Off Topic II

[doc.end]

Congrats!

[BigSlam]

I graduated from Appalachian State today... pictures to follow soon

Nice work!!

[amcoolio]

[Walt Cronkite]

Well done AMC!

[Rich4114]

I graduated from Appalachian State today... pictures to follow soon

congrats man!

[Rich4114]

haha it's always funny to me when we put a real face on a msg board poster

[BigSlam]

haha it's always funny to me when we put a real face on a msg board poster

Here are some more pics of our posters:

Paydro:


Slam and Walt:


Fats:


W_Hamilton:


Rich:

[thruthefire]

That was awesome, Slam.

[Walt Cronkite]

Mine is shockingly accurate.

[fatlever]

coolio - welcome to the club my asu brother. cheers.

slam - that was the funniest post in a long time. that has to be HOF.

[Walt Cronkite]

I'll do it!

[Tupik]

A bit late, but did anyone watch the Euroligue finals ?
It was a great game, Barcelona plays great basketball, and I love the European style of play at high levels, great team defense, great team basketball.

But then I went on to watch Boston-Cleveland, and I couldn't stand it after seeing such a beautiful game, I had to stop mid-3rd quarter to go to sleep. I'm tired of the referees blowing the whistle all the time in the paint, whereas in Euroligue it's not the case, and it allows a much more physical game, with less much bull calls, and especially much less FTs, which makes for a more entertaining game without all the pauses.
And the NBA relies so much on one on one, it's barely impossible to watch when you just saw a game full of great passes, fluid offense, where every player plays great alongside his teammates.

I already knew all this, but watching the two games back to back made the differences much clearer, and I definitely find the European style of play more entertaining, and more interesting basketball-wise.

/rant, for good measure

[fatlever]

tupik, you are not alone. i much prefer the style of basketball that is played by european and argentina players as well as the style in those leagues. same goes for fiba based tournys. i love the ball movement, cutting, passing, team defense, team play compared to the NBAs iso, star-based culture which, as you mentioned is hindered by over officiating and hidden agendas. its the reason i so desperately wanted to see the suns win a ring under dantoni because i felt that influence would be great for the league. unfortunately until a team wins a ring playing that style, changes wont happen. its the same reason i love euro players that come to the nba, because i want that style to be infused into the league i love so much. i hate watching iso nba playoffs where stars trade free-throws in the 4th quarter to decide games.

oh well....

[Walt Cronkite]

Sign me up as well

[SWedd523]

Gotta feel for Charlie Davies being left off the 30 man roster

[fatlever]

Gotta feel for Charlie Davies being left off the 30 man roster

yeah, that sucks.

and im also pissed about adu getting left off in favor of sasha "mother f-ing" klejstan. sasha has a 0% chance of making a difference. at least adu brings something unique to the roster.

[doc.end]

I actually opted to watch only both Partizan games for homerism reasons and for nopt watchng tv on weekend too much - there is not much footage of Veselý in his home country, at least czech prennial champions will play in Adriatic league next year so that would make at least two matches to see him on czech public channel I guess.

Both good games, two overtimes what else I could want.

[e4Nf6]

I can't believe i missed the FIBA love-fest here....

There is nothing worse than FIBA basketball, nothing, I hate it with the fury of a thousand suns....

The reason all you don't see much individual play is because of the FIBA officials who don't call hand checking and basically allow you to grab and hold all you want. All the super quick penetrating guards we see in the NBA would get shut down by the hacks in Euroleague who would simply grab them with both hands as they flew past. Why do you think most Euro perimeter players suck at defense when they get to the NBA? Moving your feet and not using your hands is a foreign concept to them. Unlimited grabbing/holding does not equal beautiful basketball. It results in three things:

1. Lots of aimless passing around the perimeter because nobody can penetrate.
2. Lots of jump-shots because nobody can penetrate.
3. Lots of running because of how hard it is to score against a set defense.


But, the worst thing about FIBA games is the officials. Watching a FIBA game will give you a new respect for the refs in the NBA. Guys routinely get murdered in the paint with no calls, which only makes it that much harder to go to the hoop. And if you are an American player (especially if you are black) you can forget about getting any call ever.

The whole thing reminds me of a pick-up game with two teams that are not afraid to cynically hold and hack anybody that goes to the hoop. Ugly, Ugly, Ugly.

[Walt Cronkite]

Hmm... I've only ever seen a handful of euroleague games on NBATV, so I'm mostly basing my understanding of FIBA basketball from international competitions that I've seen (Olympics, World Cups, Eurobasket last year). I didn't notice as much holding on the perimeter, but I'm willing to concede to you that it is there, I think you've probably have a much greater sample size of games you've viewed than I have. I like the inclusion of zone defense, skilled shooting and ball movement, but I can see how all of that would be necessary if penetration was minimized by poor officiating. I don't remember this being a problem for the Redeem Team and in most of the Nation v. Nation games I've seen I was operating under the bias that these guys weren't as athletic as NBA level players and thought that was the reason for the limited penetration. This is definitely something I'll look for when I next get a chance, I think WCs are this summer in Turkey?

[doc.end]

i think e4 just forget to use green font