Stolen Finals

In my last 3 blogs I was trying to introduce you with international basketball talking only about bright and positive things. I feel now is a time to show some bad things about this sport outside of the U.S. and at the same time to spread around this story because I feel people from the U.S. are not informed well about this topic and it also affect them because their basketball national team was also participating in this event that I am going to talk about.

One of the most discussed referees’ “mistakes” in sports in the past few years happened at the basketball world championship in Turkey in 2010. In the semifinal game between the host team Turkey and Serbian national team, there were four seconds left of the game, when one of the Turkish players stepped on the sideline, but the referees did not call anything allowing the Turkish national team player, Tunceri, score in the last second and bring the one-point victory to his team which make them advance to the final game against

the team USA.

People do make mistakes in life, but this one was very obvious that the referee who was right next to the play when Tunceri stepped on the line did not call out of bounce on purpose so the host team can make it to the finals. It was not just this one call that could have turned things around in the game, but also many other unfair calls that were given to the Turkish players in the second half. For a person such as me who was watching the game, it was clear that the host team was being pushed by the referees who did everything they could so Turkey can make the finals.

As this blog stated many clear fouls for the Turkish team were not called, and some very lame once were called against the Serbian players. This blog might be a little bit too offensive, but this is the way many people felt after watching that game, and I am not talking about Serbia fans, but anybody else who wants justice in sports.

One more ridiculous thing that happened regarding this game is the decision that FIBA (International Basketball Federation), just apologized to the Serbian national team after seeing the tape of the game, but they did not change anything about it. In my opinion now is too late because the players, buy the way they were the youngest team in that tournament with average age of 22 years, are still recovering from that undeserved loss and in my opinion form these kind of things it is just impossible to fully recover

This game is a great example of not being fair, and how referees were pushing one team to win the game. At the end I just hope that FIBA learned their lesson and that they are not going to make same mistake twice when it comes choosing the reefs that are very important part of this beautiful game.

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6H9wKf0p8k

Europe vs United States :Basketball Development

What are the differences between the U.S. and European basketball developmental systems I as a European after spending almost 4 years at the United States I am able to compare these two systems and share my thoughts with all the people that follow this blog.

The main difference between these two systems is based on the competitiveness. In Europe kids are forced to play only for the clubs because the basketball

high-school is not developing that much. Usually

these kids are making their first basketball steps at age of 8 and starting to compete at age of 10 playing under the same rules as European professional players. This rule is the actual re

ason why in the last 10 years on the big competitions like Olympics and World

Basketball Championship Europe won more medals comparing to the U.S.. In the U.S. high-school players don't even use the shoot-clock where they are forced to play the slow basketball that doesn't have any similarity with the college or NBA basketball.

The other big thing is basketball camps. Every single European put big emphasis on their work with young talents who get a chance to travel around the Europe and get familiar lots of different basketball approaches and techniques. The only con about working with young kids is that most of them are obligated to sign per contracts at very young age and that doesn't allow them to have some other options like American kids have going to school and playing their sports with still chance to someday become professional players.

The only thing that make me confident that the U.S. is still the center of the basketball is the NBA, the strongest league in the world where even Europeans come to play and what is more important basketball is still a huge part of the American culture

Statistics are on the European side, but my whole point of analyzing these two systems was no to prove which system works better then to give advices for the both sides and try to make them learning from their mistakes and them by coming each other. Another thing is that I didn't mention and it can be very important is population and the size between these two continents. North America is almost three times bigger than Europe with two times more registered basketball players what automatically makes huge advantage for the American over European basketball system.

At the end both sides have lots of open spaces for improvement and what is more important they both are still rising the basketball standards all around the world and doing great job in promoting this sport, but if both of these two sides would work on the problems that I just mentioned they would be one step closer to perfection, one step because being perfect is impossible because no matter what you can always do better.

Manu Ginobili Returns to Court?

During the 2012 NBA lockout all the superstars are feeling physical effects. The team that felt it more than anyone in the league is definitely the San Antonio Spurs. Their starting guard Manu Ginobili, who suffered a broken hand last year, had recently reinjured the same hand just 2 weeks ago.

It seems that things are not going to get better for this very old team. Yesterday on his official Twitter page he announced that he expects to be back on the court at least by the second week of March. With such a timely return, he brought hope to a large fan base in doubt of him returning to action.

Fortunately even without Ginobili San Antonio Spurs have found a way to win, but they also know that without him 100 percent ready they won’t have any chance to compete for the NBA title. My personal opinion about him brings the intensity needed in order to spark the offense and keep San Antonio competitive and NBA title bound. He has always been injury prone, however his dedication and determination with rehab has led him back on the court and that’s why I strongly believe that he will continue his heroic play. As international basketball analyst I am convinced that he will return not better than ever, but good enough to help his team fighting for the championship. His experience is as a mentor on and off the court provides the Spurs a competitive advantage over every NBA team.

Ginobili is probably one of the most famous international NBA stars in the world. He also provides the spark for diehard fans everywhere. He is a valuable asset for the NBA and he will be missed once he retires. Although, I know he has a few more great seasons left in him and can’t wait to see how he ends his career because it will be exciting, extravagant, and extremely entertaining.

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9seQ2uvxrL8