Porn_Player

Man, great posts Luther your an awesome asset to this International forum

After my weekend long hiatus I have returned and shall throw a name into the mix a little later on, I also will add the already given names to the list.

And Giordun you called out Hakeem one of THE greatest players and didn't describe him or throw in a video - fancy fixing that?

Good work guys!

Edit - Updated the list, as for now I shall leave Hakeem off until atleast a small description is made of the player. Hopefully this will encourage longer and more in-depth coverage of players such as those done by Luther.

__________________

Porn_Player

United Kingdom - John Amaechi

Now I do not claim Mr Amaechi to be a great player but good enough to represent his country (United Kingdom) in this list there can be no doubt. If you Google his name or mention it to a friend they always remember him for being the first gay NBA athlete, a fate he most certainly does not deserve but his honesty has brought upon him. Anyways to the athlete…

From Stockport, England in his early days he was picked off the street by a scout at 17 having never played bball simply because of his size, and over the course of the next few years made his way to Penn State university in America where he was a 2 time all American first team selection.

He unluckily missed out on the draft and wound up in Europe, where he stayed for three years playing in Italy (Bologna), France (?) and Greece (Panathanikos). His big break came after much hard work when he made history and became the first undrafted free agent to start the opening game of an NBA season where he played for the Cavs against the Pacers.

His best year came 99/00 where he averaged 10.5ppg and 3.3rpg in just 21 minutes per contest. He again made history by scoring the first NBA bucket of the new millennium a feat which earned a spot in the NBA Hall of Fame.

A pioneer of British basketball who has never forgotten his roots representing his country numerous times even coming out of retirement to help them secure a bronze medal in the commonwealth games a few years back. The United Kingdom and its basketball owe a lot to this fundamentally sound 6’10 Centre…



Terrible video, more of an Iverson tribute but it is all I could find. Like I said all my searches just gave me video's of Amaechi being grilled about his sexual status...

__________________

luther

For our third Lithuanian...

Sarunas Jasikevicius (1976), Lithuania, Maryland, 6-4, G.
A guy (like Serbia's Aleksandar Djordjevic, Greece's Vassilis Spanioulis and others) whom I feel never had a fair shot in the NBA, even though his stats aren't as bad as one might suspect (More than 7 ppg in his time with Indiana before languishing on the bench in Golden State.). Admittedly, he had weaknesses after a good--but not great--career at Maryland (about 12-13 ppg his final two seasons, just under 4 apg). But he honed his game in Euroleague and became a flat-out star. Reportedly a favorite of Larry Bird, coach Rick Carlisle wasn't so keen on Jasikevicius, probably because he lacked the footspeed to effectively defend point guards (or wing guards, for that matter) man-to-man. Secondly, Carlisle used him primarily as a spot-up shooter. And while Jasikevicius can shoot, he's more a big-game, big-moment shooter than a spot-up guy. Frankly, anyone who uses him as a Steve Kerr type is wasting their and his time.

Sarunas Jasikevicius may not be a pure point. He may not be a pure shooter. He may not be a good defender. But Jasikevicius is one hell of a great basketball player, and anyone who can watch him play and not see that is a damned fool. Have a look.



He has great size when playing the one, and his passing ability is something that makes him unique. Not only does he get those angles from his height, but he's unselfish and clever with the ball. The embedded video shows it off from before he came to the NBA, playing with Maccabi Tel Aviv. Even when he's making "mistakes," such as passes from the top of the key, but on the left, to the low post on the right (diagonal passes like that are just BEGGING to be intercepted), he's succeeding. He has the kind of confidence that is maddening, but he backs it up enough for a smart coach to allow it. Magic, Bird, Jordan, Isiah, Iverson, Nash--these guys made mistakes, too, turning it over. Jasikevicius isn't in their leagues as a player, but as a strong will, a character, a force, he is. And he's a good enough player that I promise you, any of those guys (or any other smart player) would want him on their teams.

It's tough competition among Lithuanians--they've had some great, great players--but Jasikevicius has to be ranked among the top four of all time.

Porn_Player

I have him a close 5th in my mind

__________________

Plastic Man

I wandered in this interesting topic and since I've got a couple of minutes on my hands I've decided to pitch in a fellow citizen since you've not named any Slovenian players yet.

Marko Milic (born 1977) - was the first Slovenian born basketball player to get the chance to play in the NBA, when he was selected as the 5th pick of the 2nd round (34th pick overall) by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1997. His short NBA career also included a two year fling in Phoenix. Though he achieved nothing in the NBA, he has done a lot for our country's recognition and has played for some of Europe's finest basketball clubs (including Fenerbahce, Real Mardid and Fortitudo Bologna). He is one of the most liked athletes in our country and has this year returned to play for our best club, Union Olimpija (the biggest succes of the club is winning the European cup in 1994 and placing 3. in the 1997 Final Four). Milic is perhaps best known for his exceptional athleticism (for a caucasian European of course ) and has impressed with a number of dunks (still does at the age of 30) that were not seen often in the mid 90s throughout Europe. One of such is shown on this video, dating back to the 1994/95 (at the tender age of 17) season when he dunked over a Honda at the annual Slovenian All Star -




Another relatively famous feat was "achieved" on the aforementioned Final Four where he broke the backboard in the game for the 3rd place against Asvel (we won that game and I remember I almost cried of joy.. first when I saw this dunk and later when we placed third):


In the back you can hear our fans chanting "Olimpija, Olimpija", since the game was in Rome and more than a half of the coliseum was colored white&green (I'm actually getting shivers writing this when I remember how great our club used to be and how feared our home court was because of our fans *tear*). Then our comentators begin to talk about how rarely this happens in Europe .

Some more videos that I found include this one handed alley-oop performed a month ago vs Tau Ceramica (I was at the game screaming my lungs out when he did this... remember dunking is not so widespread in Europe as it is in the USA, so that's why it's such a big deal to us Europeans =))):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9FvQ31V80w

And I actually found some footage of him wearing the Suns jersey :


And some more random dunks to finish this off:


They are really only 40-50 sec clips so don't be afraid to watch them when I was young he was my no.1 idol, because of his style of play and I already consider him one of our basketball legends and I hope that he'll stay with us a couple more seasons because he's one of the few I really enjoy seeing at games (we been sucking pretty badly for the last couple of seasons that's why ).

That about sums it up, I've written much more than I had planned so I hope someone will read (and watch) this through and share his/her thoughts.

good night from Slovenia

__________________
BasketBallBoards.net: where "sometimes you just have to realize that you have no clue what the **** you're talking about" happens.

Krstic All Star

To be honest, I only know of Milic because of his dunking ability. I forgot that he'd even played in the NBA.

__________________
FREE IMAD SAAD!!!

My latest blog entry:
Oakley has it right

luther

I remember--and loved-Milic. He was one of the first Europeans who really broke the stereotype of "oh, he's slow and is just a 3-pt shooter." Instead, Milic couldn't shoot well and was very athletic.

Porn_Player

Wow that Honda dunk is pretty impressive. His one handed oop was sick also, the skill it must take to control a ball with your left hand while your in the air must be such a high level.

I think your a little down on Slovenian basketball saying you haven't been very good for a while, I thought you performed admirably at the Eurochamps just gone.

Ohhh and my favourite dunk of his was one when he played for the Suns and stole down court and threw down a huge one eighty - the hops were ridiculously. Viva La White Boy


(p.s - hope you don't mind me altering your post to embed the video's, I was just trying to make it easier for people to catch a glimpse of Marko.)

__________________

Plastic Man