Who has “ownership” of a professional basketball player in Europe? “I owe myself to the club that pays me”, is the typical phrase of so many athletes in our environment over so many years. To establish a comparison with another model, in the NBA, and in all professional leagues in the United States, the “franchise” system ensures a common “property”. Let’s do a simulation of the ‘Heurtel case’, if a competition was played in Europe with the same rules as the NBA.
Jasikevicius I would have asked Nacho Rodriguez an immediate departure of the player. Nacho would have contacted the franchises in other cities. Alberto Herreros and Maurizio Gherardini (responsible for the sports part of Real Madrid and Fenerbaçe, respectively), would have shown interest, and probably the matter would have ended with Leo Westermann leaving Fenerbaçe for Barça (it was the base his coach wanted), with Heurtel landing in Madrid and with at least two players from Madrid and Barcelona having to reinforce the Fenerbaçe, because of the three teams it is the one that would have pushed the most to receive reinforcements, which this year they need.
Barça leaves Thomas Heurtel thrown in Istanbul for negotiating with Real Madrid
The Barça entity feels deceived by the player’s underground play while the French base looks for a way to return home for Christmas
European club professionals regularly complain about the journalistic treatment given to their steps. Really, if any of them were responsible in a communication medium, wouldn’t they be willing to offer their readers a resolution with as much media ‘rennet’ as the one they have made possible for the ‘Heurtel case’? What should have been resolved in the officesAll of them thinking about the good progress of the competition that welcomes them, without giving rise to anything more than technical evaluations from the management, became a story of individuals betraying each other in times of pandemic. The ‘glamorous’ news of a transfer in first class seats of five European basketball professionals, for the benefit of three very important markets for the competition, has resulted in the adventures of a French boy abandoned in a Turkish airport, with his cowardly comrades and rivals waiting for the attractive collateral damage.
Rivalry as the essence of sport
If you have read this far, you can tell me – and you will be very right – that if I am not an idiot, I look like it. “And what do we do with the ACB, and with that lifelong rivalry?” “This, no matter how hard you try, will never be like the North American system of professional competitions. If Spanish, European basketball (and whoever says basketball can say soccer, or any other sport between clubs), we take away the rivalry, the affront, the need to grow at the expense of others, your sinking so that I can do well … we are taking away the ‘sauce’, its true essence! “
They must know, in my legitimate defense of idiocy, that they I am writing this letter on the Eastern Magi Day. And as a European child that I am, I feel fully entitled, this January 6, 2021, to ask my sports gift for the next generations.
I’m going there.
My dear and necessary Europe, two points; Would it be possible to organize a great professional basketball competition, with the same turnover for cities and the same sporting wealth for fans, like the one they have in the United States?
If the Kings brought me this first gift, the cities that could not have that great European competition, maybe they could organize an equally attractive competition with European universities as great references. And, since it is the three of you, I would dare to ask you to complete the magic with some great college competitions, what in the United States are called ‘high school sports’, which would bring a lot of enthusiasm to young people and their educational environments.
From ‘Asterix’ Epi to ‘Obélix’ Gasol, this is how Pau prepares his latest adventure in basketball
At the age of 40, the best player in the history of Spain is looking for a final opportunity in the NBA with the Tokyo Olympics on his horizon
If I was granted all three wishes together, I believe that not only would we avoid much of the brain short circuits caused by ‘tribal hatred’ in elite sport, but, in the medium and long term, all project lines would end up being more profitable, starting with the professional franchises themselves, continuing with the educational environment and its relationship with sport, and ending with the media.
We read a few days ago that the solution to this global pandemic is through “a united society ready to rebuild cathedrals”. “Nacho Rodríguez, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Thomas Heurtel … Alberto Herreros, Maurizio Gherardini … can you imagine such a ‘cathedral’ for Basketball in Europe?”
“Don’t be naive, kid.”
.
