Best four days of the year. Yep. They’re here. And while you watch Doug McDermott, Victor Oladipo, Kendall Williams, Baye Moussa Keita and friends this weekend, you will be tempted to bat around their NBA prospects.
What positions will he play in the league? Will my team draft him? First rounder? Second rounder? Will he even have his name called?
Statistically, there’s a far more relevant question we should all be asking: What sort of impact will this kid make in Europe?
Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain. You name the country, they’ve got not one, but two or more leagues with rosters waiting to fill up on American fly-by-nights and lifers alike.
(Far more of the former.)
Thirty teams in the NBA. Hundreds of clubs in Europe. It’s math.
Or they could go to Puerto Rico, get a payday in China (an NBA résumé sure helps there, even if it’s crammed with Aaron Brooks-esque ballhoggery—what am I talking about? Especially if it’s crammed with Aaron Brooks-esque ballhoggery) or come join me down here in Argentina, which has 86 teams spread across its top three divisions and features some old names like Ed Nelson, who won a ‘ship with UConn in 2004 after transferring from Georgia Tech, and until recently Marcus Fizer, the half-man, half-muscled All-American who took Iowa State to an Elite Eight in 2000.
And Pepe Sanchez is down here, too. He was the best back at Temple, with cartoonish flash born to belong to the name Pepe Sanchez. His career there led to the miniature link between Argentina and Temple that brought Juan Fernandez to Philly, and this shot to all of us in the 2011 NCAA tourney:
And it’s not always the top names from the best programs that end up on the best clubs. In fact, that’s rarely the case, so watch your No. 13 and 14 seeds as closely as the 3’s and 4’s if you’re looking for the next Bo McCalebb (New Orleans), Andy Panko (Lebanon Valley) or Michael Bramos (Miami (OH)).
This week’s number one is Barcelona again (oops, spoiled alert), and their roster includes CJ Wallace (Princeton), Pete Mickeal (Indian Hills Community College, Cincinnati) Erazem Lorbek (one year at Michigan State) and, my favorite: Sarunas Jasikevicius, the 37-year-old Lithuanian legend who played at Maryland from 1994-98 before winning Euroleague championships with three different clubs: Barcelona (’03), Maccabi (’04, ’05) and Panathinaikos.
So keep your eyes open. That undersized big on your favorite Cinderella or that shooter with the funny name could end up having the best pro careers you’ll never hear about.
Onto the rankings…