Parker leads 11 French NBAers
With NBA teams starting to get warmed up for the regular season tipoff, BallinEurope figured it high time to take stock of the European players prospectively set to take the court in America for 2010-11.
In considering the expanded rosters for each of the 30 NBA teams, BiE counted 50 players from The Continent plus one free agent. The asterisk here is Linas Kleiza, who carries an American passport and in fact has played organized ball in the ‘States since high school, but hey: He’s a Team Lithuania guy, so he makes this list.
A country-by-country tally produces some interesting results. France again leads all non-U.S. nations in supplying players. In fact, had Yakhouba Diawara not taken his talents out of South Beach in favor of Italia Serie A’s New Basket Brindisi, the ineffable signing of Papa Sy would have given La Republique a potential full roster of 12 NBA players.
Beyond France, another two countries could field starting lineups in the NBA: Serbia brings Nenad Krstic, Nikola Pekovic, Vladimir Radmanovic (now sporting an ultra-cool 77 on his jersey for the Golden State Warriors), Peja Stojakovic and the immortal Darko “Kahn says I’m better than Vlade Divac” Milicic. Turkey represents in America with loads of talent in Omer Asik, Semih Erden, Ersan Ilyasova, Mehmet Okur and Hedo Turkoglu.
Drazen would be disappointed
Perhaps most shocking when considering a country-by-country comparison, however, is the stunning lack of Croatian players in the NBA: This season will mark just the second since Drazen Petrovic’s debut in 1989 that no Croatian player is on the courts of the big league.
Assuming for the nonce that the proposed four-team trade involving Carmelo Anthony, Andrei Kirilenko and Boris Diaw goes through on Monday, a club-by-club breakdown shows that a mere five teams are starting the preseason without Europeans – and just one of these, the Houston Rockets, cannot be classified as a potential bottom-feeder.
Meanwhile, those Toronto Euroraptors are seeing their dominance in hogging Continental players fade a bit – for now. Three other teams – the Mavericks, Knicks and Jazz (with or without the Carmelo trade) have four European players, surpassing the official BallinEurope NBA home team. Thanks to Rasho Nesterovic’s departure to Olympiacos, the Raps are left with just three Euro players.
There may be hope for North America’s best Euroleague team, though, as local media reports that Brezec and Kyrylo Fesenko are on a shortlist to fill a big man’s spot on the roster.
The club-by-club listing looks like the following.
NBA teams with four Europeans listed on the extended roster: Dallas Mavericks (a.k.a. France West with Alexis Ajinca, Rodrigue Beaubois and Ian Mahinmi), New York Knicks, Utah Jazz.
Three: New Jersey Nets, New Orleans Hornets, Golden State Warriors, Toronto Raptors.
Two: Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns (not including Josh Childress), Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings.
One: Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks (since BiE’s no longer counting Brandon Jennings), Philadelphia 76ers, San Antonio Spurs, Washington Wizards.
Zero: Charlotte Bobcats, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers.
Finally, the country-by-country breakdown runs as follows. BiE will update these lists as the season goes on but for now, we’ve got:
Biedrins: Mr. Latvia Basketball
Belgium (1) – D.J. Mbenga (Nuggets)
France (11) – Alexis Ajinca, Rodrigue Beaubois, Ian Mahinmi (Mavericks); Nicolas Batum (Blazers); Boris Diaw (Jazz); Tony Parker (Spurs); Johan Petro (Nets); Mickael Pietrus (Magic); Kevin Seraphin (Wizards); Papa Sy (Hawks); Ronny Turiaf (Knicks)
Georgia (1) – Zaza Pachulia (Hawks)
Germany (1) – Dirk Nowitzki (Mavericks)
Great Britain (3) – Kelenna Azubuike (Knicks); Luol Deng (Bulls); Pops Mensah-Bonsu (Hornets)
Israel (1) – Omri Casspi (Kings)
Italy (3) – Andrea Bargnani (Raptors); Marco Belinelli (Hornets); Danilo Gallinari (Knicks)
Latvia (1) – Andris Biedrins (Warriors)
Lithuania (3) – Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Heat); Linas Kleiza (Raptors); Darius Songaila (76ers)
Netherlands (2) – Francisco Elson (Jazz); Dan Gadzuric (Warriors)
Poland (1) – Marcin Gortat (Magic)
Russia (2) – Andrei Kirilenko (Nuggets); Timofey Mozgov (Knicks)
Serbia (5) – Nenad Krstic (Thunder); Darko Milicic, Nikola Pekovic (Timberwolves); Vladimir Radmanovic (Warriors); Peja Stojakovic (Hornets)
Slovenia (4) – Primoz Brezec (free agent); Goran Dragic (Suns); Beno Udrih (Kings); Sasha Vujacic (Lakers)
Spain (4) – Jose Calderon (Raptors); Rudy Fernandez (Blazers, for now); Marc Gasol (Grizzlies); Pau Gasol (Lakers)
Sweden (1) – Jonas Jerebko (Pistons)
Switzerland (1) – Thabo Sefolosha (Thunder)
Turkey (5) – Omer Asik (Bulls); Semih Erden (Celtics); Ersan Ilyasova (Bucks); Mehmet Okur (Jazz); Hedo Turkoglu (Suns)
Ukraine (1) – Kryrylo Fesenko (Jazz, restricted free agent)
Tags: Alexis Ajinca, Andrea Bargnani, Andrei Kirilenko, Andris Biedrins, Atlanta Hawks, Belgium, Beno Udrih, Boris Diaw, Boston Celtics, Brandon Jennings, Carmelo Anthony, Charlotte Bobcats, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, D.J. Mbenga, Dallas Mavericks, Dan Gadzuric, Danilo Gallinari, Darius Songaila, Darko Milicic, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Dirk Nowitzki, Drazen Petrovic, Ersan Ilyasova, France, Francisco Elson, Georgia, Germany, Golden State Warriors, Goran Dragic, Great Britain, Hedo Turkoglu, Houston Rockets, Ian Mahinmi, Indiana Pacers, Israel, Italy, Johan Petro, Jonas Jerebko, Jose Calderon, Josh Childress, Kelenna Azubuike, Kevin Seraphin, Kyrylo Fesenko, Latvia, Linas Kleiza, Lithuania, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Luol Deng, Marc Gasol, Marcin Gortat, Marco Belinelli, Mehmet Okur, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Mickael Pietrus, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA, Nenad Krstic, Netherlands, New Basket Brindisi, New Jersey Nets, New Orleans Hornets, New York Knicks, Nicolas Batum, Nikola Pekovic, Oklahoma City Thunder, Oleksiy Pecherov, Olympiacos, Omer Asik, Omri Casspi, Orlando Magic, Papa Sy, Pau Gasol, Peja Stojakovic, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Poland, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Portland Trail Blazers, Primoz Brezec, Rasho Nesterovic, Rodrigue Beaubois, Ronny Turiaf, Rudy Fernandez, Russia, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Sasha Vujacic, Semih Erden, Serbia, Sergio Rodriguez, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thabo Sefolosha, Timofey Mozgov, Tony Parker, Toronto Raptors, Turkey, Ukraine, Utah Jazz, Vladimir Radmanovic, Washington Wizards, Yakhouba Diawara, Zaza Pachulia, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Uhm, Sergio Rodriguez has been seen somewhere in Spain playing for Real Madrid recently… http://www.acb.com/fichas/SCOPA11002.php
Isn’t Rasho Nesterovic in Olympiakos?
Sergio Rodriguez plays for Real Madrid, Rasho Nesterovic for Olympiakos.. Does anybody know where will Sasha Pavlovic play next season?
@ Majkemi, Wicek, AM, everybody else: Thanks for the help; you guys are all awesome.
just one remark, nikola pekovic is not serbian, he’s montenegrin
oleksyj pecherov is playing for milano armani jeans now, there are 3 lithuanians, not 2,
You say 2 players for Lithuania but list 3 of them. What about Lithuanian – Javtokas – who plays for Oklahoma???
@ Linas: I thought Javtokas was with Valencia for this season…
Btw, didnt Chris Kaman play for Germany the last eurobasket?
@ Glenn: Yeah … i went back and forth on including Kaman in this list, but ultimately decided that he’s a Yank.
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Where did you get the info that Linas Kleiza has American passport? The most he could have is the Green Card, his parents started living in USA few years earlier than he himself did. Also, Lithuanian laws does not approve multiple citizenships, so if he gets an American one, he’s no longer eligible to play for Lithuanian national team. Moreover, as a Lithuanian and basketball fan as well I would have known about such things, believe me.
Where did you get the info that Linas Kleiza has American passport? The most he could have is the Green Card, his parents started living in USA few years earlier than he himself did. Also, Lithuanian laws does not approve multiple citizenships, so if he gets an American one, he’s no longer eligible to play for Lithuanian national team. Moreover, as a Lithuanian and basketball fan as well I would have known about such things, believe me.
@ztkp.pl: untrue.
Though multiple citizenships are not approved NOW, they used to be approved which means that all citizens that had multiple citizenship before that law came in force (btw it is still being discussed afaik), were not stripped of such privilege.
As for having an American passport in Linas’ case, I don’t know
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what happened to sasha pavlovic? does anyone know what team hes playing for this year?
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