Chicago Bulls select Noa Essengue - #12 overall

[JohnnyKILLroy]

weirdly encouraged by how comfortable buzelis seems to be stepping into the Face Of The Franchise role already

i know it doesn't actually mean anything but in my head it's like...ok the spotlight/pressure isn't going to be a thing that holds him back. (plus i just think he's neat)

He's cocky and frankly a little arrogant. I suspect he probably does already think of it as his team. And of course those are perfectly fine traits in a professional athlete who can actually back it up. I think he will back it up. He's the only post-2000 Bulls prospect other than Derrick Rose who you look at and see "franchise player" as a realistic stop on the developmental curve. Now we've had highly talented guys (definitions vary, I realize) bust, like Tyrus Thomas and potentially Pat, and we've had guys become franchise players out of nowhere - Jimmy and to some extent Noah. But even with the more "talented" ones you were saying they could be really good, in theory, if everything goes right. That's not what I see with Matas. I see a guy who is on an arc that ends in franchise player, and that you can say it without it sounding nuts or an outrageous stretch. Still unlikely? Of course. That's true of everyone except the real generational freaks like LeBron or Wemby. But its entirely plausible. Like, its something a fan of another team would say.

Exactly where I’m at.

Buz wants to be the best and he believes he can. He will start to do it on the court and it will go from believe I can to believe I will.

I’m here for it.

Hoping Noa has that same demeanor.

Exactly why I don’t want cancerous divas like Kuminga taking any of their minutes and or setting a bad example in any way.

[burlydee]

He's cocky and frankly a little arrogant. I suspect he probably does already think of it as his team. And of course those are perfectly fine traits in a professional athlete who can actually back it up. I think he will back it up. He's the only post-2000 Bulls prospect other than Derrick Rose who you look at and see "franchise player" as a realistic stop on the developmental curve. Now we've had highly talented guys (definitions vary, I realize) bust, like Tyrus Thomas and potentially Pat, and we've had guys become franchise players out of nowhere - Jimmy and to some extent Noah. But even with the more "talented" ones you were saying they could be really good, in theory, if everything goes right. That's not what I see with Matas. I see a guy who is on an arc that ends in franchise player, and that you can say it without it sounding nuts or an outrageous stretch. Still unlikely? Of course. That's true of everyone except the real generational freaks like LeBron or Wemby. But its entirely plausible. Like, its something a fan of another team would say.

Exactly where I’m at.

Buz wants to be the best and he believes he can. He will start to do it on the court and it will go from believe I can to believe I will.

I’m here for it.

Hoping Noa has that same demeanor.

Exactly why I don’t want cancerous divas like Kuminga taking any of their minutes and or setting a bad example in any way.

Seems a little harsh. No reason to think Kuminga is a cancer.

[JohnnyKILLroy]

Exactly where I’m at.

Buz wants to be the best and he believes he can. He will start to do it on the court and it will go from believe I can to believe I will.

I’m here for it.

Hoping Noa has that same demeanor.

Exactly why I don’t want cancerous divas like Kuminga taking any of their minutes and or setting a bad example in any way.

Seems a little harsh. No reason to think Kuminga is a cancer.

Thinks too highly of himself and is a chucker who wants the ball in his hands and isn’t cut out for GS basketball because he’s too dumb.

Keep all of that away from our kids

[burlydee]

Exactly why I don’t want cancerous divas like Kuminga taking any of their minutes and or setting a bad example in any way.

Seems a little harsh. No reason to think Kuminga is a cancer.

Thinks too highly of himself and is a chucker who wants the ball in his hands and isn’t cut out for GS basketball because he’s too dumb.

Keep all of that away from our kids

Yeah, none of that seems true.

[JohnnyKILLroy]

Seems a little harsh. No reason to think Kuminga is a cancer.

Thinks too highly of himself and is a chucker who wants the ball in his hands and isn’t cut out for GS basketball because he’s too dumb.

Keep all of that away from our kids

Yeah, none of that seems true.

In theory he can do everything they need from him and they are starving for someone who can and Kerr sat him because he’s too dumb to know his role.

[jnrjr79]

Its ridiculously impressive given English is like one of the hardest languages to learn given the nuance. So when people can sound natural it really is amazing.

I’ve been super impressed with that too.

Everyone I encountered in Europe speaks English well and easily and it’s often in the curriculum at a very early age.

In my experience, there is a lot of variance based upon age and geography. Definitely more younger people speak it, some countries are adept (there is a joke that I read in a travel book about the Netherlands that was something like, "don't worry, the Dutch speak English better than you do," and that was consistent with my experience there). And there can definitely be an urban/rural divide. I've had plenty of experiences in rural France where people don't speak English, but I find most do reasonably well in Paris, and certainly in the touristy areas. Funnily, I've actually had more people struggle with it in Quebec City than you'd expect.

I would have some insight I went to school in Germany for a year. I also have a lot of German family my aunts and uncles even learned some in school and all my cousins are pretty fluent for learning it academically.

Funnily, Germany is where I had one particularly difficult language experience. I find almost all younger people there speak English, but my wife and I broke down on the Autobahn once and were totally unable to communicate with our older tow truck driver. When he confirmed he didn't speak English, I asked him if he spoke French, and he looked at me like it was the stupidest question he'd ever been asked and chucked "nein, nein."

Luckily I was able to call a German friend to translate on the phone.

And being trilingual and English is definitely the easiest to learn. Piece of cake actually. Germans have 3 words for “the” and no logical way to know which is right you just have to memorize all of them. That’s bananas.

Ha, I had no idea.

My brother speaks Mandarin and Japanese. He says once you get the characters down, from a grammatical standpoint, it's easy to learn because there are hard-and-fast rules and basically no exceptions, so you're not having to memorize "quirks."

Anyway, I'll stop derailing the thread with today's edition of Language Talk.

[The Box Office]

If Noa can miraculously become anything near a Scottie Pippen type level player then we hit a grand slam. Then again that would take 3-4 years to see if that happens. A lot of patience is needed.

[JohnnyKILLroy]

I’ve been super impressed with that too.

Everyone I encountered in Europe speaks English well and easily and it’s often in the curriculum at a very early age.

In my experience, there is a lot of variance based upon age and geography. Definitely more younger people speak it, some countries are adept (there is a joke that I read in a travel book about the Netherlands that was something like, "don't worry, the Dutch speak English better than you do," and that was consistent with my experience there). And there can definitely be an urban/rural divide. I've had plenty of experiences in rural France where people don't speak English, but I find most do reasonably well in Paris, and certainly in the touristy areas. Funnily, I've actually had more people struggle with it in Quebec City than you'd expect.

I would have some insight I went to school in Germany for a year. I also have a lot of German family my aunts and uncles even learned some in school and all my cousins are pretty fluent for learning it academically.

Funnily, Germany is where I had one particularly difficult language experience. I find almost all younger people there speak English, but my wife and I broke down on the Autobahn once and were totally unable to communicate with our older tow truck driver. When he confirmed he didn't speak English, I asked him if he spoke French, and he looked at me like it was the stupidest question he'd ever been asked and chucked "nein, nein."

Luckily I was able to call a German friend to translate on the phone.

And being trilingual and English is definitely the easiest to learn. Piece of cake actually. Germans have 3 words for “the” and no logical way to know which is right you just have to memorize all of them. That’s bananas.

Ha, I had no idea.

My brother speaks Mandarin and Japanese. He says once you get the characters down, from a grammatical standpoint, it's easy to learn because there are hard-and-fast rules and basically no exceptions, so you're not having to memorize "quirks."

Anyway, I'll stop derailing the thread with today's edition of Language Talk.

Quebec is crazy I remember as kid signs in English were crossed out.

My family is from a part of Germany where dialect is harsh and hard to understand for many Germans. People say I speak German like an 80 year old Schwabian farmer. I think it would be the equivalent to deep Appalachian hillbilly English ? Maybe deep southern English That’s crazy hard to understand.

Rural vs city is definitely a huge difference

The Scandinavians definitely speak English bettter than we do

[GoBlue72391]

As a big tennis fan, I am always impressed at watching players learn English so well, so fast. I'd love to see some sort of feature on what athletes do to study and learn it. English isn't an easy language for non-native speakers.

I disagree.. English is one of the easiest languages to learn, easier than French, German, Spanish, Russian etc

Hard for me to say. I'm a native English speaker, but speak French/majored in French in college/studied in France. I find remembering the genders of nouns to be pretty annoying, but I'm not sure I otherwise find French more difficult. Of course, I can't really say since I didn't have to learn English as a second language.

I took some French in college and my native French professor said English is one of the easiest to learn. That could be a 'varies from person to person' thing, though.

[molepharmer]

I disagree.. English is one of the easiest languages to learn, easier than French, German, Spanish, Russian etc

Hard for me to say. I'm a native English speaker, but speak French/majored in French in college/studied in France. I find remembering the genders of nouns to be pretty annoying, but I'm not sure I otherwise find French more difficult. Of course, I can't really say since I didn't have to learn English as a second language.

I took some French in college and my native French professor said English is one of the easiest to learn. That could be a 'varies from person to person' thing, though.

del

[Ctownbulls]

Another one.

https://youtu.be/O4-dtfNLwRM?si=x5Cew9DCpcjbpTyp

The more I hear from him the more I think he has the same mentality as Buz.

Agreed, but can't deny that leaving his team during the championship is kind of a bitch move.

I want to believe he has that same "mentality" but it's hard for me to get over that right now.

Sent from my Pixel 9 using Tapatalk

That's tough, man... all those kids are trying to accomplish what he did this year. By all accounts, he was given permission by the coaches.

I can't fault him for living out his dream.

Living out his dream? He was going to get drafted irrespective...

[Ctownbulls]

Another one.

https://youtu.be/O4-dtfNLwRM?si=x5Cew9DCpcjbpTyp

The more I hear from him the more I think he has the same mentality as Buz.

Agreed, but can't deny that leaving his team during the championship is kind of a bitch move.

I can deny that with ease and don’t think it says a single thing about him positive or negative. Whatever he becomes will have absolutely zero to do with an 18 year old kid deciding he’d like to experience the fulfillment of his lifelong dream in person. Frankly this criticism, which I’ve seen before, kind of pisses me off a little bit.

I think we are only defending it because he is on the Bulls. If the Knicks drafted him the board would be laughing at how they took a guy who abandoned his team in the finals.

[DuckIII]

Agreed, but can't deny that leaving his team during the championship is kind of a bitch move.

I can deny that with ease and don’t think it says a single thing about him positive or negative. Whatever he becomes will have absolutely zero to do with an 18 year old kid deciding he’d like to experience the fulfillment of his lifelong dream in person. Frankly this criticism, which I’ve seen before, kind of pisses me off a little bit.

I think we are only defending it because he is on the Bulls. If the Knicks drafted him the board would be laughing at how they took a guy who abandoned his team in the finals.

I'm not. Its laughable that any fan of any team would make a negative character decision (he's a "bitch") on an 18 year old because he decided to attend his professional sports draft in person.

I'll call it a meathead stupid ass opinion every time I see it. Its absurd to say that about a kid just for wanting to be present when his lifelong dream is fulfilled. Imagine me giving a big fat middle finger to any post that ever says that about any player in any sport.

Maybe he'll dog it like Pat. Maybe he'll be an energizer bunny like Javonte. But whatever he is, it won't have a damn thing to do with him attending his own draft to enjoy the singular mind blowing experience of a lifetime that only about 25 people in the entire human race get to have each year.

[Guru]

I can deny that with ease and don’t think it says a single thing about him positive or negative. Whatever he becomes will have absolutely zero to do with an 18 year old kid deciding he’d like to experience the fulfillment of his lifelong dream in person. Frankly this criticism, which I’ve seen before, kind of pisses me off a little bit.

I think we are only defending it because he is on the Bulls. If the Knicks drafted him the board would be laughing at how they took a guy who abandoned his team in the finals.

I'm not. Its laughable that any fan of any team would make a negative character decision (he's a "bitch") on an 18 year old because he decided to attend his professional sports draft in person.

I'll call it a meathead stupid ass opinion every time I see it. Its absurd to say that about a kid just for wanting to be present when his lifelong dream is fulfilled. Imagine me giving a big fat middle finger to any post that ever says that about any player in any sport.

Maybe he'll dog it like Pat. Maybe he'll be an energizer bunny like Javonte. But whatever he is, it won't have a damn thing to do with him attending his own draft to enjoy the singular mind blowing experience of a lifetime that only about 25 people in the entire human race get to have each year.

Its undeniably lame to leave your team during the finals. It probably will have nothing to do with his success or lack there ofm but, if he were my teammate and we were in the finals and he missed it for a celebration. Thats very lame. It would have looked much cooler if they had to go live to Germany where he was with his teammates and they all celebrated his success together. This is a bit of "his own teammates didn't go to his birthday party" situation.

[GoBlue72391]

I don't care about Essengue skipping his team's games for the draft.

It's not much different from college football players skipping bowl games to preserve themselves for the draft, which was unheard of a decade ago. I hate that though, as a CFB fan.

Loyalty in sports is a thing of the past. Nowadays it's every man for himself and everyone is buddy buddy, no rivalries. These guys are just a different generation with an entirely different mindset.

Transfer portal, NIL, etc. It's just different nowadays.

If I was a German league fan or fan of his team I would care, but I'm not so it means nothing to me.

[samwana]

Its ridiculously impressive given English is like one of the hardest languages to learn given the nuance. So when people can sound natural it really is amazing.

I’ve been super impressed with that too.

Everyone I encountered in Europe speaks English well and easily and it’s often in the curriculum at a very early age.

I would have some insight I went to school in Germany for a year. I also have a lot of German family my aunts and uncles even learned some in school and all my cousins are pretty fluent for learning it academically.

And being trilingual and English is definitely the easiest to learn. Piece of cake actually. Germans have 3 words for “the” and no logical way to know which is right you just have to memorize all of them. That’s bananas.

I learned English, German and French as a foreign language (dutch is my native language) and because English us everywhere, movies, TV shows, sports, etc it was very easy to learn. I guess Noa spoke English in Ulm with his team, so he is used to it. Basketball English isn't too complicated. But yes respect for speaking a foreign language easy.

[jnrjr79]

I’ve been super impressed with that too.

Everyone I encountered in Europe speaks English well and easily and it’s often in the curriculum at a very early age.

I would have some insight I went to school in Germany for a year. I also have a lot of German family my aunts and uncles even learned some in school and all my cousins are pretty fluent for learning it academically.

And being trilingual and English is definitely the easiest to learn. Piece of cake actually. Germans have 3 words for “the” and no logical way to know which is right you just have to memorize all of them. That’s bananas.

I learned English, German and French as a foreign language (dutch is my native language) and because English us everywhere, movies, TV shows, sports, etc it was very easy to learn. I guess Noa spoke English in Ulm with his team, so he is used to it. Basketball English isn't too complicated. But yes respect for speaking a foreign language easy.

I actually saw an interesting study this week that seemed to show there is a difference in how well English is spoken between the European countries that typically subtitle American/British tv shows (the Netherlands, Scandinavia, etc.) and those that dub them (France, Spain, etc.). Back when I was studying in France, my French dorm-mates would always get mad when I would insist on renting subtitled dvds. Turns out I was helping them learn English!

[nomorezorro]

Watch on YouTube

[Truebiscuit]

Agreed, but can't deny that leaving his team during the championship is kind of a bitch move.

I want to believe he has that same "mentality" but it's hard for me to get over that right now.

Sent from my Pixel 9 using Tapatalk

That's tough, man... all those kids are trying to accomplish what he did this year. By all accounts, he was given permission by the coaches.

I can't fault him for living out his dream.

Living out his dream? He was going to get drafted irrespective...

... what? You think these kids don't dream about having their name called and they get to walk up on stage, in front of their closest friends and family?

Come on now...

[Muzbar]

Lol people still have their knickers in a knot over him attending the draft and fulfilling a dream of hearing his name called and walking up on stage to shake the commissioners hand.

Get a grip.

Besides, it's not like he just up and left without notice or without telling anybody, he discussed it with his coaches beforehand and he received a green room invite. I haven't seen anything, anywhere that the team was miffed by him leaving.