By Joël Pütz | Sports journalist
While international players, particularly those from Europe, are performing more and more in the United States, the debate between the NBA and the Old Continent is becoming more and more intense. A former big league player has also been ruthless on the subject recently.
It has been since 2019 and James Harden that a US player has no longer been MVP and a priori, it is not this season that that will change. Whether it’s Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the favorites for the best player trophy are all FIBA stamps. A living legend of international basketball thinks elsewhere that they have now clearly surpassed their American counterparts.
Not surprisingly, this does not please everyone in the United States and we think in particular of Gilbert Arenas. But some consider this observation to be logical, like Rex Chapman who played in the NBA between 1988 and 2000. Guest of Vlad TV in particular, the latter was not careful when judging the American mentality, particularly in which concerns the initiation of White people to the orange ball from a very young age.
Rex Chapman mercilessly in the NBA/Europe comparison
They (Europeans) don’t discourage their children from playing basketball… Here we say: “You can’t play this sport. He doesn’t match your race. » That’s not how they were raised. We don’t put white people (in basketball), we put them in football, baseball, lacrosse, tennis and everything else. Basketball is for others. It’s not for white people. It makes no sense.
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If there are films like White people can’t jump and that the US media gets fired up when a white player makes a show by dunking, it’s not for nothing. Chapman is clearly not a fan of this philosophy unlike that practiced on the Old Continent and went even further in the comparison:
The other thing is they know exactly where the game is and the score is. They know how to handle a possession, they know everything because they’ve been trained very hard from a young age and if they respond or if they give a hard time or if they do this or that, (the coach says): “No, you sit down now. You’re not going to play. »
They don’t pamper them. In Europe, kids who are the equivalent of AAU players back home are not pampered. Guys don’t get pampered when they play professional basketball in Europe.
When one sees how Luka Doncic for example rolled around the league upon his arrival when he was only 18 years old when he was drafted, we immediately understand the argument put forward by the former fullback.
Rex Chapman says it bluntly, Europe is now one step ahead of the United States when it comes to basketball. Not necessarily in terms of talent but rather in the way of training new generations so that young players arrive ready at the professional level. A rather interesting and valid argument.
2024-03-25 17:36:45
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