BallinEurope head cheeses Tobias and Christophe for going to Madrid and partying, um, i mean for their reportage and virtual presence in live chat. It was great fun rapping with Rob, uhg80, Michelle, Dimitrios (sorry about all those hits to your wallet, dude), Stevan and the rest. Let’s do it again next year, and bring a virtual friend.
Niceties aside, the rant now begins. Trajan Langdon was named MVP of the finals – no problem there; 21 points, seven boards and a couple steals is pretty impressive. And most American fans will surely remember Langdon as having put together a distinctly unimpressive three-season career with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the early 2000s – again, no problems there to be fair; 5.4 points and 1.3 rebounds per over 119 games is easily critiqued.
This expat’s problem came in a mostly quite good piece by ESPN’s specially contracted reporter on Euroleague, the Times of London’s Ian Whittell. Some representative lines from “Langdon wins Euroleague Final Four MVP” included stuff like “ ‘Home’ for Langdon is now Russia” and “Making a career in Europe is not a bad alternative.”
Sure, i’m taking The Worldwide Leader in [American] Sports personally, but that’s what blogging is for. Though we know the NBA is the top level of basketball competition in the world, the tone of “America number one” in Whittell’s piece is a bit off. (As one not familiar with Whittell’s soccer stuff, one wonders about his attitude toward the Premiership’s partyline of its own “obvious” “superiority.”)
The “alternative” line kinda stung because of certain personal experiences applying for work in the ‘States. Let me tell you, in many America-centric circles, the prevailing attitude is that any sort of publishing work done in, say, Europe simply doesn’t matter, and European professional certification is often disregarded. Those with differing experiences should feel free to tell me all about it, because i could use some positivity on the subject.
After all, for this writer, making a career America is not a bad alternative.
Sayonara, Señor Hernandez. International b-ball will soon be wishing Pepu Hernandez well, as the Team Spain coach will step down from the position after the Olympics. From the official announcement at FIBA.com:
Hernandez, who led Spain to the gold medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship and silver at the EuroBasket last year in Madrid, has decided that his “cycle will have come to an end” with the national team.
“I want to thank the FEB for giving the opportunity to have enjoyed an incredible experience,” [Hernandez said]. … “Our mind is on the [Olympic] gold medal, that is why I want to ask for the suppport of everyone, players, coaches, FEB and of course, the fans.”
Though Hernandez served as national team coach for only two years, the coach has surely raised the bar for Team Spain forever in taking the FIBA Worlds gold in 2006 and the Eurobasket silver in 2007.
¡Buena suerte en las Olimpiadas, Señor Hernandez!
Maybe he should have just said he never inhaled. Josh Howard took a particularly egregious PR U-turn this week after admitting on Michael Irvin’s Dallas radio show that he “smok[ed] weed in the offseason sometimes,” a “personal choice and personal opinion.” In fact, said Howard in restating a line put forth by others before him, “I think that everybody in the media world and in the sports world knows that NBA players do smoke marijuana.”
A personal choice and personal opinion, indeed, involving a substance which is hardly a steroid-class performance-enhancer nor an alcohol-level destroyer of lives.
America’s close-mindedness on the issue ultimately forced Howard to backtrack from becoming the first contemporary American athlete to really take a stand on an alternate to alcohol vis-à-vis party drugs. Stephen A. Smith had a particularly frothing-rabid well thought-out take on the issue.
Unfortunately, efforts to balance out such a representative take, such as Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley’s consistent cool kidding about Howard’s habits, went mostly ignored by stroppy Smith types worried about the children. Guess Sir Charles is still not worried about being a role model.
Howard, on the other hand, clearly is. His second take on the matter went like this: “I recently talked about a controversial topic with members of the media. I used poor judgment and I want to apologize to my fans, the Mavericks and the NBA. I am fortunate to be playing basketball in the League. I realize I have a responsibility as a role model for young fans, and I take that responsibility seriously.”
As for Mr. Smith … dude, chill out. You’re killing the buzz, man.
Next week: The final fate of the Cape Verde national team. Maybe.
