Marc Berman recently published an article at NYPost.com saying that “Knicks have Gallinari doubts.” Give the [New York] people what the people want! We [bloggers and journalists] all know that a good headline is everything! – at least Berman’s right about this.
If you keep reading his article, you will find out that the Knicks in fact don’t have any doubt about Gallinari’s impact on the team.
“The thing I really liked what I saw from Danilo, he looked to make other players better,” the Knicks president said during a guest stint on the MSG Network telecast yesterday. “When he’s out on the floor, he has a sense of the game already to make his team better. I would’ve liked to seen him play for the entire length but I saw enough to feel good about.”
Oh right, I get it – the Knicks have doubts that Gallinari will play one-on-five like their “old” superstars of the past. They fear that he’ll actually play team basketball.
Since Marc himself did not find a real basketball reason for the Knicks to have Gallinari doubts, he talks about Gallinari’s physical condition.
Gallinari’s summer league raises questions on whether he’ll be durable enough to withstand the NBA’s physical pounding, at 6’10”, 227, as a rookie.
I really wonder if Marc thinks basketball just comes as a god-given gift in Europe, and that you don’t need to practice at all overseas. Yes, the NBA season is something like 80+ games. Now in Europe, Gallinari and every other player plays once a week for their domestic league, once a week for Euroleague games and once a week for domestic cup games. On top of that, each team practices twice a day for eight months. Add up the games and you end up with at least 8 or 9 games a month, times eight months equals … just abut 70 games a season.
Do you think Mr. Gallinari knows what physical pounding means…?
