Just two days ago the teams for the Euroleague All Star game have been announced. As you may know the two teams are called EUROPE and REST OF THE WORLD. Of course the REST OF THE WORLD is stacked with players that would also participate in a WNBA all star game but it is even more interesting to take a look at team EUROPE.
The complete teams:
EUROPE
G – Elisa Aguilar (Ros Casares)
G – Marta Fernandez (Wisla Can-Pack)
G/F – Anete Jekabsone-Zogota (Dynamo)
F – Amaya Valdemoro (CSKA Moscow)
C – Nevriye Yilmaz (Fenerbahce)
G – Celine Dumerc (Bourges Basket)
G – Dalma Ivanyi (MiZo Pecs 2010)
F – Eva Viteckova (Gambrinus Brno)
F – Agnieszka Bibrzycka (UMMC Ekaterinburg)
F – Tatiana Shchegoleva (Spartak Moscow Region)
C – Maria Stepanova (CSKA Moscow)
C – Ann Wauters (CSKA Moscow)
REST OF THE WORLD
G – Diana Taurasi (Spartak Moscow Region)
G – Lindsay Whalen (ZVVZ Prague)
F – Lauren Jackson (Spartak Moscow Region)
F – Cappie Pondexter (Fenerbahce)
C – Delisha Milton-Jones (Ros Casares)
G – Kedra Holland-Korn (Phard Napoli)
G – Nykesha Sales (TEO Vilnius)
G – Jessica Dickson (Jolly JBS Sibenik)
F – Chamique Holdsclaw (Lotos PKO BP)
C – Janel McCarville (Kosit 2013)
C – Iciss Tillis (TTT Riga)
C – Nicole Ohlde (USVO)
With only two girls coming from Western European teams, Celine Dumerc (Bourges Basket, France) and Elisa Aguilar (Ros Casares, Spain) I have to ask one question: Why?
Out of the 24 teams almost two third are from Eastern European countries like Russia, Turkey, Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Lithuania. For Western Europe you only have Spain France, Belgium and Italy. Of course you can say now that the size of the Western European countries is much bigger than the size of the East and for that matter Eastern European countries can send more teams to the Euroleague.
Compare that to the men’s Euroleague and you will see that almost half of the teams come out of the West. So the size of the Western countries is not a valid point.
What is the reason then? Money? Love for women’s basketball or just the fact that for women’s basketball more talents are made in the East..
