Where all the young European big guys hide

Who’s the best young European big man ? If you watched Euroleague TV those last few weeks, there’s no way you pass on Nikola Pekovic who has blossomed into a superstar at age 21. It was hard to predict such an improvement really since last year he played in the shadow of another talented young center. His name ? Kosta Perovic.

Ukrainian giant Kyrylo Fesenko went under the radar as he played for a small Ukrainian team those last few years. But it didn’t take long until a couple of NBA scouts found him. He was a second round pick this summer, which usually means - for a European - at best you’ll play in the League in 4 or 5 years, if you ever play there. But Fesenko wasn’t your everyday European second round pick. The Jazz inked him for 3 guaranteed years.

Outside Fred Weis, the French National Team has been known for years for their lack of size in the middle. Jim Bilba, Vincent Masingue, Cyril Julian or Florent Pietrus were/are fabulous basketball players but it always was a pain to see them unable to look at their opponents in the eyes. And then Ian Mahinmi came from nowhere. He was that 2.11m dude who banged his huge body from Normandy to Bearn. Suddenly (and if you add Joakim Noah to the list), size didn’t seem to matter so much for France any longer.

You think those 3 guys would play against a strong opposition in Europe ? Or since they all got drafted, starring in the NBA ? Nah, actually those 3 young promising European big guys have something else in common. All three were assigned to the D-League those last 2 weeks.

Now I’ve got nothing against this League but the little I saw didn’t make me eager to ask for a refill… Maybe playing for a team that will change his roster 7 times in 3 months and where most of the players will consider a shot opportunity as their last shot to make the NBA is a very underrated way to develop a player.