Colin Cowherd with the harsh reality for American born young players

[Hangtime84]

If more amercian players start looking like Jalen Green. I will be upset.

If more Amercian players look like Jalen Brunson. I will be fine.

[Yank3525]

LMAO people used to say these kinds of things back when the Spurs were winning with Duncan. Now they can say it again because of Jokic, Giannis, and Embiid. International basketball still isn't producing elite guards.

I know right. I remember people saying this stuff back in 2003.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

I’m sorry, is there an NBA team that only have international players that have been winning championships without their American counterparts that we are all unaware of?

[jkvonny]

Blame it on AAU. Lot (not all of them though) of American kids aren't coached, trained probably. Plays more of a selfish type ball. Rather go ISO chucking up 3s left and right, doing highlight 360 windmill dunks, etc.
The international kids (most of them) especially the Euros are well coached, trained plays more of an old-school cerebral fundamental type ball. Soccer influenced too. More passing, cuts, movements, screens, sharing the ball, selective shooting, discipline, etc

[jstross]

Europe is also more than twice the size of the US population wise. As basketball popularity grows it's only natural for the talent pool from such a large population to grow. 747 million people is a lot of people.

[SelfishPlayer]

LMAO people used to say these kinds of things back when the Spurs were winning with Duncan. Now they can say it again because of Jokic, Giannis, and Embiid. International basketball still isn't producing elite guards.

I know right. I remember people saying this stuff back in 2003.

Someone should provide video of commentators saying these same sort of things back then especially when Team USA had trouble winning.

[Meat]

As a New Yorker, i never though the best rapper could ever be from somewhere else

[Johnny Firpo]

For all we know, we might not have a European player in the mold of Jokic, Luka and Giannis for the next 20 years (I know Luka hasn't won yet, but we can probably agree that he is extremely talented). We'll see if Wemby is that. This could just be a positive anomaly for Europe, and a negative anomaly for U.S. (the lack of truly elite young Americans at the moment).

[Wallace_Wallace]

Evidently its fun and fashionable to sh*t on the young American(Black) players now

No one had a problem when Malika Andrews named a non-related allegation against Brandon Miller on draft night, and you're bashing Cowherd for this?

[Bornstellar]

Blame it on AAU. Lot (not all of them though) of American kids aren't coached, trained probably. Plays more of a selfish type ball. Rather go ISO chucking up 3s left and right, doing highlight 360 windmill dunks, etc.
The international kids (most of them) especially the Euros are well coached, trained plays more of an old-school cerebral fundamental type ball. Soccer influenced too. More passing, cuts, movements, screens, sharing the ball, selective shooting, discipline, etc

This. Seems the youth now is more worried about their silly after-shot celebrations (too small, the flex, etc) than actually working on the fundamentals of the game.

[CobraCommander]

What does that even mean? What a stupid thing to say

“Europeans are hard workers, Americans care about popularity”

Pretty true statement.

Yeah I remember when Luka came in with 4% body fat from working on his body and Tatum was 30% body fat because he drank beer all summer and smoked hookah…

Or do I have my young superstars work ethic reversed?

It’s blatantly stupid to assume any generalization about people based on where they are from is going to pan out.

also the NBA isn’t all work ethic -

Lukas and Zions work ethic has been challenged by everyone but their talent is unquestionably so high that 90%’of the nba stars (regardless of work
Ethic) will never be as good as them.

Where as Giannis and Jokic obviously worked their tails off to be even relevant in the league and THOSE 2 have over achieved so much that it makes other people who had more obvious talent when they were drafted look lazy. But you can’t really compare anyone drafted as low as Giannis and Jokic to Jokic and Giannis- they are both weird work ethic outliers-
We haven’t seen one guy - let alone 2 guys unexpectedly work themselves to the top of the NBA

Even Embiid was expected to be great- he just had to get healthy.

Colin is a
Moron

[The Laker Kid]

A lot of people here are clearly upset about Colin's opinion. It's just an opinion, but he's not wrong. The man gets paid to talk and voice his opinion, if you get offended by that then maybe there's truth in what he says. Work hard, rise above and prove him wrong.

[ryguy613]

Where Colin... was WRONG

[Cavsfansince84]

At the end of the day I think this is a simple matter where if Euro talent is going to turn pro at 15-16 and get better coaching between then and when they enter the nba they are going to develop their talent better than we do here in the us/Canada. Giannis not really included since he developed mostly after the fact. That's going to be an ongoing thing though until we figure out how to do a better job and tbh I doubt it will change much. People just look at Kobe and LeBron and assume this system works fine to create superstars but their work ethics are incredibly rare even for nba players. For every Kobe or LeBron we had 5-10 kids who came in out of hs and barely had careers despite being top 15 picks. This has been a criticism of how we develop talent for over 20 years. Maybe we need like a national academy where talented bb players at the age of 13 and up and can get scholarships and start playing bb year round with good coaching like they do in tennis or some other sports.

[jbk1234]

Last I checked, there were a bunch of American players on the Nuggets, Warriors, and Bucks.

[Lalouie]

he's saying euro players are not about numbers or flash

that they have the ingredients for better teamwork that lead to rings

his bottom line is winning rings - that's how he judgles all athletes. rings and synergy

i think he's also saying america craves flash in basketball. i can't say he's not correct because basketball in america is historically built around numbers and flash, and that is how it advertizes itself. i see it on this well-informed board. but he implies that the euro players is more built around the concept of the team

[CobraCommander]

he's saying euro players are not about numbers or flash

that they have the ingredients for better teamwork that lead to rings

his bottom line is winning rings - that's how he judgles all athletes. rings and synergy

i think he's also saying america craves flash in basketball. i can't say he's not correct because basketball in america is historically built around numbers and flash, and that is how it advertizes itself. i see it on this well-informed board. but he implies that the euro players is more built around the concept of the team

But his argument doesn’t hold weight when Jokic and Giannis have been in the league since 2014/2013 and have won 2 rings...total. Recency bias about Jokic and Giannis coupled with the fact that the other European players that are mvp level ARE all flash and questionable work ethic refutes everything Colin is saying.

Luka might as well be harden or Zion from a work ethic and flash perspective -

So who are these other European players not named Jokic and Giannis that don’t care about flash....

In fact who are these other players like Giannis and Jokic that are damn near all work ethic, no flash and team work?

Last dude I recall was Tim Duncan-

Nba players like the clout - even Europeans-

[TheFire]

I agree with the broader point of Europe/global hoops catching up quickly. The American youth style of basketball all 1 vs 1 ISO ball culture, flashy dunks, ballislife mixtapes, with very little emphasis on passing and fundamentals. You can make a case that the 2 best passers in the league at the moment are Jokic and Doncic.

With KD, Harden, Steph and Lebron all on the decline, we also seeing the dearth of the American superstar. Tatum? He’s on the border but will never be considered the best player in the league. Ja? Too busy flashing guns. Zion? Can’t stay healthy and game is too one dimensional. Between the ultra young guys like Paolo, Chet, Scoot, etc, not sure if any of them have even close to the potential of the Steph, KD, etc, whereas guys like Giannis, Jokic and even Luka could one day surpass them (Giannis/Jokic have arguably has surpassed KD already.)

[CobraCommander]

At the end of the day I think this is a simple matter where if Euro talent is going to turn pro at 15-16 and get better coaching between then and when they enter the nba they are going to develop their talent better than we do here in the us/Canada. Giannis not really included since he developed mostly after the fact. That's going to be an ongoing thing though until we figure out how to do a better job and tbh I doubt it will change much. People just look at Kobe and LeBron and assume this system works fine to create superstars but their work ethics are incredibly rare even for nba players. For every Kobe or LeBron we had 5-10 kids who came in out of hs and barely had careers despite being top 15 picks. This has been a criticism of how we develop talent for over 20 years. Maybe we need like a national academy where talented bb players at the age of 13 and up and can get scholarships and start playing bb year round with good coaching like they do in tennis or some other sports.

The AAU system is horrible for developing players to be nba contributors...it’s all “scoring” and no team work...but the euros have put out 2 outliers - Giannis and Jokic...no one else has won anything. And even those two were surrounded by great players all over the roster...just last year Steph and won a ring...before Giannis is was Lebron....we are in a era of Jokic and Giannis dominance but not European dominance- because no other euros other than these 2 are really perennial top 5 in mvp vote getters amd also high work ethic

[Lalouie]

he's saying euro players are not about numbers or flash

that they have the ingredients for better teamwork that lead to rings

his bottom line is winning rings - that's how he judgles all athletes. rings and synergy

i think he's also saying america craves flash in basketball. i can't say he's not correct because basketball in america is historically built around numbers and flash, and that is how it advertizes itself. i see it on this well-informed board. but he implies that the euro players is more built around the concept of the team

But his argument doesn’t hold weight when Jokic and Giannis have been in the league since 2014/2013 and have won 2 rings...total. Recency bias about Jokic and Giannis coupled with the fact that the other European players that are mvp level ARE all flash and questionable work ethic refutes everything Colin is saying.

Luka might as well be harden or Zion from a work ethic and flash perspective -

So who are these other European players not named Jokic and Giannis that don’t care about flash....

In fact who are these other players like Giannis and Jokic that are damn near all work ethic, no flash and team work?

Last dude I recall was Tim Duncan-

Nba players like the clout - even Europeans-

yeah whelp....that's colin's take imo. he has his peculiarities but overall i like his emphasis on synergy

but i will start with this....i do not think jokic or giannis or luka will demand a trade at ANY time just for the sake of going to "a better spot". i dont know if that has to do with anything that we're saying, however they grow up with different ideas about how to play the game and what to expect from it. maybe that kind of euro thinking will change but that is what it is now imo