UcanUwill wrote:Would like some concrete examples, because this sounds like a ton of BS.
If Doncic draws contact, he draws a foul...almost every time. That's basically unheard of in EuroLeague and European basketball in general. Most of the biggest EuroLeague stars only draw a foul, like 1 out of 3-5 times they get hit. It's the opposite of NBA in that way.
Spanish League is a little different, it's the by far softest league in Europe with the by far least physical contact allowed. The ACB models itself after the NBA, so that's why it's like that. However, even in the ACB, where the least amount of physical contact is allowed, versus any other league in Europe - even in ACB, you can't just draw a foul almost every time you get hit. That just does not happen.
Every American player, whether they came from NCAA, D-League, or NBA, says the same thing, that the hardest adjustment from American basketball to European basketball is the level of physicality that the refs allow. NBA players really talk about it, how the game is so much more physical, because it's so much harder to draw a foul, and because the refs are so hesitant and inconsistent in calling fouls. Like if it will slow down the flow of the game at all...you won't get a foul call, no matter how hard you get hit.
Doncic and Rubio are the only two players I've seen in EuroLeague that this did not and does not apply to basically at all. They play/played more like it's NBA style, where contact usually draws a foul, even if you imitate the contact, and even if you impede into the defender's space. Initiating contact and impeding into the defender's space to draw fouls are NBA concepts, and that does not happen in European basketball. But with Doncic and Rubio, the refs cal/called it like NBA style.
Now on the defense end, the same applies, you don't get easy fouls in European basketball, like in the NBA. There is a certain way the refs in EuroLeague will call a game - either they allow a lot of physical contact and don't call many fouls, or they will call only certain kinds of fouls, like if you hit the ball handler, or stop a dribbler and change his direction by hitting him. They don't always call those fouls, sometimes they don't. It's inconsistent from game to game.
With Rubio and Doncic...the green light was and is always on. Foul people, only it's not just that the refs are going to allow fouls and physical contact - they are never going to call the fouls that they sometimes call on almost everyone else.
If I had to pick in EuroLeague history, the most babied and favored by the refs players ever (when on offense), it's,
1. Rubio/Doncic
huge gap
2. Nando de Colo
3. Dimitris Diamantidis
You can see it clear as day...even guys like Teodosic or Llull, get nothing in calls compared to Doncic. Guys like Llull, Teodosic, Spanoulis, especially Teodosic and Spanoulis (the most probably in his case), can drive to the basket and get hammered again and again - and usually won't draw a foul.
Doncic will almost every single time, even with limited contact.
On defense...some guys got a lot of unfair leeway by EuroLeague, let's say the worst are guys like,
1. Dimitris Diamantidis
2. Andres Nocioni
3. Felipe Reyes
4. Jonas Maciulis
and so forth, those types of very dirty players.
There are some guys that play extremely dirty, and the refs somehow let them get away with it. So tons of fouling and physical contact, and usually not called, even though they are doing it all the time.
OK, but unfortunately, that happens in every sport, in every pro league, at all levels. The dirtier you play, the more physical you play, the more you push the envelope, the more the refs let you get away with things. It's not how it should be, but it just always happens like that.
So, I saw Rubio all those years fouling guys the whole way up the floor - never called hardly ever for a foul. But he wasn't playing dirty, they just let him get away with it, because he was "a kid".
Now, I see Doncic playing dirty plenty of times, and get away with it, but I also see him just blatantly fouling people and no calls either. He's like combining a Dimitris Diamantidis/Andres Nocioni style of defense, which is foul, foul, foul, play dirty, grab a guy's nuts, kick a guy when they are not looking, scratch, shove, push, etc.
So basically, it's not singling out guys like Rubio or Doncic on defense, European basketball will let guys get away with that nonsense, but it is favoring them, when on offense, you can't foul them back. Diamantidis used to be ridiculous in how he fouled non-stop and got away with it, same with Nocioni, same with Felipe Reyes, but when they had the ball, they became enormous floppers, because they still had to sell fouls to the refs. Doncic does not have to even flop, he just automatic straight out usually gets the call.
And even with that, he looks like he is learning how to play from Reyes, Nocioni, Maciulis....where everything is dirty and/or flops, and all that ridiculousness.
It might be all great for him now, but I don't see any of that going over for a Slovenian guy in the NBA, nor do I see the NBA caring a whole lot about marketing him. This kid isn't even 18 yet, and he's already on par with the dirtiest players with I've ever seen in EuroLeague. NBA refs are not going to let some teenager from Europe act like that in the NBA.
