Eurobasket 2022 Finals : SPAIN are European champions!!!

[Mirotic12]

I wish we could all enjoy FIBA tournaments for what they are.

When we have some star players participating, I do believe those FIBA tournaments are the superior basketball product. Easily better than the NBA, and I can list about 10 reasons.

Having said that, the reason why those stars are not in Europe is because America loves the game more, pays for it more, and therefore deserves them. Europe can suck it, they don't deserve great players. Shame but it is what it is, it's soccer country.

I can’t get all the way there with you that it’s a superior product, but it’s definitely a flavor of basketball I love.

When Giannis gets back home to Milwaukee he’s going to miss the atmosphere created by the Greek fans but be grateful for his NBA teammates and coaches.

Just the fact that FIBA has real reffing and a real sports competition, rather than the entertainment WWE style "narrative" show that the NBA is, just that alone, makes FIBA the far superior product to the NBA. You don't even need to go beyond that single reason.

[Mirotic12]

Great game and congrats to Poland, but I cannot keep thinking how great and historical this win could have been if they pulled it out with Polish players and without your random american AJ Slaughter.

As for Slaughter, those who say he is not even good, well why is he on the team at all then?

Because Poland is around the 12th to 15th best European national team, in terms of their depth of players, and the quality of their best players. They are around a 3rd tier European national team, in terms if talent. So a EuroCup level (second tier league in Europe) player like Slaughter can help them.

It's that simple.

[og15]

Game was long enough. Slo recovered historically and then Pol recovered in the end aswell, they were the better team if considered everyone that was playing. Slo missed Zoran in fast breaks. Random is if someone makes random shot at the end of time and barely wins.

My point is Jokic, Giannis and Luca would easily beat Italy, Germany and Poland in a 7 game series. Hell even in a 5 game series. They will average a near 30p triple double because it's inevitable.

A random great/trash shooting night, or a bizzare bad night for a MVP caliber player or a completely wrong defensive plan from the coach can easily cause an upset. It's happening so many times in the game 1s in the NBA but teams have time to study or get over the bad luck and prevail. For me that's way better to witness.

Eurobasket was fun but I don't even care anymore who wins it now that all the MVPs are out. Spain and France could make the finals without even facing one of them in the knockouts.

Not necessarily. If they have to carry this heavy load, 7 games, there would be high risk of injury, probably their ball clubs even don't let stars to participate. Elimination game works cause of length of game. Star can showcase heavy minutes and still be decent in end of game. In a 48 min span the bench would play too important role and lesser the stars or starting fives impact. If you have off night then don't chuck threes, find a way. It's perfect for me.
It also works cause in EU, teams listen to coaches and they make in game adjustments. They don't have to wait for video room to convince players to make a change.

Lol, you think players don't listen in the NBA to make in game adjustments? that's not some EU thing.

That would negate the whole reality of all the comebacks that happen during the NBA season and teams who come out the next quarter, the next half, etc and adjust and win a game. Just because you adjust doesn't mean you will win with, sometimes your adjustment gets you to choose the gap, but the deficit is too much to overcome.

These tournaments are done as single elimination because there's generally no time to do much more. Single elimination is also more exciting for fans because there is less predictability. You have to be an overwhelming favorite to consistently win it all in single elimination. A team on a hot run can go far (further than expected) in single elimination. In series' style, even if it was a three game series, you win game 1 and the other team can get you in 2 and 3.

One game elimination in basketball, especially in basketball where 3PT shooting is a big...even bigger part like it is now, you can simply get outshot by a good but not better opponent. Of course if you are a really good and deep team, the opponent will need to be good enough to accomplish that.

[MrSparkle]

The eurobasket/fiba games have been a joy to watch for a while.

NBA manages to ruin basketball to a great degree. The late clock ref/FT/foul/timeout theatrics. The dozens of timeouts and TV timeouts. The tank jobs whose sole purpose is getting Ls for the season. The over-coddling of rookies (by certain franchises) who aren’t ready to be #1-2 options yet (thanks to tanking).

But the commercials and fluff-length of games really does it. About 2h45 to get through a 48m game?

At the end of the day, if you're up by 10 points with a minute left, you should probably win the game barre some total mental collapse or insane defense from the other side. So this business of slowing a minute down to a half-hour with fouls and getting your superstar a bunch of 3P looks out of timeouts (HALF-COURT PLAYS) - honestly, it's an infuriating adjustment to a great sport. And then about 90% of the game falls in the ref's hands, as they have to decide how many seconds were on the clock with each shot and in-bounds, what was and wasn't a shooting foul, etc. So stupid.

They should run the clock on the in-bounds, remove this preposterous half-court in-bounds freebie, and maybe not dish technical fouls right away, but maybe after the 2nd or 3rd intentional foul, do start awarding the offensive team a technical foul. Why not? What "sportsmanship" is there in an "intentional" foul? Turning the game into a golf take-turns match? Try to steal the ball cleanly. If you can't, then wah-wah - you lose for playing like crap for the previous 45 minutes.

[Hugi Mancura]

I understand that lot of people just cares individuals and you are made to believe you need superstar's to win, but that is not true in any of the basketball leagues around the world. In NBA maybe... Nice little stab against NBA... But reality is how NBA uses basketball rules makes superstars look better than they truly are compared to other players. They are better even in FIBA, but difference is smaller. That's why you don't need them to win. You can see this also in college basketball.

Giannis Greece team is not good enough to beat Italy or Germany in 7 games series, not with Fiba games. He doesn't have enough shooting around him, so it is very easy to build a tactic to beat that team. Slovenia is also too weak to beat Germany, Italy isn't that great so that would be a touch series. Only way Slovenia can beat Germany would be that Luka has 4 superman games, but that is never happening. You need your team mates to win. Serbia is very good team without Jokic, so they don't need him to win. He makes them better and thats why I think they probably would win 7 games series against any of the teams.

I truly believe that the last foul Doncic got would have never been called in NBA playoff game, if that would have been his sixth foul. NBA protects their stars so much that they sometimes do change the result of the game. Reason why NBA protects their star's are people like you. Casual fan who doesn't care about teams, just want to watch stars. They know fan of a team will show up no matter who plays in the team, but they also know that casual fans care only superstar's, so they have build this frame which makes sure these superstars get what they want. But FIBA doesn't care about this. They know majority of the world are team supporters, so building a system that makes casual fan happy is unnecessary.

NBA protect the stars, absolutely, but all of the big 3 dominated the tournament, it took a historic night by their opponent (and in Luka's case a very bad game by him) to beat them, that's the beauty of it, Slovenia was good in 17' but there were better teams that lost because of the knockout.
P.S. the last foul on Luka would've been whistled everywhere, it's the tech he got that was stupid, he simply said he traveled while smiling, and they gave him a tech also Luka drove a lot and was defended very physically, and didn't get a single foul.
France was a much better team in the Olympics than Slovenia, but good effort by the Slovenes, few mistakes by the French down the stretch and it took Batum blocking a game winning layup to advance to the finals.

Original message was about Jokic, Giannis and Luca beating Germany, Italy and Poland. Mine message was a counter that Germany and Italy would beat Greece and Slovenia. I won't disagree Slovenia or Serbia or Greece beating Poland 4 times in 7 games. I just forgot to add that part to mine message.

Define domination? If whole team tries to make one player look like a superstar, he will look like a superstar. Vezenkov and Markkanen looked like a superstar. They were treated same way by their team mates as what Giannis, Luka and Jokic were and they put up similar numbers. If team wants someone to look like a superstar they can do it. Is that domination? You can call it that if you want, but then you probably need to add those two to the list of players who dominated Eurobasket, even though all of those 5 are out from the competition.

I still claim that the last foul Luka did would not have been called in NBA playoffs. I have seen so many similar fouls getting through in the history of NBA by a superstar or by a player who is playing in a team that's behind. Is it a foul in NBA, yes. But something to be a foul and referee calling it is two different things. But in honestly we can't know and we will never know, because it happened in Eurobasket and not in NBA.

[Salieri]

When we have some star players participating, I do believe those FIBA tournaments are the superior basketball product. Easily better than the NBA, and I can list about 10 reasons.

Having said that, the reason why those stars are not in Europe is because America loves the game more, pays for it more, and therefore deserves them. Europe can suck it, they don't deserve great players. Shame but it is what it is, it's soccer country.

I can’t get all the way there with you that it’s a superior product, but it’s definitely a flavor of basketball I love.

When Giannis gets back home to Milwaukee he’s going to miss the atmosphere created by the Greek fans but be grateful for his NBA teammates and coaches.

Just the fact that FIBA has real reffing and a real sports competition, rather than the entertainment WWE style "narrative" show that the NBA is, just that alone, makes FIBA the far superior product to the NBA. You don't even need to go beyond that single reason.

You've been peddling this nonsense for around 8 pages already, thirsting for a reply from anyone. Do you think people not responding means they missed your posts? Or could it be that they chose to ignore such a stupid narrative? Which one do you think is the correct answer, Mr. 197 IQ?

The superior product is where the superior players are. Period. Full stop. End of sentence. If you don't believe me, go watch any international basketball tournament where USA competes. The level of dominance they display is something no country can emulate at any major sport. If you pick european football, for example, you need to take Germany, Brazil and Argentina COMBINED to reach levels close to the dominance the US has historically shown. And why do you think is that? Because they're "lucky"? Because they're cheaters and they pay off the refs? Or could it be because they're used to compete in the absolutely best basketball competition in the planet?

Any other factor, literally ANYTHING else, comes way behind the players. Basketball is a sport, meaning the athletes are the ones determining the quality of the competition. You can have the absolute best refs ever born at your disposal, but nobody is interested in watching you and your friends playing against your ex and her friends, for example.

Do you not enjoy the NBA format where rules are offensively skewed? Fine. Feel free to never watch any NBA game, and feel free to not engage with NBA fans, especially if your only motivation is to taunt and irritate them.

But claiming that FIBA has better refs than NBA is laughably stupid. A person can only think that if that person has never bothered to watch a handful of NBA games, which is an obvious deduction, seeing you seething and hating everything NBA with all your heart.

NBA refs are better than FIBA refs. You not liking the rulebook they apply and preferring FIBA style is a completely different conversation. That much should be obvious to anyone of average intelligence. Why is it such a nebulous concept to you?

Claiming that the NBA champion is "predetermined", as you have claimed before, is borderline taunting and trolling the entire forum. That statement, combined with the rest of your narrative driven drivel, leaves no doubt as to your intentions.

So next time there's a FIBA tournament that you will watch -at this point it's obvious you've never watched an NBA game and have no intention to do so-, come here and praise as many players, coaches and teams as you want. Crap on others, if it pleases you. But we'd all appreciate it if you could please refrain from taking shots at the NBA just because you personally don't like it. This was NOT an NBA tournament, so every single time you've brought up or mentioned the NBA, it was a textbook derailing. And with that agenda of yours, pretty much everyone can see why.

The only argument you've wielded where I agreed with you is claiming that a best of 7 series isn't inherently superior to a best of 1 elimination games. But as expected, other posters made that same argument with much less condescension, less irritating tone and much more rationality.

And keep in mind, this is coming from a spaniard who is enjoying the Eurobasket as the highlight of the summer, but I'm not crippled by a massive inferiority complex that forces me to make up fallacious narratives to defend "our product". Not everybody posting in this thread can say the same, if you catch my drift.

[Beorn]

Don't bother replying to him please, we know who he is and what he does, both here and in other forums in the past. Let's just ignore him posts, he won't go away but he will find less excuses to express his comic opinions

[Furinkazan]

Watch on YouTube

Im asking how such player can be overlooked by nba scouts,...for years...
Its not like this is some one game amazing stuff he pulled off
previous championships Fiba 2019 great performances all around...
and earlier also

and now another one > Balcerowski
he was in this draft...
nobody even looked at him...no mentions nothing ...
like he is a scrub not even worthy of mention :>
btw he also can hit a 3 point shot

Watch on YouTube

srsly this guy wasnt worth being taken at around 50TH+?

[Chuck Diesel]

I’ve always loved Ponitka. Definitely worth a two-way at the very least. He came to summer league years ago and rebounded like crazy but I’m not sure if he ever hit a shot. With the success of journeyman with unique skill sets like GP2 finally breaking through in their late 20’s I’d think someone would take a flyer on Ponitka. Kind of a Polish Pat Connaughton with worse shooting and better vision.

[Taikuri]

This just got uploaded and there was no footage of this on youtube before this date. Lauri Markkanen scored 42 points in an OT game against Ukraine. I figured that this has something to do with Eurobasket, as both of these teams made it to the playoffs of Eurobasket.

This game was played a month ago. It was Finland's and Ukraine's final preparation game before the World Cup qualifier window. Both teams had nearly full squads. Finland was just missing Olivier Nkamhoua and Nkamhoua also missed the Eurobasket because of his NCAA team Tennessee refusing to let him go.

Watch on YouTube

[UcanUwill]

I’ve always loved Ponitka. Definitely worth a two-way at the very least. He came to summer league years ago and rebounded like crazy but I’m not sure if he ever hit a shot. With the success of journeyman with unique skill sets like GP2 finally breaking through in their late 20’s I’d think someone would take a flyer on Ponitka. Kind of a Polish Pat Connaughton with worse shooting and better vision.

Even bad shooter Ponitka is pretty good Euro player, if he can hit those shots, dude is just flat out star. But as I said, is he a good NBA fit? he doesnt have talent to be on ball, and hes really best on ball. As stated many times, you arent finding NBA stars who aren't in NBA, thats just not happening, you are looking at role players, and you need to be sure they have role player skills. That is why to me it is so crazy guys like Kyle Kuric never played in the NBA, dude was argubly the best off ball catch and shooter there is, any team on earth would fine use of that.
Guys like Ponitka I love, but I always look at those with skepticism. To me guys like Kuric, matured Chris Singleton seemed like they were more NBA material.

[Chuck Diesel]

I’ve always loved Ponitka. Definitely worth a two-way at the very least. He came to summer league years ago and rebounded like crazy but I’m not sure if he ever hit a shot. With the success of journeyman with unique skill sets like GP2 finally breaking through in their late 20’s I’d think someone would take a flyer on Ponitka. Kind of a Polish Pat Connaughton with worse shooting and better vision.

Even bad shooter Ponitka is pretty good Euro player, if he can hit those shots, dude is just flat out star. But as I said, is he a good NBA fit? he doesnt have talent to be on ball, and hes really best on ball. As stated many times, you arent finding NBA stars who aren't in NBA, thats just not happening, you are looking at role players, and you need to be sure they have role player skills. That is why to me it is so crazy guys like Kyle Kuric never played in the NBA, dude was argubly the best off ball catch and shooter there is, any team on earth would fine use of that.
Guys like Ponitka I love, but I always look at those with skepticism. To me guys like Kuric, matured Chris Singleton seemed like they were more NBA material.

In general I agree with you. You have to be really **** good to deserve the ball in your hands in the NBA as a non shooter, and that is where Ponitka thrives. But I think in the right situation he could bring enough as a secondary playmaker, cutter, rebounder and general facilitator to contribute to a rotation. Guys with his competitiveness, passing and strength who play bigger than they are are often a smart bet. I’d also hit him with the dreaded “sneaky athletic” label that a lot of white guys complain about but is often true.

[Taikuri]

Slaughter is embracing his polish journay he is definetly part of the team. He makes us proud more than player who would have some connections but didnt put his heart into it.
He definetly has polish heart.

In my opinion that's a weird way to look at things, but you are free to express your opinion on the internet. Maybe it's a little bit biased opinion not see what Slaughter truly is. It's time to wake up.

If Slaughter chose to play for another country than Poland, he would make that country proud as well and in that case he could have a Croatian or Bosnian heart for example, if those countries hired him before Poland. He is a mercenary and had no connection to Poland before joining to play for Poland. He is getting salary to play for Poland and that's that. Slaughter is happy to be paid. It's his job to play for Poland and for his club team. I can only imagine where Poland would be without Slaughter. Poland would have a massive point guard problem without him.

[UcanUwill]

Top 5 individual performances from quarter-finals

#1 Mateusz Ponitka (POL) : 26 points (8/17 FG : 5/13 3PT : 5/6 FT); 16 rebounds ; 10 assists ; 3 steals (41 EFF)
#2 Lauri Markkanen (FIN) : 28 points (10/17 FG : 2/5 3PT : 6/7 FT); 11 rebounds ; 3 assists ; 2 steals (35 EFF)
#3 Giannis Antetokounmpo (GRE) : 31 points (13/22 FG : 1/5 3PT : 4/8 FT); 7 rebounds ; 8 assists ; 3 steals (31 EFF)
#4 Rudy Gobert (FRA) : 19 points (8/11 FG : 0/1 3PT : 3/4 FT); 14 rebounds ; 2 assists ; 1 steal (28 EFF)
#5 Willy Hernangomez (SPA) : 27 points (10/13 FG : 0/0 3PT : 7/8 FT); 5 rebounds ; 1 block (28 EFF)

Bracket :

[Taikuri]

I agree Germany are favorite against Spain. However, Schroder will be facing Díaz, not just Brown, and I could see Díaz frustrating him. And I could also see Willy getting Germany's bigs in foul trouble (a man can hope).

Anyway, I expect another exciting game, loving the tournament this year.

Yeah I didn't mean that they would guard each other. I meant it as a pure offensive game comparison.

[Taikuri]

Those were definitely the two biggest upsets. Of course Jokic has greater talent around him, but Slovenia just looked like such a beast as a mechanism. To me, Polish game was bigger upset, because even though I expected Serbia to beat Italy easily, but I envision possibility of an even game. I had no expectations at all that Poles would even come this close. I thought I will boot Elden ring and just commentary in a background, but nope, it was an insane game, and to me, a crazier upset.

Well I watched Poland closely, because they were in the same group as my team Finland, so it wasn't that shocking for me. I did think that Ukraine would beat Poland, because Ukraine was underrated during the tournament. I learned about Ukraine's level in the Finland-Ukraine practice match a month ago, when both teams dressed almost their best squads and that felt like more than just a practice game.

So Poland showed that they are capable of beating Slovenia when they took out a good and solid Ukraine. It did require for Doncic to be banged up and because rest of the Slovenian squad isn't that good, that was the result. We did see Slovenia without Luka strugling a lot in the World Cup qualifiers and even with Luka Slovenia struggled against Sweden in the World Cup qualifiers. It's however weird how well Slovenia played against very good teams in group B and then they struggle with the likes of Sweden. Poland benefitted too much of Luka's injury in my opinion.

[UcanUwill]

I’ve always loved Ponitka. Definitely worth a two-way at the very least. He came to summer league years ago and rebounded like crazy but I’m not sure if he ever hit a shot. With the success of journeyman with unique skill sets like GP2 finally breaking through in their late 20’s I’d think someone would take a flyer on Ponitka. Kind of a Polish Pat Connaughton with worse shooting and better vision.

Even bad shooter Ponitka is pretty good Euro player, if he can hit those shots, dude is just flat out star. But as I said, is he a good NBA fit? he doesnt have talent to be on ball, and hes really best on ball. As stated many times, you arent finding NBA stars who aren't in NBA, thats just not happening, you are looking at role players, and you need to be sure they have role player skills. That is why to me it is so crazy guys like Kyle Kuric never played in the NBA, dude was argubly the best off ball catch and shooter there is, any team on earth would fine use of that.
Guys like Ponitka I love, but I always look at those with skepticism. To me guys like Kuric, matured Chris Singleton seemed like they were more NBA material.

In general I agree with you. You have to be really **** good to deserve the ball in your hands in the NBA as a non shooter, and that is where Ponitka thrives. But I think in the right situation he could bring enough as a secondary playmaker, cutter, rebounder and general facilitator to contribute to a rotation. Guys with his competitiveness, passing and strength who play bigger than they are are often a smart bet. I’d also hit him with the dreaded “sneaky athletic” label that a lot of white guys complain about but is often true.

I always been a bit pessimistic about this topic, because we have seen so many good Euros look so bad in the NBA. The latest and most relevant is Facu, not European, but I mean Euroleague star. He was so good, but at NBA level dude is terrible, I really believed in him, but the big difference, is that everyone in the NBA can handle the ball pretty much, you will watch Nuggets game, and Barton will grab defensive rebound and he will just bring the ball, maybe even try play pick and roll or try to score himself. Other time it will be Gordon, etc. So Facu will just be iced for numerous possessions, because what he can do is not special anymore. I imagine Ponitka would find the same fate, it is just such a huge gap between overall talent. Being such a good ball handler and creator is great and unique in Europe, but in the NBA, everyone is basically that, we forget how good these players are, especially NBA ones. Being a good ball handler and creator is not unique in the NBA, being top 10 in the world at that is unique. That is why guys like Spanoulis, Jasikevicius, Facu, Milos, failed, there is nothing special about them at NBA level for them to warrant playmkaing duties. Meanwhile Theis, Kleber, found their place, all they needed to do is to play D and hit a shot, they aren't stealing any of that USG% from them stars.
And speaking of them stars and USG%, they are so good now, that even really great Euro players like Valanciunas can actually be addition by subtraction in this NBA. 2 years ago, Valanciunas was probably the best Memphis player, he wasnt bad, but they still got rid of him, and instead of using those possessions to post him up, they gave all those possessions to Ja who was far improved, and look at Memphis now, they instantly became better. Maybe Ja and Memphis would be just as good with Valanciunas, but thats questionable at this point. The point, this is the league that has Ja, CP3, Booker, Luka, I just dont think they bringing Ponitka to run plays for their team, it is just not happening.

[Chuck Diesel]

Even bad shooter Ponitka is pretty good Euro player, if he can hit those shots, dude is just flat out star. But as I said, is he a good NBA fit? he doesnt have talent to be on ball, and hes really best on ball. As stated many times, you arent finding NBA stars who aren't in NBA, thats just not happening, you are looking at role players, and you need to be sure they have role player skills. That is why to me it is so crazy guys like Kyle Kuric never played in the NBA, dude was argubly the best off ball catch and shooter there is, any team on earth would fine use of that.
Guys like Ponitka I love, but I always look at those with skepticism. To me guys like Kuric, matured Chris Singleton seemed like they were more NBA material.

In general I agree with you. You have to be really **** good to deserve the ball in your hands in the NBA as a non shooter, and that is where Ponitka thrives. But I think in the right situation he could bring enough as a secondary playmaker, cutter, rebounder and general facilitator to contribute to a rotation. Guys with his competitiveness, passing and strength who play bigger than they are are often a smart bet. I’d also hit him with the dreaded “sneaky athletic” label that a lot of white guys complain about but is often true.

I always been a bit pessimistic about this topic, because we have seen so many good Euros look so bad in the NBA. The latest and most relevant is Facu, not European, but I mean Euroleague star. He was so good, but at NBA level dude is terrible, I really believed in him, but the big difference, is that everyone in the NBA can handle the ball pretty much, you will watch Nuggets game, and Barton will grab defensive rebound and he will just bring the ball, maybe even try play pick and roll or try to score himself. Other time it will be Gordon, etc. So Facu will just be iced for numerous possessions, because what he can do is not special anymore. I imagine Ponitka would find the same fate, it is just such a huge gap between overall talent. Being such a good ball handler and creator is great and unique in Europe, but in the NBA, everyone is basically that, we forget how good these players are, especially NBA ones. Being a good ball handler and creator is not unique in the NBA, being top 10 in the world at that is unique. That is why guys like Spanoulis, Jasikevicius, Facu, Milos, failed, there is nothing special about them at NBA level for them to warrant playmkaing duties. Meanwhile Theis, Kleber, found their place, all they needed to do is to play D and hit a shot, they aren't stealing any of that USG% from them stars.
And speaking of them stars and USG%, they are so good now, that even really great Euro players like Valanciunas can actually be addition by subtraction in this NBA. 2 years ago, Valanciunas was probably the best Memphis player, he wasnt bad, but they still got rid of him, and instead of using those possessions to post him up, they gave all those possessions to Ja who was far improved, and look at Memphis now, they instantly became better. Maybe Ja and Memphis would be just as good with Valanciunas, but thats questionable at this point. The point, this is the league that has Ja, CP3, Booker, Luka, I just dont think they bringing Ponitka to run plays for their team, it is just not happening.

Again, I’m mostly in agreement. I’ve always said if Luke Ridnour had been born Lukas Ridnauskas they’d have statues of him all over Lithuania. I actually thought about Campazzo in relation to Pontika, but I’d hope the Pole’s height would set him apart. You could be right, but I always like to see both NBA teams and international veterans take the chance just to be sure. Not many people thought Joe Ingles would have the career he did, and he took a huge risk coming over on a non guaranteed training camp invite back in the day. There are still gems that can be polished to shine in the right situation. Takes a little gamble from both sides.

[lambchop]

I liked the two game format with point differential breaking the tie.
One game is not enough, 7 is too many.

Sent from my M2101K6G using Tapatalk

for the fun of it, it should be the same for every competition, doing twice the competition to make sure the favorite has the chance to show up

Like doing 2 100m athetic race in the olympics and the gold goes for the guy who sprinted the fastest on both races.
Etc

It's funny how I consider the basketball playoff system totally normal, but applying a best of 7 series to something like sprints, tennis, boxing or even soccer would be absolutely horrible.

[UcanUwill]

Again, I’m mostly in agreement. I’ve always said if Luke Ridnour had been born Lukas Ridnauskas they’d have statues of him all over Lithuania. I actually thought about Campazzo in relation to Pontika, but I’d hope the Pole’s height would set him apart. You could be right, but I always like to see both NBA teams and international veterans take the chance just to be sure. Not many people thought Joe Ingles would have the career he did, and he took a huge risk coming over on a non guaranteed training camp invite back in the day. There are still gems that can be polished to shine in the right situation. Takes a little gamble from both sides.

Yeah, I love any time Euroleague guy makes a jump to the NBA, and I support them all. It is contradictory, but I would love to see that more often, but I also want Euroleague to get stronger. To me, it is always exiting to see how Euroleague guy will do in the NBA, and vice versa, always fun to see NBA guy come to top Euro team.

I thought many times of Joe Ingles and Danny Green, they prove how much sheer luck where you land, and other factors that arent actual player's talent level have to do with who succeeds in the NBA and who doesn't. Joe Ingles was cut by Doc, Danny Green was cut from post Decision CAVS. He already had a deal with Euro team, but Spurs gave him invite and 2 years later he always won Finals MVP. Makes you wonder how many NBA washouts really had in them to be more than just relevant, but they just never got a fair chance. Like, how come prime Macijauskas couldn't play in the NBA, but man landed on a team that was run a dumbbutt who in 2021 does not yet know Yugoslavia is not a country anymore. Imagine if Macijauskas landed on Pops team instead, we are talking about completely different career.
Same with Spanoulis for example, people like like to dunk on Spanoulis now, hes like a punchline, and yeah, he never had enough talent to be a star, but you really think Spanoulis couldn't figure out to be NBA player, I mean come on.