Before we get the first words from Andre who is in New Orleans, I wanted to give you a little preview of it in a different way. As I barely follow the NBA, I had of course to check first the rosters and see that the Euro-invasion to the NBA seems to be over.Where have all the Euros gone if just Dirk Nowitzki is present during the All-Star game. Ok, Shaquille O’Neal, who is not an All-Star anymore knew years ago already that Dirk will become a real superstar as you can see.
[youtube cHCnisfMIjk nolink]Talking about Shaq, he is one of the only guys I remember from last year’s edition when he was dancing with Dwight Howard. And that you hear such good words from him on a European player is pretty rare. Some people may remember the time when Shaq played with the Lakers and had found a very good friend in the person of the former King and Ball in Europe prophet Vlade Divac.
[youtube XKhP3PnB_xM nolink]Of course, I can understand Shaq because he probably watch the show below to get introduced to this strange person coming from the mountains of Montenegro.
[youtube __wtcpl5uxg nolink]Ok this was only a stupid American comedy but we all know Vlade for what he can do best, don’t we?
[youtube 8-bFq5eP96Y nolink]But coming back to the All-Star game. Where have all the Euros gone? Ok some players came back to Europe and it was a good choice but I still don’t understand what they got for food in the States that they have to make such a strange face right now. While the French NBA players prefer to go to the pool in Summer instead of practicing, their performances are not good enough anymore to be considered as an All-Star.
At least the Rookie Challenge features some Euro players. Who does not remember Arvydas Sabonis playing the Rookie Game in 1996 being 10 years older than most of the future stars of that game including some great players like Eric Williams or Bryant Reeves, wow. So good luck to Andrea Bargnani and Juan Carlos Navarro to see the ball in their hands sometimes.
These were my last words about the NBA All-Star game though. I won’t watch, so I prefer handing over the writing pen to Andre who covers the Weekend live in “la Nouvelle Orléans”.
