In November 2019 I had the opportunity to interview Svetislav Pesic. The man still ran Barça basketball.
We spent more than an hour sitting in front of a coffee, and when we went to review his career as Alba Berlin coach, he reminded him of that American player who, after landing in the German capital, refused to sleep at night.
Pesic told me his story:
-The guy had arrived in March and had a contract until the end of the season. When a few days had passed, I realized that the man did not exceed the jet lag . He yawned in training, you could tell he didn’t sleep at night. I asked him: ‘What’s wrong, you don’t plan to adapt to European time?’ He answered: ‘ Coach , I sleep during the day and live at night … ‘. I told him it was not normal. He said, ‘Yes it is: after all, I’m only going to be here for two or three months. Why would I change it? ‘
“And the guy was right?” I asked Pesic.
“I had it,” he answered.
Pesic told me that this basketball player would end up passing through Berlin without pain or glory.
Who had endured the quarter, collected everything that was due to him and that’s it.
That he left.
And no one heard from him again.
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And now, the reader is asked:
What do we know about the dozens of American basketball players who have played for Barça, Madrid, CSKA or Panathinaikós in recent years?
Who of them has left a mark, something to remember?
(…)
When we were young, in the ’70s,’ 80s and even ’90s, we ran through the starting quintets.
Barça: Solozábal, Epi, Sibilio, Jiménez and Norris.
Madrid: Corbalán, López Iturriaga, Robinson, Fernando Martín and Romay.
La Penya: Rafa Jofresa, Villacampa, Montero, Morales and Corny Thompson.
El Estudiantes, with Azofra, Herreros, Winslow, Pinone and Orenga. The CAI Zaragoza of the Arcega brothers, Manel Bosch, Jimmy Allen and Kevin Magee …
Now let’s do the exercise: at once, let’s say the current Barça quintet. Or that of Madrid. Or that of the Joventut.
No names come out.
Nor do the names of the current CSKA Moscow, or Maccabi, or Efes appear.
(…)
In some ways, the relationship between the Euroleague and the NBA is asymmetrical. European stars dream of crossing the pond and joining Stephen Curry, LeBron James, James Harden and Kevin Durant.
And in return (terrible change), American basketball delivers its discards to Europe, which in this way is immersed in a process of degradation: few Americans consolidate and leave their mark.
Runrepeat.com has done the numbers.
Between 2000 and 2020, the number of Americans on Euroleague teams has grown by 119%.
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In fact, the difference by country is abysmal. Runrepeat.com has calculated the presence of 2,581 players on 85 European teams. And his conclusion is eloquent: 27.9% of them were Americans, a figure that exceeds their four pursuers together (Spaniards and Italians occupied 6.4% each; Serbs, 6.2%; and Greeks, 5 ,3%).
Far from stopping, the process continues. In 2001, 14.6% of the players in the Euroleague were Americans. In 2010, 20%. In 2020, 31.9% …
The relationship between the Euroleague and American basketball
LV
The process has its consequences, it becomes a bad business for the Euroleague, which watches as the stars go to the NBA – did Luka Doncic not emigrate? – while cutting the wings of the rest of the domestic players, who disappear from the scene or they are consigned to minor teams in their national leagues.
This other phenomenon also offers figures.
The presence of young domestic workers (under 26 years of age) is undergoing a chronic decline. In the last three years in Spain, young Spanish basketball players have gone from occupying 24% of total playing time to a minuscule 5%: this is a fall of 75%!
Dimitrije Curcic, study manager for RunRepeat.com, wonders:
– Where is European basketball progressing? Isn’t he on his way to becoming a copy very cheap from the NBA?
The situation also becomes particularly dramatic among Russian, Israeli, Turkish or Italian players. For any of them, finding a place at CSKA, Maccabi or Armani Milan is an impossible mission.
In Italy, Italians occupied 39% of playing time in 2003. Currently, they barely reach 9%.
The dynamics make the Italian teams unrecognizable and also their team, which has deteriorated in recent years. In the 80s, we also sang the quintet continuously light blue: Marzorati, Riva, Brunamonti, Magnifico and Dino Meneghin.
This was a recognizable and ferocious group, very well established on their national clubs, such as the Scavolini Pesaro, the Banco di Roma or the Squib Cantù.
In this last decade, the presence of Italian basketball has always been anecdotal. You have to go back to 2004 to recover your last international success, a silver at the Athens Games.
His case is paradigmatic, the portrait of these times: the years go by and there is no way that European basketball will cut the distance from the all-powerful (and cannibalistic) NBA.