Pau Gasol On Giannis, Luka and Jokic and The Rise Of The European NBA Player
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- čas přidán 24. 03. 2022
- Pau Gasol talks about the rise of European players in The NBA and how remarkable guys like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic have been.
Subscribe to The Old Man and The Three podcast w/ JJ Redick (ESPN) and Tommy Alter CZcams channel for more highlights. - Sport
He remembers all his teammates and knows where they are and what they’re doing today. Thats so wholesome.
@MORPHEUS LA FAMILIA
Not teammates, friends.
He forgot Ricky
A young Ricky Rubio and Mirotic also played with him in the spanish team.
@@mikigamba He was talking about 2012 squad.. Ricky broke his ACL that year..
International players are running the show now. The favorites to win MVP are European as well as African with Joel, Giannis and Nikola. DPOY favorites are international as well. This has been the case for last 3 years and yet they don't seem to get the respect that they deserve. Giannis has been the most disrespected finals MVP I have seen.
IDK about that buddy but they def taking off. Best players are still from US. Love Giannis though was a fan way before all these people started riding the wave.
U R SMART MAN. I AGREE WITH EVERY SINGLE WORD. I LOVE JO JO AND MY SIXERS FOR ALMOST 40 YEARS BUT GOTTA ADMIT LUKA CARRY TEAM MOST OF THIS AND PRIOR YEARS WITHOUT FRAGILE PORZINGIS AND EVEN AFTER SPENCER CAME THEY LOST TIM BUG JUNIOR DUE TO INJURIES.
JOKIC SAME LIKE EMBIID CARRY TEAM ALONE OTHER KEY PLAYERS ARE INJURED MURRAY ALMOST 26 PPG PORTER ALMOST 18 PPG.
AS FAR AS GIANNIS. HE IS MODERN WILT NO DOUBT BEST ATHLETE IN NBA BUT I CANT GIVE CREDIT TO HIM OVER THOSE 3 CAUSE JRUE HOLIDAY MAKES THAT TEAM CHAMPIONS. AND BROOK LOPEZ WAS ALREADY ALLSTAR IN NETS HE KNOWS TO PLAY , AND MIDDY ESTABLISHED AS AN REGULAR ALLSTAR.
LITERALLY JRUE , MIDDLETON AND BROOK ALL ARE ALLSTARS.
NOW FOR BEST PART. GIANNIS IS 1 OF MOST DISRESPECTED FMVP AND PLAYER LAST DECADE.
AS MUCH I DONT GIVE HIM CREDIT FOR SEASON AND RING CAUSE OF ALLSTARS I MENTION HE HAVE HELP...NEITHER ARE SUPERSTARS. THAT MEANS LEBRONZE NEVER WON RING WITHOUT SUPERSTARS HELP.
DURANT HAS NO RINGS EITHER. ILL GIVE CEREDIT TO KAWHI AND GIANNIS. THEIR RINGS ARE STRONGER CAUSE NO SUPERSTARS PRIME HELP. LOWRY WAS NEVER RANKED SUPERSTAR.
@@bayodaman if the best players are from the US name 5 American players better than Giannis, if you do you’d be lying to yourself
@@PIP...33 you drunk or something
Gobert french multiple time dpoy
Pau deserves to be top 75 over AD or Dame.
Hahah good joke
Agree
AD is overated and doesn’t deserve it one bit.
100%
Dwight over AD
Spain had a golden generation. La Bomba, Filipe Reyes, Gasol Brothers, Garbajosa, Llull, Calderon, Sergi, El Chacho the list goes on. But not only them you also had a great Greek national team back then and also France and Lithuania were great. Nowadays European players (and Embiid) are dominating the NBA right now but in the 2000's you had nba all-star caliber players in the Euroleague that were ignored for whatever reason by the NBA - Teodosic, Spanoulis, Diamantidis, Jasikevicius, Navarro just to name a few
Most of them tried their luck in the NBA. Diamantidis could have too of course, but he didn't want to.
Euroleague and NBA are different, euroleague has much fairer rules, NBA is just for entertainment while euroleague is for competition. It’s very rare to find a euroleague player that can perfectly adapt to the different rules like Luka did
The challenge for European players has always been adapting to US (language, Garbage good, etc). Now It is easier to adapt, otherwise... I do recall Sabonis and Drazen Petrovic... Those would be top 15 players all time has played today
@@bgd.11 I forgot Serbia. But I also mentioned Jokic and Teodosic so. I'm actually portuguese... I follow Euroleague every year
@@bgd.11 There were times where these 3 teams were better than Serbia, especially Greece around 2005-2006.
Love the Rudy Fernandez conversation. He's been largely forgotten by everyone except the Blazers fans, but he posterized Dwight Howard at the '08 Olympics.
A dunk that a whole generation of basketball fans ins Spain will rememeber till the bitter end!!
Nah Rudy has got a lot of love! He did a couple all star events that stick out but he also seems like one of those players that was a little before his time. If he were able to take 3s like players are today, he would’ve had multiple 6MOY awards.
When I went to Spain, the NBA jersey that I saw the most was by far his jersey in Portland. I saw maybe one Pau jersey but I saw a different Fernandez jersey every day.
Not a Blazers fan but I wanted the Raptors to sign him for years! That dunk on Howard is one of the best I've ever seen.
Rudy was unlucky, NBA wasted his talent
You can't convince me that Pau didn't deserve to be in the top 75 (with Tony, Manu and Klay).
Agree with Pau, Tony & Manu... Not Klay...
@@hogrider5059 klay might be the 2nd best shooter of all time, though.
Not klay
Manu definitely should have been there
Kyrie a huge snub
If not for this man, Kobe finishes with 3 rings
You cant know this bc they could trade a other good player and nobody wins a chip on his own. Or kobe would win it in a other year nobody know
Breaking news: Players need help to win
@@killuminatisouls Well Pau is the perfect player for Kobe you really think other player will just mesh with him? take a good look at the 2012 lakers
@@Howdidhenotseeme it's part of the game. A great player needs great support. A great team has the best teamwork and chemistry not just the best player.
This isn’t even a knock on Kobe. Everyone thought Nash and Howard would guarantee at least another 2 more rings and look how that turned out. Players have to click and their styles have to mesh to win and Pau and Kobe definitely did
Pau Gasol was an extremely talented player . I always loved his game.
I wish for one year they made the All Star game USA v. World. It would be awesome to see Jokic, Giannis, Luka and Co. play together.
Embiid jokic Giannis Wiggins and Luka.
@@shilmanmartin SGA > Wiggins
I prefer watching Jokic, Giannis, Curry and LeBron destroying their opponents every season lol I hope KD becomes the captain for the East once again so this team can possibly get together once more.
LeBron just needs to get the first pick and he's done. He picks Giannis, KD won't pick Curry, then LeBron get Curry and Jokic later (KD doesn't seem to praise The Joker that much).
@@calamorta naw it's better the world 🌎 vs USA All-stars the teams will exactly play to win
@@shilmanmartin whoa that would do something
That Spain team in the 2004 Olympics were the favorites to win the gold over Argentina and the US team. They were just unlucky when they played the US in the quarterfinals. Those 3's that weren't falling for the US all tournament long went in just in that game.
Big shoutout to JJ man.. so many all time greats on the Pod, it just feels so good to see how far the Podcast has come, following since the first Episodes
Keep up the hard work JJ, it will pay out!
5 players in Top 10 are foreigners and US media hates it and tries to downplay these players game.
Never forget that the first two players to break the ice and go from playing in Europe to playing in the NBA were the great late Drazen Petrovic (Portland, Nets) and Vlade Divac (Lakers, Sacramento) in '89. All others came after those two who paved the way, one as an SG and the other as a Center.
Fernando Martin went to the NBA in `86
@@eltiodelasinversiones2032 You're right, but he only played 24 games and went back to Europe. These guys stayed and made an impact, proving that Euro players can actually be successful in NBA.
Pozdrav iz Beograda za porodicu Divac.
Vlade mi je bio favorit od košarkaša kada sam bio mali... Dražen naravno ekstremno dobar nego nisam znao puno košarkaša u to vreme.
@@braddivac3561 Žarko Paspalj joined the spurs as an undrafted player a tiny bit earlier that year than the two of them but he didn't really get much playing time in SA for people to remember him as the actual first European who came from overseas rather than through American college ball which was the case for the ones before.
@@strahinjastevic7480 Yeah, Paspalj came the same summer. Summer of 1989. He stayed with the Spurs for one year and went back. Check on his Wiki. He did start playing first in a way BCS he played in the summer league. Maybe that's why you think of him as "the first". Legend, either way. But again, these two were the first who really made an actual impact and changed how Euro players were viewed before them.
It’s really cool to see Pau answering these questions
Man Pau was such a big part of my childhood growing up, great to see him doing well.
Yes same , he was destroying my country''s team ( Greece) everytime .
As a french I hated those spanish teams lmao So many malice and experience. Looking back though, they really were special as units, complete definition of Euro ball. Pau's a legend.
i remember how pau destroyed you in a european semifinal. next eurobasket you took revenge.
man. what an amazing years!
Nice to hear, as any Spaniard, i hated le blues during 1998-2006, now? I can name the whole Squad... Best national football team I've seen with "tiki-taka"
Coaches are what made euroleague great. Obradović is one the many names that help pave the way. There are croatian, serbian, russian. Obradović was taught by another serbian coach and who got taught by another who got taught by faculty professor. And Obradović and those bit above him taught many coaches on current scene, from cska coach to idk how many more to be honest. Im hoping that the school that seemed relevant in Balkans including greece and ex yugo countries will travel to the western european countries. But they would probably cancel coaches there. Spain is doing great and has been. But i dont see the same pattern of coaching with french coaches or idk belgium or british... Its non existent... At least for me... Sad how much i just wrote yet i cant do the same when it comes to studying 😅😂
Pau is a legend!
Banger interview 🔥🔥🔥
JJ... you are getting smarter with all of these guests... First Luka now Pau... I may have to click the subscribe button now...
He's been having great guests on...
LOVE FOR PAU GASOL :)
Pau is such an eloquent English speaker and blends in with the American accent so well, you forget that he speaks Spanish first. He's a very intelligent man and that intelligence stretched onto the basketball court. Very successful Eurobasket player and was my favorite Laker.
Damn that Spanish national team with Pau, Navarro etc. still gives me nightmares in Greece.
I would love to see prime Pau with Luka on the same team.
You wouldn't be able to stop prime Pau with Luka. They would bring 3 titles I would say.
As a Turkish basketball fan - I HATED Rudy Fernandez due to him beating us all the time. But, as a basketball fan, I appreciate and respect his talent and he is an incredible player. Among my fav European players of all time, among the likes of Spanoulis, Llull, Rodriguez, Teodosic…etc
Paos English has gotten wayyy better. I barely hear an accent. Happy that our Spanish Players get love
Pau’s Spain teams were so damn good. They definitely had talent but the way that they moved the ball and played together was so beautiful to watch. Took everything that some of the best USA teams ever had to beat them.
Also had the support of the refs. FIBA is European business and outside America Spain is one of the most important markets. Makes business sense to favor Spain over smaller and non-European countries.
I hope the Euro League one day becomes as good as the NBA. I love watching the NBA but i like the concept of soccer where there are multiple leagues worth watching besides the Euro League.
imagine having multiple leagues and having champions league type of tournament in basketball. i hope asia africa europe step it up in the future.
even world cup. imagine if world cup in basketball was as competetive as it is in soccer it would be nuts.
fr imagine a world where all the leagues and europe get close to nba level and then we could get a fun little tournament in the summer where top 5-6 nba and euroleague teams and then champions from like china australia and africa and maybe even the g league play a little champions cup thing
@@yaboi467 Closest we could get to that as of right now is the Olympics. NBA superstars don’t care about FIBA anymore so that doesn’t really count.
The top European teams do not only play in the Euro League. Each team still plays in their countries in the leagues. Best example Real Madrid not only plays in the Euro League but also in the Liga ACB . This is the Spanish league.. I can recommend any college player who hasn't made it to the NBA to go to Europe or Australia. It's better than playing in the G-League.
Back in the day Europens got pushed around. In general I'm glad to see more international players getting opportunities to have teams be built around them. Should help make the sport more popular internationally.
Back in the day it was really hard adjusting to American Life. Now, NBA players are pushed around in FIBA, NBA got soft... Shame
You can make a case that this season's top 5 (definitely top 7) players are mostly International players with Embiid, Luka, Jokic and Giannis.
shhh... dont mention luka and jokic in front of american woke media like stephen a smith. they'll never consider both top 5 simply because they're european and white.
I don't think Luka is in the top 7. Durant, Curry, Lebron and obviously Caruso are all still better.
@@k.m.7533 hahh pls man stop talking about basketball. you right about caruso but steph better than luka? what you smoking?
@@eurongreyjoy1008 yall really wilding with these statements right now
@@k.m.7533 Luka is having a better single season than Curry this year
Pau Gasol is a legend, back to back champ Spanish player ever to play the game
I'm from canada and I watch a lot of really great players from overseas who I think "wow this guy if given opportunity could be a star" and recently it's been more often than not it's a player who didn't even come from the continent
Although dame's talent is greater than Pau but honestly we can all agree that Pau is more deserving to be a top 75 than him.
Remove AD and Dame off of that top 75 list. Gasol, Howard, Kyrie, and maybe even Klay all deserve to be there over those two.
Yo, a 7 foot can't move like Dame unless you're KD. This comparison is nonsense.
@@timeflies313 I'd put Tony Parker and Manu before I put Kyrie.
@@Blackmagic_874 I respect that. But the narrative that those two were basically "roleplayers" really doesn't help their case when talking about their legacy in the NBA. When we talk about basketball careers as a whole though? (International stints included) then it's a whole other argument.
@@timeflies313 its just a narrative not reality. They were part of a decade long dynasty on the Spurs who won multiple championships. It would be a disservice to their legacy to reduce them to role players.
TP,Pau,Dirk,Peja,Manu, my best 5 in the 2000's
The 2008 and 2012 olympic finals between US and Spain are the best international games ever.
You can add Yugoslavia - Lithuanua in 1995, USSR - USA in 1988 and USSR - Yugoslavia in 1986.
If i'm Mark Cuban i'd double the salary of Sabonis or Ayton next season to jump on their team. Dallas Mavericks is a one decent big man away to go through the NBA Finals.
They have a decent chance to draft the best shot blocker in the ncaa Walker Kessler this upcoming draft
@@williamjohansson5715 damn he moves like boban
@@lukamazing 😂
Ayton would be a better match, but Sabonis and Luka Will be fun
Good idea. There are rules against your specific proposal, however. Namely salary caps, maximum contracts, and the fact that Ayton is a restricted free agent (and Sabonis isn't one)
He was great player And i like also his mentality 👍🔥
Like Luka said it’s The NBA has the better players but it’s also easier to score here compared to the Euro League
FACTS
Just because its easier to score doesn't mean its easier to win. If that was the case then Luka might have actually got past the 1st round for once.
Sometime in the future, two of these three players gonna make a duo… And this will be legendary
Pau was Kobe's kobe when Kobe was Shaq of the Lakers.
Inception
Let’s not get out of hand. Kobe avg 28ppg in many series alongside Shaq. Gasol was a 18-20 ppl scorer. Wonderful teammate, but not remotely the same.
@@elijah5682 While I agree that 2010 Gasol was not as good as 2002 Kobe, I think you're underselling him a bit. Gasol was crazy efficient in his scoring [55-60% FG, 80% from the line] and between drawing double teams in the post and his passing ability, he elevated the entire offense.
I was just telling my girl. Who is always watching sixers games with me.
Out of the top 10 players rn in the nba a quarter of them are not American.
Growing up as a basketball fan I've been saying for years euroball is catching up.
I've seen their games. They play ball the right way. There's egos but they are usually checked at the door for the betterment of the team.
Bcs Euro coaches mostly have that authority over players in every major club.
@@braddivac3561 I'm just happy bcuz it creates more competition and gives overseas kids something to strive for. They now have their own heros to look up to and aspire to be.
A quarter? Giannis, Jokic, Luka, Embiid... That's 40% in the top 5!!!
@@javigar133 yeah ima sixers fan so jojo is my guy and better win mvp....
I should've said "arguably" bcuz everybody's list is a little different.
@@javigar133put some respec on Pascal Siakam
dirk, tony, and pau made it possible for the new guys 3 legends still cant believe ad and lillard made it in the top 75 over legends like tony and pau
As NBA players, Anthony Davis is definitely better than Pau Gasol. A simple comparison of stats can tell you that much. As for Lillard, the Blazers let LaMarcus Aldridge walk for nothing in return. Dude was averaging 22 and 10 and was a 4 time consecutive All Star prior to leaving. Most people seem to forget this. Lillard (along with CJ McCollum) has kept the Blazers relevant and in the playoffs ever since, until this season. That is most likely why he is Top 75.
You're wrong. Dražen Petrović, Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoč, Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marčiulionis were players who paved the way for European players. When they showed that they can play equally good in the NBA, Dirk, Stojaković, Pau, Kirilenko, Parker, Ginobili and others arrived in the NBA.
@@markomarkovic5729 yea those guys helped the guys i mentioned but im talking about the new guys giannis, jokic, and luka weren't watching guys like petrovic and sabonis hoop every week those aren't the guys they looked up to
@@markomarkovic5729 detlef schrempf too.
@@Desi365 Yes, but Schremf was in college and was drafted from there. Three players from former Yugoslavia (Dražen Petrović, Vlade Divac and Žarko Paspalj) and two Soviet players (Šarunas Marčiulionis and Sasha Volkov) were the first five players in the NBA who didn't come up through the American collegiate system. Among them was supposed to be another player from the former Yugoslavia, Dino Radja, who unilaterally signed a one-year contract with the Celtics in August 1989, but had to return to his club in Yugoslavia because of ths court order. His club Jugoplastika took the case to the US district court, seeking an injunction to prevent him from playing for the Celtics on the grounds that he had a valid and legally binding contract with them.
Yo JJ are you on Twitter or no? I can’t find you.. anyways love the podcast keep them coming
olympic finals 2008 - the greatest national team basketball match ever!
I remember watching Spain play in the Olympics and just being so confused as to why llull wasn’t in the nba. He was such an amazing pg
Because he didn´t want neither Fran Vazquez though Llull was better
So many international players dominating the league, but the NBA would rather promote Zion with basically one year of good basketball as the next face of the leage.
From what I've seen, I feel like Ja's been getting lots of love this year. But I don't watch any US media, so hard to debate lol
Zion politics
In sports too...
That is exactly the problem. The NBA desperately needs a US player to be the face of the league ... Europeans rule the league, they are ignored to some extent by the passionate media.
Pau looks great!
Legend
Next 25 he will be on that list.
I wait for all star game between USA and International Players. That would be something to watch!
I have to admit it... I always hated you Pau because you used to kick my Greek national team whenever you played us.. But you were a great player and a great leader...
Juan Carlos Navarro would be an incredible player in this era of basketball. There's a good reason why his nickname was La Bomba
Covering all this in 4 and a half minutes. This is what we want
Let's be honest the top 3 MVP candidates today are non-americans
who isnt honest? Everyone has them top 3 lmao
@@Howdidhenotseeme not kd
@@Cheffihn KD has been out for too long, he’s not a MVP candidate
@@CeIles no i meant his top 3 mvp candidates is neither of them
He sounds like a native speaker. Outstanding.
I mean, imagine you live and play in Barcelona, you have a two million dollar house, two kids and a wife, if the Utah Jazz or the Cleveland Caviliers come callin, you're gonna be like, "Nah, I'm good. . . .living in Barcelona!!!"
Facts, Id live in Barcelona over any city in the US and its not even close.
@@Akaya7777 Can't compare the quality of living in Europe to USA. I'd rather live in the shitiest city in Europe than in any city in USA. Americans that came to Slovenia (mine and Lukas state) know what I'm saying.
@@saturnative only someone who’s never been to America would say something like that. Luka said Dallas is a great place to live for him.
@@sunrain4532 I've been in the States and with the exception of the most "European" cities, San Francisco, Boston, New Orleans... I would rather prefer to live in almost any European city than any big city in the USA. More human scale designed cities instead car scaled cities in the US.
@@Gerclun better night life and more events going on in the states than Europe tho. And major cities in Europe such as London are car scaled as well
I'm Serbian, but i must admit that Gasol's Spain was probably the best European team of all times. 🙌
Should have seen the Yugoslavian and Soviet teams before the break up.
I am Spanish and I appreciate the cheer. You make my day. In reality is hard to tell with so many other great teams like Petrovik Yugoslavia and some of the soviet teams.
Man, i remember when Ricky Rubio was 16 balling in the Olympics, andres nocioni Luis Scola man oh man
When Manu Ginobilii
Classy guy.
Where Embid from? Also they should have put Rudy in there 4 time DPOY
they put ad in top 75 over a legend like pau
I remember when USA looked at European players as soft not no more. the game has changed and it makes great basketball.
Nothing changed really about their game, people just lost that delusion that every non american player is soft
JJ can you invite Giannis in this podcast?
My favorite all time international player was drazen Petrovic. RIP 🪦
I can’t understand him at first but can anyone let me know who paus talking about at the start, the one who averaged 11.6 ppg and on the rookie team? I keep hearing ricky/Rudy?
He's talking about Juan Carlos Navarro, who was a great player in Europe but only played for a year in the NBA and didn't really get any good offers to stay even though he had a pretty decent rookie year
That's Juan Carlos Navarro. He was in the All Rookie Second Team of 2008 with Memphis. He went back to Barcelona after that.
He is speaking about Juan Carlos "La Bomba" Navarro
Rudy fernandez
Juan Carlos Navarro, maybe the biggest offensive talent in the history of Spain. A lethal shooter & scorer...even Steph Curry says he learned from his game.
Basketball needs to have a USA vs Europe 7-game series every 2/4 years similar to golf’s Ryder Cup
I have been a proponent of that for a long time but it's never going to happen.
Plus selecting a "european" team is opening a can of worms because of the rivalries and everything, lol.
Don Pau Gasol
Get manu on the show
I think a better convo could've been. International players dominating the game.
Rudy Fernandez my wahhhhh
The NBA I think will be called the G(lobal)BA here pretty soon. It's the second most popular league in the world behind the Premier League.
Wait for Wembanyama!
Giannis, Jokic, Doncic and Embiid are top 5. And they will continue to be for a long time.
#GasolBros #SpanishTwinTowers #HoopersWorldwide #SquadUp & #RunToWin #DirkDidIt & #PauPau 2Times!!! #WhoGotNext
We have always had great European players Sabinis, Schremp, Petrovic, Stojokavic, Schmidts, Turkoglu, Radja, and many more. The removal of bigger more athletic players have given people invalid talking points about the NBA today.
Oscar Schmidt was Brazilian.
Actually, I should say is because he's very much alive and well.
"Schremp" is Schrempf, called white magic, the swiss knife from Germany
Greek fan here. 2 best European sides were Spain and The Former Yugoslavia. Imagine Doncic and Jokic playing together now Jesus..
I hope more international players get themselves established in the NBA and dominate the predominantly black American league. International players understand better the concept of teamwork, sharing the ball vs shooting 3 pointers from the middle of the court or dunking the ball with power and anger!
I bet your favourite book is Mein Kampf
Can u please get jimmer fredette since it’s March
I always thought what Pau could've been if he continued playing in the NBA like he did in his young days in Europe. He was a long and skiny "power forward" playing outside the three point line, more like a Toni Kukoč or KD type of player. But in the NBA Memphis decided to built him in the gym to play inside the paint.
Skill wise he could have played both positions. Not very athletic, even seemed soft, but very intelligent and skilled player.
@@vietnowsoldo That's the reason why I say that. Neiter Kukoč nor KD are "athletic" . He had the same body structure at that time, and with his skill who knows.
@@Gerclun I would say that Kukoc was a bit more skilled and talented, but in NBA he was underused and later injuries stopped his career. While Pau had a very good career since he came to the NBA. Perhaps the best european center until Jokic in the NBA
@@vietnowsoldo The Bulls also decided to send Kukoč to the gym to gain muscle and moved him to power forward. I always thought that European Kukoč was a better player than NBA Kukoč. Toni would be a franchise player in today's league.
Memphis made the right decision. He ended up being one of the best low-post scorers in the league, and playing in that position allowed him to pass out of double teams, and get to the line where he shot 80%. When Mike D'Antoni was coaching the Lakers, they used Pau in the way you described and it was honestly a waste of his talents.
Top 10? One was mvp, has a ring, one is mvp, the third one is a future mvp. They are top 5, if not top 3
Dražen Petrović changed it. 😁
Entire topic is an "LOL" moment 😂
Pau may not be NBA Top 75 but he is a Top 75 basketball player. If you combine his NBA and International achievements, it is loaded.
Top NBA 75 for sure, top 20 basketball player
Kawhi Leonard is a fun guy
The current MVP is Jokic ( European)the possible MVP this year Joel embid (African) the projected number one draft pick victor French with a Congolese father. The tide changing for sure but that’s a good thing!
Don't sleep on the African teams. Some of those are stupid fast. Once the player abilities start to flourish they will be sending more and more players to the NBA. Also I think African leagues don't pay as much as the European league so that's why some players get drafted into those Euro leagues.
If Africans had the resources Europeans do they would be many in the league. Giannis and embiid are both top 3 in the mvp race while being African .
@@leanmeanmenace1744 yeah, Giannis is as african as KD or Lebron. Yeah they are good.
Giannis was born in Athens, Greece
@@MichelePonte and?
@@sergegaash well u don’t know whether Kd and Lebron are Africans. They might be they might not be.
The europeans are just better at developing skill in their youth than americans
at fundamentals it is absolutely the case.
But in return you stifle creativity and create robots. That's why you can never beat the US. Many of our stars are DISTINGUISHED
@@94est.43 oh yeah luka is totally a robot out there, jokic too 😐 do you even watch basketball
@@94est.43 I don't think that's to do with the EU system. Their soccer players have creativity. I think it's more to do with culture. Basketball just isn't as popular compared to soccer in europe.
@@94est.43
I think its mainly a cultural thing. In USA basketball is one of the most popular sports in the country. You have bball courts in every corner of every major city.
To Europeans football/soccer fills that role.
Hence in USA you have many more people playing bball and as such it has a much larger talent pool.
as european fanboy happy af but Ja is my dark horse from what ive seen this season
Croatia '92 literally opened the door for european players (Dražen, Kukoć, Divac etc),
Pau's generation (Nowitzki, Gasol, Parker etc) normalized european players being all-stars,
but this generation (Giannis, Jokić, Dončić) wins MVP awards while legends like Lebron, Steph, Durant compete too.
Petrovic and Divac croatian? Hahahahaha.
@@vukbojanic784 Petrovic WAS Croatian, check this out en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Brothers
Yugoslavia was the best non-US team. They were amazing!
Is it just me or is Pau starting to resemble Phil Jackson a bit? 😒😁
Giannis, Jokić and Dončić all Balkan players
I can´t believe he forgot to mention Ricky Rubio.
BEST PLAYERS IN THE NBA TODAY ARE PPL WHO GREW UP IN COUNTRIES WHERE BASKETBALL ISN'T THE #1 SPORT. THAT'S CRAZY. EMBIID STARTED PLAYING AT 16 AND HE'S ABOUT TO BE AN MVP. THAT'S WILD 🤯. IF I'M AN NBA GM I'M SENDING HELL OF SCOUTS IN AFRICA
Booker should be MVP this year.
Pau, You forgot Rubio..
Both of you are first. I'm second.😂
Ricky Rubio snub?
Poor Ricky and Joel
Two Serbs and Greek
Balkan bros