[IBetYou]

Rick Pitino talked about EuroLeague’s referees and demonstrated how physical European basketball is after Panathinaikos OPAP Athens lost in Barcelona.
“I think the referees are outstanding. I haven’t gotten one technical. They are calling the game at the wishes of the commissioner of the league. That’s the way he wants the game called. They call the game as they are instructed and they are doing an outstanding job. If you want to see the game played like the NBA, then they need to be instructed on refereeing in a different way. It happened in College and the NBA. It’s up to the heads to make decisions in the EuroLeague to decide what they want. We got dominated in the glass tonight,” said the 66-year old coach.


He then stood up during the press conference and ‘boxed out’ a Barcelona media officer to demonstrate an example of how Barca bigs dominated the boards vs. Pana. “That’s the way the game is played here. The answer is to get big and physical guys. Everyone has to make adjustments to the way the game is called. EuroLeague basketball is outstanding, I love it. I have another five and a half months to enjoy it.”
Pitino added also a story about the NBA: “EuroLeague Basketball is outstanding – great players, great coaches. Many years ago, I was in a committee with Chuck Daly, Hubie Brown, Larry Brown, Pat Riley and a few other people, and the NBA was very, very upset because only one team was scoring 100 points per game. So David Stern brought us all in to try to get our opinions on how to create more scoring. After all the ideas, talking about how to get more scoring, the bottom line was to cut out physical play and call fouls. That was the answer. It wasn’t eight seconds in the backcourt instead 10, it wasn’t any other situation except if you call the fouls, the players will stop bumping and grinding and hand-checking and more points will be scored. A few years later, there was only one team not scoring 100 per game. The whole league changed to finesse basketball. So the EuroLeague is great but they haven’t adapted that philosophy – and maybe they shouldn’t. Maybe the EuroLeague should be the EuroLeague and the NBA should be the NBA.”

[IBetYou]

Glad he didn't say the Euroleague should change... the NBA is an abomination. Hard to watch a game in which the offense always wins -no wonder Luka is dominating after having played the grind of Euroleague.

[darrell74]

Good post

Insightful

[IBetYou]

It's a hot topic in Europe lately after the Barcelona coach mocked the NBA for not being real basketball, saying the scores are way up and everyone is really happy. He's right of course. I know a lot of people on here feel the same, and a lot of NBA coaches feel that way too.

[jgj311]

It's a hot topic in Europe lately after the Barcelona coach mocked the NBA for not being real basketball, saying the scores are way up and everyone is really happy. He's right of course. I know a lot of people on here feel the same, and a lot of NBA coaches feel that way too.

I definitely feel that way. Grew up a big sports fan, but the NBA is at the bottom of American team sports for me. I will watch college games before the NBA, and even that's starting to get to the point of no return. My friend is a big basketball enthusiast, real student of the game type that follows levels as low as high school. Something he told me when we first started talking sports and when I revealed my content for the NBA, was that I should watch basketball at lower levels to appreciate how great it can be.

Basically, he told me I should watch high school basketball to see what games are like when there's less foul calls and traveling is enforced. He was right, it was definitely more tolerable to watch and in my area, people are REALLY into local basketball despite a decent pro presence.

[kingdom]

I definitely feel that way. Grew up a big sports fan, but the NBA is at the bottom of American team sports for me. I will watch college games before the NBA, and even that's starting to get to the point of no return. My friend is a big basketball enthusiast, real student of the game type that follows levels as low as high school. Something he told me when we first started talking sports and when I revealed my content for the NBA, was that I should watch basketball at lower levels to appreciate how great it can be.

Basically, he told me I should watch high school basketball to see what games are like when there's less foul calls and traveling is enforced. He was right, it was definitely more tolerable to watch and in my area, people are REALLY into local basketball despite a decent pro presence.

These posts are always odd to me. college is at an all time low to watch. devoid of talent as anyone talented over the age of 19 is in the league. so a game with the least talented televised players is fun to watch? i grew up watching all conferences and seeing rivalries grow. There are no more duke michigan games in the days oh laettner and webber. or lsu teams like shaq and chris jackson. even the old kendall gill teams that challenged michigan and st. how about uconn, g'town, syracuse, and villanova. in the nba the talent level is as good as ever. one night you see giannis against harden. another night the great spurs game against okc. gsw against a talented portland team. i believe these guys are lying. no one is really choosing the inferior product. if so tell me the best game you watched in college last week? i watched the end of duke and fsu and it pales to the days i watched charlie ward and the boys go against laettner and grant hill.

[bjb7223]

Did Rick comment on the European tail he's banging?

[jgj311]

These posts are always odd to me. college is at an all time low to watch. devoid of talent as anyone talented over the age of 19 is in the league. so a game with the least talented televised players is fun to watch? i grew up watching all conferences and seeing rivalries grow. There are no more duke michigan games in the days oh laettner and webber. or lsu teams like shaq and chris jackson. even the old kendall gill teams that challenged michigan and st. how about uconn, g'town, syracuse, and villanova. in the nba the talent level is as good as ever. one night you see giannis against harden. another night the great spurs game against okc. gsw against a talented portland team. i believe these guys are lying. no one is really choosing the inferior product. if so tell me the best game you watched in college last week? i watched the end of duke and fsu and it pales to the days i watched charlie ward and the boys go against laettner and grant hill.

When I say I'm watching college over the pros, I mean more as an overall. I don't watch either on a regular basis anymore. But I'll watch a lot more of March Madness than I will the NBA playoffs. Truthfully, I have chosen the NHL over both as my winter sport once I got older and noticed the deterioration of basketball. For tickets to games, I have bought one to a NBA game once this decade. College I go at least 1-2 times a year, NHL I probably go 6-8 times a year.

My problem with the NBA is that it's as close to scripted as it gets in sports. I need parity or unpredictability to really enjoy it. There's just not much of that in the pros. The NBA is a chalk sport, and I can't buy into it. At least in college you have a big unpredictability factor. I will not argue the talent level between the two, I'd be insane to think college can come close to matching it. I'm more arguing that in lower levels, you watch basketball more how it is supposed to be played. Less soft fouls, more enforcement of traveling, and more real defense being played on a consistent basis. Basically, the traditional technique of the sport is closer resembled there.

But again, I'm mainly watching hockey as my side sport during the week and the main sport once football is over. Not to mention the NHL has my personal favorite playoff tournament in sports.

[IBetYou]

In his post-game remarks after the 84-83 win over Argentina, Van Gundy said: "I was an absolute novice when I came to FIBA basketball, learning day by day about how good the teams are, how hard they play, just how rough FIBA (competition) is.
"That’s nineties playoff basketball in the NBA, hand-to-hand combat, fist down your throat, elbow in your chest, on every possession.
"You have to get used to it and you have to embrace the differences."

[IBetYou]

To be clear, FIBA is not Euroleague, so two different basketball systems here, both pure basketball. NBA has changed but basketball elsewhere has remained the same.

[IBetYou]

Euro players coming over to the NBA used to get the "soft" label. Now players coming over from Europe are saying the NBA is soft.