“It. Uh … it … it happened again.”
“It? It? It? No! No, Billy! What the f*** is it, it, it? There is no it! It is you! You happened again!”
– dialogue from White Men Can’t Jump
Until the 2013 Euroleague Final Four then, for which CSKA Moscow is already Fearlessly Predicted™ to appear, Milos Teodosic will be represented by the green dude at right. Yep, it happened again last night.
As though programmed lately to self-destruct at the sound of the fourth-quarter buzzer, Teodosic began the 31st minute with his first statistically-recorded bad pass of the final 10. To his credit, Good Milos was briefly seen in the 34th and 35th, with proper awareness on defense to net him a pair of rebounds that led to two time-killing Team Serbia possessions and reduction of Montenegro’s lead to just three at 59-56 – capped by Dusko Savanovic’s jumper with the assist by Teodosic.
Maybe it was the substitutions, then, but before you could say “Hulk smash,” Bad Milos had thrown the ball away twice more for a final quarter stat line of 1-of-2 shooting, two rebounds, one assist and three TOs in under eight minutes. In total, Teodosic’s cumulative stats through seven EuroBasket qualifiers are as follows.
• In four wins, all pretty decisive: 18-of-34 overall shooting, good for an even 13.0 points per game; 21 assists; 12 rebounds; eight TOs.
• First three quarters in three losses: 13-of-28 overall shooting; 13 assists; seven rebounds; five TOs.
• Fourth quarter in three losses: 2-of-7 overall shooting; two assists; two rebounds; *eight* TOs.
Granted, this is still way too small a sample size – even if the Euroleague championship game implosion is factored in – to pass judgment on one of The Continent’s best and most exciting players. Nevertheless, it appears as though Teodosic is mired in a big-game fourth quarter slump. And with that added emphasis on the point guard playmaker in international tournaments such as this, Bad Milos has the potential to wreak havoc on his own team.
The question now is whether the Hulk will bring down the house around Team Serbia. With three games remaining, the Serbian schedule consists of games vs. Estonia, at Slovakia and vs. Israel. Surely all these are winnable and a 7-3 mark would seem likely to earn Serbia qualification for the ’13 games … right?
In the meantime, keep Teodosic nice and calm…
Tags: Dusko Savanovic, Eurobasket 2013, Eurobasket qualifying rounds, Milos Teodosic, Team Montenegro, Team Serbia, The Incredible Hulk
The Hulk is a bad metaphor. Maybe Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The Hulk is a super hero you know. If Teodosic turned into the Hulk he would be brushing the defenders away and dunking everytime or a least smashing everyone but playing bad basketball? If he really transformed into the Hulk he would at least be dominating the boards right?
@Gabe: I blame the bad metaphor on having seen The Avengers recently (finally) … on the other hand, i could defend it by saying that Hulk may be a super-aggressive force for good but can you see him calling the plays in a half-court offense, setting up the pick-and-roll and handling the ball…? Perhaps he’d be better than Milos right now, but not by much.
I think he is overused. He played in those games 30+ mins. That is 30+ min of constant ball handling. The problem with Serbia is they don’t have a quality backup PG. When Teo is out, the ball movement slows significantly, there are no ideas in the attack. Also the team has a confidence issue, with “easy” opponents they play relaxed and destroy them, with tough ones they tighten up. No one except Teo takes responsibility in the 4th quarter. The result is he is forcing things, trying to do too much.
Meanwhile, the Euroleague did its yearly Turkish Airlines and Euroleague official promotion ad. The players selected every year to do this are “the biggest stars that European basketball has”.
The three players selected were, Juan Carlos Navarro, Vassilis Spanoulis, and Sofoklis Schortsanitis, with Navarro and Spanoulis getting the obvious top billing of the 3.
Here is an article about the commercial and a pic from it.
http://www.sport-fm.gr/article/578117
So these American racists can say whatever they want about Spanoulis and Navarro. The fact of the matter is that they are 10 times bigget stars in Europe than 90% of the NBA players will ever be in the United States.
They are way more famous and bigger names in Europe than the vast majority of NBA players will ever be in the USA. And all the xenophobic and racist American NBA only fans that post here cannot stand that.
Spanoulis was a bench player in the NBA, and JC Navarro was a role player for a bad Memphis team. They are not bigger stars than the majority of NBA players, they are not even as good as the majority of NBA players.
To be fair both of those players only were in the NBA for their rookie year. The only player to really become a star in his rookie year in recent memory was Blake Griffin. Yes Spanoulis was a total bust but JC Navarro was voted to the all-rookie second team. The next year Marc Gasol and Kevin Love were voted to the all-rookie second team and have both become all stars since then. Who knows what would have happened if Navarro and Spanoulis remained a few more years but both of them preferred being superstars in Europe than having to earn their stardom in the NBA which was not guaranteed. For example Rudy was voted all-rookie second team the same year as Marc Gasol and Love but in his 4 years in the NBA never became a star.
[...] Borders Russia +++ EuroBasket 2013 qualifiers: Five prospective NBA players making noise +++ Montenegro 72, Serbia 62: Déjà vu from Guess Who in fourth quarter +++ Good Milos vs. Bad Milos: Is Teodosic the problem for Team Serbia? +++ Cancel the wedding: [...]
Spanoulis was a bench player in the NBA, and JC Navarro was a role player for a bad Memphis team. They are not bigger stars than the majority of NBA players, they are not even as good as the majority of NBA players.
—
They are bigger stars worldwide than 95+% of NBA players.
World wide? lol How many people in the Olympics had Spanoulis and Navarro jerseys? Out of Greece and Spain no one knows who Spanoulis and Navarro are. My parents just went to Africa and saw people with James jerseys. You think those people even have a clue who Spanoulis and Navarro are??
If you think Spanoulis and JC Navarro are even close to the stardom of the top 20% of NBA stars you are more than delusional. How can it be judged. In salary, endorsements and and jersey sales alone the NBA reigns supreme? Where ever you go in the world you see NBA jerseys and merchandise. I have never once seen a Euroleague jersey anywhere, granted recently I’ve only been in the US and Caribbean. But I hear from people who travel to Europe, Asia, Africa, etc…that the NBA is a global brand. I don’t ask them about Euroleague because they would have no idea what I was talking about!! I bet you even in Greece and Spain the top NBA players are bigger stars than Spanoulis or Navarro. I especially liked how the advertisements for the 2010 FIBA world championship only showed NBA players, even just role players, over any Euroleague player.
[...] What can be said about the Estonia-Serbia game that hasn’t been already? Once again Serbia gave up a halftime lead; once again the team was forced to try and dig out of a fourth-quarter hole; once again the lack of communication on offense was evident (Would you believe just five total assists?); and once again Milos Teodosic self-destructed in the fourth quarter… [...]
[...] Whаt саn bе ѕаіԁ аbουt thе Estonia-Serbia game thаt hasn’t bееn already? Once again Serbia gave up a halftime lead; once again thе team wаѕ forced tο try аnԁ dig out οf a fourth-quarter hole; once again thе lack οf communication οn offense wаѕ evident (WουƖԁ уου believe јυѕt five total assists?); аnԁ once again Milos Teodosic self-destructed іn thе fourth quarter… [...]
If you think the average person in Europe has ever even heard of 95% of the American players in the NBA, then you are a totally delusional moron.
Well you’re probably right. The average person in America hasn’t heard of 95% of the players in the NBA either. The NBA has like 400 players so even if people know only 5% that is still like 20 players, so obviously the average person anywhere who is not a fan would have trouble naming more than 5 players. Even some causal fans might have trouble naming 20 players. The point is that people all over the world, including Europe, know more NBA players than Euroleague players.
In the last two years I have been in Italy, Poland, Kazakhstan, Germany, England, Switzerland, Armenia and Canada; as well as having lived in both the United States and the Republic of Georgia….. I have had educated discussions about basketball with people all over the world; people in most countries know NBA players, like in Georgia, everyone loves Zaza Pachulia and there is a picture of him inside and in front of the High School he went to in Tblisi. In Svaneti, literally in the middle of nowhere out in the mountains with no paved roads and very few TVs, someone wrote “Chicago Bulls” on some wall. A friend in Tblisi and I watched every game of the Mavs sweeping the Lakers two years ago on a computer because he is a “lifelong Mavs fan”. and I watched the last three games of the 2011 finals at a bar in Almaty. There was a billboard with Dwight Howard and Derick Rose on it in Italy, a couchsurfer I stayed with in Istanbul, a HUGE Besiktas soccer fan, started paying attention to basketball when Iverson came over because “he always played with him as a kid on NBA 2k”, stopped watching when he got hurt, and then said that he attended every Deron Williams home game and has been watching ever since. In Germany, I talked to two really hot girls from Wurzburg about Nowitzki, and tons of people made comments about my Mavericks shirt. In Bolognia, In Bolognia, I asked a couple people about Brodroga, and nobody knew, but they knew Andrea Bargniani and Marco Bellineli, and a high school basketball team that my team in Georgia was playing against all wore Derrick Rose jerseys as their uniform……. Not once have I ever seen or heard or seen anything about a Euroleague player. There are tons of FC Barcalona jerseys everywhere in the world though, but, they always say Messi on the back, not Navarro.
Pure and simple, the NBA dominates the world basketball landscape and there is no serious competition to its worldwide supremacy. None.
Dallas, you’re absolutely right. Every time the facts are presented to these Flat Earther Euros, they shut up, and go back in their mom’s basement.
thank you, Mike! Lol, it really is funny how they just back away from reason here.
Americans are the dumbest people on Earth. This discussion proves that.
You are an American.
Fenerbahce Ulker president Aziz Yıldırım was a guest at a football show on Turkish television NTVspor and he made shocking statements about Euroleague referees. Yıldırım said: ” Every referee that comes to Turkey to officiate a Euroleague game goes straight to Grand Bazaar. They buy expensive clothes, gifts and we pay for them. It’s like a tradition for euroleague referees because all other clubs did it in the past. I dare anyone-he’s talking about other Turkish clubs- to claim that they never did it. I can easily prove that each club has done that but it’s not for match fixing. In fact, Turkish Basketball Federation organizes this. They came here, we buy presents and sometimes lose the game. ”
Aziz Yıldırım was on national television to talk about match fixing scandals in Turkey for the first time after he spent almost a year in prison.
Wow, do you have a link for that? I would love to read that story.
[...] match against FC Barcelona, Ettore Messina and CSKA Moscow seemed to have deduced the solution to Milos Teodosic’s fourth-quarter woes dating back to the 2012 Final Four tournament: Simply blow out opponents so that no clutch play is [...]