Wizards to play in Europe in Fall 2008

[Rafael122]

TORONTO, March 7 -- Washington Wizards players were notified Friday that the team will play preseason games against the New Orleans Hornets in Berlin and Barcelona in October as part of the NBA Europe tour.

Other teams that will play games in Europe include the Miami Heat and New Jersey Nets. Boston, Toronto, Memphis and Minnesota were on the NBA tour last fall.

In 1979, the Washington Bullets traveled to China and played two exhibition games against the Chinese national team.

An official announcement will be made by the NBA later this month.

Link

Great news. Arenas in Europe = fun.

[miller31time]

I'm really happy Stern is globalizing the NBA. I hear there are plans to try and add NBA teams from non US/Can. countries.

[Wizards2Lottery]

Read this a few days ago. Surprised it wasn't posted earlier. Good stuff. Can you believe Wade is the most popular NBA player in Europe? More than Kobe and LeTravel.

[Severn Hoos]

Great news. Arenas in Europe = fun.

Really? The Hornets have cap room this summer?

Sorry, bad joke. But I do bet the League is banking on the fact that Gil will be a part of that trip.

It should be fun, I hope they'll be televised somewhere.

[mhd]

Forget, the wizards, imagine Buckhantz Euro stle

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Buck's going to need English/Spanish and English/German translations with the word "dagger."



Here's a couple phrases Buck can use.

"Gilbert Arenas con la daga."

"Caron-Butler f

[johnbragg]

I was thinking, instead of trying to set up NBA teams in Europe, would it be better to run a world tournament? NCAA-style, single elimination to keep it from becoming almost another season.

There are 30 NBA teams and 24 Euroleague teams, so there would be 10 byes in the first round and 27 first round games. Byes would go to 6 NBA division winners and the Euroleague Final Four.

First two rounds (64 and 32) on Friday and Saturday, two days for travel, Round 3-4 (16 and during the week, the semifinals and finals on the second weekend.

Name it the Oscar Schmidt Cup?

[doclinkin]

johnbragg: by whose rules and whose refs?

It would be fun to see, but despite the talent disparity I think the NBAers would be at a disadvantage for a while until they adjusted to the ruleset.

On the otherhand, once they adjusted to the 'no-goaltending' rule, my god, total slaughter. Can you imagine Dwight Howard playing his whole career without a single offensive goaltending whistle being blown? Or heck, our own Andray Blatche on the defensive side. Pretty. Ugly. But might be fun.

[LyricalRico]

johnbragg: by whose rules and whose refs?

That would depend on which side of "the pond" this tourney is being played on. You can't have teams crossing the Atlantic to play games and then going back. The jet lag alone would create disadvantages. So one year it's in the US with NBA refs and NBA rules, the next year it's in Europe with their refs/rules.

I actually think it's a fantastic idea, especially considering you'd be able to keep the NBA teams in tact since foreign players wouldn't playing for their country as in the Olympics.

[tkunit]

Do I smell a euro trip for the board.

[johnbragg]

Isn't there already a 4-team McDonald's exhibition tournament like this? 2 NBA teams, 2 Spanish teams?

I think I remember the Wizards went over and played JCN's club once upon a time.

And I would hold it on both sides to build interest. Round One and Two in Europe, then the rest over here, switch back next year. Everyone's jetlagged, everyone's playing back-to-backs, so it should cancel out.

[bulletproof_32]

Do I smell a euro trip for the board.

I am seriously considering going to the Barcelona game.

I've always wanted to go to Spain and this seems like a perfect opportunity.

I'm going to look into travel accommodations later this week.

[Soup's Uncle]

Tanto!

[Donkey McDonkerton]

-= original quote snipped =-



I am seriously considering going to the Barcelona game.

I've always wanted to go to Spain and this seems like a perfect opportunity.

I'm going to look into travel accommodations later this week.

lemme know