Pachinko_ wrote:It doesn't matter what he did in Europe, because the people who make the draft decisions don't understand Europe anyway, hence Luka didn't go #1 even though he was the most obvious #1 since Lebron.
Wemby's team came to America for exhibition games to show off their prospect, Luka's team didn't, that's what made the difference and none of it matters anyway. What matters is how much butt he can kick in the future, and in that regard he is in the same tier as Luka.
If we go by age 16, age 17, age 18, and age 19 performance (so far at least for age 19), all things considered, Luka was clearly the better player at all of those ages. However, if we go by the obvious talent level at said time, then at age 19, Wemby is above Luka.
And yeah, the NBA draft process and evaluation of players in Europe is absolutely ridiculous and it's basically childlike. Wemby played as a solid role player in EuroLeague at age 18, and he was being viewed as an "interesting prospect". Wemby plays as probably like one of the three best players in the top level French League (Nando De Colo and Mike James James would still be better players in EuroLeague), at age 19, and honestly, the NBA isn't even really interested in that at all - it's focus is mainly in the background and secondary to a couple of G-League games.
Which leads to, on the other hand, Wemby plays two games against the G-League, and the NBA goes wild, and also so does US sports media. Wemby was barely even discussed or mentioned in US sports media before those G-League games, and then all of a sudden, after just two G-League games, he's the most talked about and hyped prospect probably ever, or maybe at least since Kareem. All from playing two games against a G-League team that would lose every game in EuroLeague if it played there, going 0-34, and getting blown out probably in every single game.
That combined with Luka going 3rd in the draft is all the proof we need that the NBA is incredibly incompetent and totally ignorant when it comes to anything at all related to European basketball. They have absolutely no clue about it whatsoever.
And the US sports media is even worse. US sports media covers European basketball like it's something taking place on another planet. It's actually totally bizarre how they can't even get the most basic concepts and facts about it right. Like how for many years we heard at the NBA draft, at every single draft, how they thought the EuroLeague was the same exact league as the Spanish League and vice versa, and how they couldn't understand that the EuroLeague was a separate competition, and that it was a clearly better and higher level than the Spanish League. They couldn't even get that right for years and years and years, and then finally, just in like the last couple drafts, someone at the network (maybe an ex player from Europe) must have told them to stop saying that stuff, because of how absurd, clownish, and childish it made them look in Europe.
Or how in NBA games the announcers will often talk about how almost every single player that came from Europe was the EuroLeague MVP, including guys that never won EuroLeague MVP, and even including guys that never even played in EuroLeague. If you go by what is said in NBA games, then there must have been like 150 different players win EuroLeague MVP. Or how they are almost always claiming that every single draft pick from Europe "dominated" in Europe or "EuroLeague". They will make such claims for draft picks that were average role players in junior level high school and college age competitions, or in 3rd tier, 4th tier, or even lower level club competitions in Europe. Or maybe the best one of all, that is so very commonly claimed, the whole "NCAA players or G-League players that weren't good enough to make the NBA, go to EuroLeague and totally dominate." When the reality is, that no such player ever even existed - an American player from the NCAA/G-League that couldn't make an NBA roster if they really wanted to, and that "totally dominated EuroLeague". There are a grand total of zero such examples in history of that ever actually happening. Some of the stuff is just bizarre and like a parody.
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