Kobe says Dirk best non-US player ever; BallinEurope respectfully disagrees

No disrespect to Dirk Nowitzki and what he’s accomplished in his 15 NBA seasons and international play, but BallinEurope felt obliged to respond to a 141-character length injustice this afternoon.

Said Kobe Bryant, via FIBA:

But BiE begs to differ. Again, no disrespect.

BallinEurope suspects a few readers might agree. Of course, there’s also…

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Comments: 10
  1. Vince
    6 years ago

    Although Dirk probably had the best NBA career, he is not as good as Sabonis and Petrovic were career wise overall and was not a better player than either one of the latter 2

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  2. Jack
    6 years ago

    Hakeem Olajuwon is the best one obviously. Kobe is a moron.

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  3. mike
    6 years ago

    Hakeem can be considered if you don’t consider him foreign, although he played for Team USA and lives in the US..I’m sure Kobe considered the fact that Dirk LED a team to the NBA Title, the title with the most prestige in the world of basketball. LEADING a team built around you against the world’s best players in very tough 7 game series(the Olympics feature many of the world’s best players but has a flukish nature with the one and done setup) is really the ultimate.

    Sabonis and Petro were great also but were never tested in an NBA Title situation, sadly due to events not of their choosing. So we will never know.

    With Dirk, however, it’s proven history.

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  4. Stan
    6 years ago

    Anyone saying Hakeem isn’t foreign is retarded. That includes Kobe and mike.

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    • Gabe
      6 years ago

      Olajuwon became a naturalized American citizen on April 2, 1993.

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  5. Stan
    6 years ago

    Also, Hakeem does not live in the US, and he has not lived in the US for many years.

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  6. Thomas
    6 years ago

    Who the hell cares if Hakeem is an naturalized American or not? I never saw any law in US naturalization that you have to renounce being a foreign citizen once you get naturalized.

    Hakeem is a dual citizen with Jordan, and was born and raised until adulthood in Nigeria.

    He has lived in Jordan for many years now.

    He is 100% most definitely a foreign player, and all people saying he is not are pathetic low life creeps.

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    • Gabe
      6 years ago

      Hakeem moved to the US at 18 to play college basketball and has been living in the US ever since. He has a ranch in Houston where he spends his time when he is not in Jordan.

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  7. Travis
    6 years ago

    You could also make the argument for Oscar Schmidt. Despite never playing in the NBA, he routinely dominated international basketball for many years. Are we ever going to see another player break his Olympic and FIBA World Championship scoring records?

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  8. jon
    6 years ago

    Hakeem lives in Jordan. He only is in the US for 1 month of the year to train players. That it is.

    He does NOT live in the US.

    ReplyCancel

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ballineurope
6 years ago 10 Comments EuroLeague, More, NBA/NCAA, , , , , ,