The eternal dilemma: European or North American basketball. The conjunction, almost always, is disjunctive. Although it is true that the fan of this sport, over the years, has become accustomed to enjoying both variants, as different as they are intertwined, the debate never ends. “In the NBA he doesn’t defend himself”, “regular season games are friendly”, is heard from one side; “In Europe yes, but in the NBA I would not be a substitute”, “the best are in the NBA”, is heard from the other. Supporters of one type of basketball, detractors of the other and lovers of both: there is everything. In the middle of the discussion, and that is undeniable, the bridges between the country of opportunities Y the old continent more and more. There is no better example of this than this season, with a multitude of players who, suddenly, have changed the Euroleague for the North American competition: Facundo Campazzo, Gabriel Deck, Luca Vildoza, Mike James, Elijah Bryant …
The NBA, in its desire to be a world league, has not stopped expanding throughout its history. In its first season, in 1946, still under the name of ABA, five participants already came from beyond its borders; but the opening really took a long time to come. At the end of the 80s, with the fall of the Iron Curtain, the invasion began: Petrovic, Vlade Divac … The European conquest, Trojan horse for the rest, took shape, and also Spain, through Fernando Martín, made his contribution. Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili, later, they would shatter every hint of a barrier. This year, Nikola Jokic, a Serbian, is the leading candidate for NBA MVP. And it is no longer surprising. In fact, it will simply continue what has been seen in recent years, with the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo as the double winner of the award. He will join Nowitzki in a competition that has seen Marc Gasol as Best Defender of the Year or Toni Kukoc as Best Sixth Man. They are the tip of the iceberg of a league that has always been characterized by exalting its stars and that, right now, sees a large part of them come from Europe: Luka Doncic, Rudy Gobert, Domantas Sabonis, Bogdan and Bojan Bogdanovic …
Relay from players to coaches?
In the field of the players, the borders are already more than blurred; however, for coaches it costs more. Much more. Either due to reluctance towards tactical immersion or by simple coincidence, the list of European chief technicians in the NBA is drastically reduced, until it is reduced to just one: Igor Kokoskov, and with cheating. Koskoskov, who served as head coach of the Phoenix Suns in the 2018-19 season, is Serbian but also has American nationality; but that’s not what makes it an example taken with a grain of salt. His training, practically in full, was carried out in the United States, thus being a student of the basketball fundamentals of the NBA. By 2001, he was already an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers. This year, Sergio Scariolo, a Spanish and Italian national coach, took the Toronto Raptors bench from time to time, where he is an assistant, given the casualties generated by the Covid-19 protocols. And, in a national key, Jordi Fernández, assistant in Denver Nuggets, got to be interviewed for the position in Cleveland Cavaliers; but, as anticipated, the situation is far from what currently occurs with the players.
Faced with this scenario, Ergin Ataman, Turkish coach of Anadolu Efes, has raised his voice, pointing to Zeljko Obradovic as the technician called to definitively break with the situation: “He does not have our stress. He already has nine Euroleague titles at home. I think he will continue his vacation or maybe someone in the NBA understands that now the Euroleague Basketball, European basketball is much better than the NBA and call the best coach in Europe to coach in the NBA. It deserves to start training in the NBA and maybe open the doors for all successful European coaches to be able to train in the NBA in the future. Not just the players. Now is also the time for coaches to train in the NBA. “ has manifested on Greek national television, in statements collected by Eurohoops.
Obradovic, who decided to take this season as a year off, is the most successful coach in European history, with endless track records. Such is his dimension that only Real Madrid has won more European Cups than him. The 1995 one, by the way, with him on the bench, the last one before the Pablo Laso era. That is why Ataman bets on the Serbian coach, who has already had other approaches with the North American competition. In 2007, his name was linked to the list of possible candidates for the Detroit Pistons; Although, in 2019, he was also harsh with the reality that Ataman criticizes today: “Think about what has happened before. Mike D’Antoni is American, but he was trained here and also trained here. David Blatt is American and Igor Kokoskov has spent 20 years in the United States before coaching an NBA team. Neither. European coach. Why? Because the NBA is a mafia (…) Nobody can say anything. The NBA is the best league, but without any doubt I can say that there are many European coaches who can train there. It is like this “, it affirmed then. The current trend, with a relay that would go from players to coaches, indicates that it is only a matter of time, but you never know.
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