HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Peter May

They slowly emerged on the NBA scene in the 1980s. They became mainstays in the 1990s. In the last decade, for the first time in league history, one of them became a Most Valuable Player and another became a Rookie of the Year. Two would earn Most Improved Player Awards and two others would earn Sixth Man Awards.

For the foreign-born players, whose sole basketball experience prior to the NBA had been playing in Europe, Asia or South America, this past decade was one of remarkable growth in both numbers and talent. At the beginning of this season, the NBA counted 83 international players on rosters from 36 countries. Dirk Nowitzki, the only German in the NBA, won the 2006 Most Valuable Player award. Pau Gasol, one of five Spaniards in the league, won the rookie honors in 2002.

Those two continue to excel to this day and are the starting forwards on my All-Foreign first team of the decade. I decided to exclude foreign-born players who played college ball in the United States. Thus, no Steve Nash (a lock for first team otherwise) and no Andrew Bogut (who wouldn’t have made it anyway.)

It wasn’t hard selecting the first team. After that, it got a bit dicier. One of the revelations: a lack of high-caliber guards from across the pond (or below the Equator.)

And it was hard to eliminate people like Vladimir Radmanovic, who nonetheless is still responsible for my all-time favorite story involving a foreign player. During the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, Radmanovic was kicked off his national team. He then proceeded to watch them play sitting in the stands, wearing his national team sweats.

At any rate, here is one writer’s take on the best foreign-born players of the last 10 years.

First Team

Center: Yao Ming, China

Forwards: Dirk Nowitzki, Germany; Pau Gasol, Spain

Guards: Tony Parker, France; Manu Ginobili, Argentina

Explanation: There really can’t be a whole lot of debate about this unit, unless you want to use the traditional small forward/power forward configuration. While out of action this season, Yao has developed into, arguably, the league’s best center. And he did so carrying the weight of, oh, a billion people on his shoulders.

Nowitzki right now may rank as the greatest foreigner ever to play in the league – and we can only wonder what would have happened to him had Rick Pitino got his wish and been able to draft him in 1998. (Paul Pierce wasn’t a bad consolation prize.)

Gasol has helped turn the Lakers into annual title contenders. Parker and Ginobili each have three championship rings from the Spurs with Parker getting MVP honors for the 2007 NBA Finals.

Second Team

Center: Vlade Divac, Serbia

Forwards: Peja Stojakovic, Serbia; Andrei Kirilenko, Russia

Guards: Hedo Turkoglu, Turkey; Jose Calderon, Spain

Explanation: Those who have only briefly become NBA fans may need a refresher on the remarkable Divac, whose career spanned parts of three decades. He was a critical member of the Kings from 2000-2004 and, back then, Sacramento was really good, just not good enough to overtake the Lakers. He was a gifted passer; only three others in NBA history have amassed 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots: Kevin Garnett, Hakeem Olajuwon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. (Tim Duncan should join that group this season.)

Stojakovic was also a big-time player on those early 2000s Kings teams and has an All-NBA 2nd team selection on his resume from 2004. He remains one of the game’s most dead-eye shooters. Kirilenko has slumped lately, but his athleticism and quirkiness helped change the image of the tall, slow-footed, mechanical European big man. Kirkilenko remains the only player of this group to have made an All-Defensive Team. He actually made three of them, including the first team in 2005-06.

Turkoglu gets slotted as a guard here because, basically, he is one, despite his height. He cashed in on a big playoff performance in 2009, helped by a vintage Game 7 submission in Boston against the Celtics. Calderon is one of two players on my All-Foreign teams never to have been drafted. But he now is in his fifth season with the Raptors and is usually among the league leaders in free throws and assist-to-turnovers.

Third Team

C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Lithuania

F: Mehmet Okur, Turkey; Boris Diaw, France

G: Andres Nocioni, Argentina; Leandro Barbosa, Brazil

Explanation: As always, selecting the last members of the team proved to be a challenge. I can already hear the Luis Scola Fan Club (of which I am a dues-paying member) complaining. But Scola had only two years of NBA play this decade, so he loses out on that. But I love the guy. Ilgauskas is a great story, recovering from apparent career-ending foot woes to be a big part of the Cavaliers’ recent success. He’s been in two All-Star Games. Okur plays center on occasion, but, for purposes of this discussion, is designated as a forward. He has an All-Star Game appearance on his CV.

Diaw has stumbled a bit the bast couple of years, but he was a human Swiss Army Knife for the Mike D’Antoni Phoenix Suns in the middle of the decade, winning Most Improved Player honors in 2005-06. The never-drafted Nocioni gets in as a guard, even though he plays mostly forward. But he has guard size and he needs to be on this list, especially given the dearth of guards.

Barbosa, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year winner in 2007 (one year before Manu Ginobili won it) rounds out the team. He may not even be the best Brazilian playing right now (Nenê, Anderson Varejao) but, again, he gets the nod because of lack of competition for the position.

Toughest Omissions

Scola and Nene were the two hardest. Varejao and Mickael Pietrus come next. Radmanovic, Rasho Nesterovic, and even Andris Biedrins might find their way onto similar lists. Just not this one. And the third highest drafted foreign-born player (after Yao and Andrea Bargnani) played most of the decade and didn’t even get remote consideration. That would be the underwhelming Darko Milicic, the No. 2 overall pick in 2003. Bargnani will get consideration for the next decade, along with Yi Jianlian, Rudy Fernandez, and, possibly, some guy named Ricky Rubio.

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The spin coming out of the Twin Cities now is that Ricky Rubio has a chance to grow, mature, develop and play at a high caliber in Europe for the next two years before joining Minnesota in 2011.

What, he couldn’t do that in Minneapolis?

Of course he could and, if Rubio really, really, really wanted to play in the NBA this season, he would be checking out the real estate in Minneapolis-St. Paul today. He has always been described as creative with the ball. He proved this week that he’s pretty creative without the ball as well.

The Timberwolves’ inability to get Rubio into the NBA this season has to be viewed as a major disappointment, president David Kahn’s comments notwithstanding. (At this point, I, like pretty much every NBA writer over the age of, well, never mind, can recall the days when Kahn worked in Portland covering the Blazers for the Oregonian. We all know him and like him.)

Minnesota used the No. 5 pick in the draft and, no sooner than you could say Fran Vazquez, found itself trying to work out a deal to get the kid across the pond. It was Rubio, or those acting on his behalf (more on that later) who, after all, had put his name in for the draft. That would seem to indicate he had an intention to play in the NBA for the 2009-10 season.

Kahn spent so much time in Barcelona over the summer that he had his own table at Los Caracoles. He finally worked out a deal to finance the exorbitant buyout from Spanish Team 1 (DKV Joventut) only to discover that Spanish Team 2 (Regal Barcelona) jumped in and ponied up, securing Rubio’s services for at least two more years.

Rubio then said a move to Minnesota was too risky and complicated at this time, a somewhat stunning revelation given that he is guaranteed millions of dollars under the NBA’s rookie contract guidelines. As for complications, well, sure, Minneapolis ain’t Barcelona and Hennepin Avenue ain’t no Ramblas. And in two years, that will all still be true.

More to the point, the Euroleague ain’t no NBA and that is why Rubio’s decision doesn’t prepare him any more for entrance into the world’s greatest basketball league. It merely delays the adjustment. Maybe he’ll be better able to handle it at age 20 than he would be now, but that is of little solace to the Timberwolves.

It’s not like Rubio’s presence in a Minnesota uniform this season would magically transform the Timberwolves into a Western Conference power. It wouldn’t. Regardless of where Rubio plays in 2009-10, the Timberwolves are pretty much going to stink. Kahn understands that. Kurt Rambis understands that.

What Rubio’s presence in a Minnesota uniform this season would do is start the adjustment and acclimation process while introducing him to the ways of the NBA. In Minnesota, he would be working with the team’s strength and conditioning coaches on a daily basis. In Minnesota, he would be working with Rambis and the coaches. In Minnesota, he would be getting to know his teammates.

And in Minnesota, he would be getting the introduction to NBA 101, ranging from the travel to the back-to-backs to the long schedule to the nightly competition of the world’s best players. That is maturing, growing up and developing.

None of that will happen in Barcelona, where Rubio will be out of sight and out of mind, thousands of miles from Minnesota. To be sure, much will be expected of the kid from his new team.

By contrast, he would be under zero pressure to produce in Minnesota, where, insightful Timberwolves fans would understand, he would be getting groomed to play in the NBA with no great expectations as a rookie on a bad team.

This is what the Spurs did with Tony Parker, although Parker did not join a bad team. Initially, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich didn’t even want to draft Parker. But he changed his mind after a second workout and Parker, at age 19, came to San Antonio, starting 72 games as a rookie. The rest is history. But do you think Parker would be where he is today had he chosen to stay a couple more years in France rather than work alongside Tim Duncan and David Robinson?

You have to wonder who has Rubio’s ear and who has his best interests at heart. Who stepped in after Kahn had worked out a complicated buyout from DKV Joventut and then proceeded to midwive the deal to Regal Barcelona? If Rubio truly wanted to play in the NBA, why was that not allowed to happen? (It may be possible he doesn’t want to play for Minnesota, which is another story for another day. He has not said as much publicly.)

He has an American agent (the universally loathed Dan Fegan.) He has European representatives. He has family and friends. Yes, it’s going to be more fun for the familia Rubio to have their son around. He will be rock-star famous in Spain whereas he’d be just another rookie in the NBA. He will be amply compensated in Barcelona.

But he will be no closer to being NBA-ready. That only comes from actually playing in the NBA. By staying in Spain he has delayed what Minnesota hopes is the inevitable. But in two years, who knows? The Wolves still hold his rights and he might be attractive trade bait. Or he might decide that Barcelona is just fine.

Either way, it’s not what Minnesota hoped when it made him a lottery pick last June. And the fact that Kahn went to the lengths he did to get Rubio to Minnesota indicates it’s not what Minnesota wanted or expected, either. He did about all he could, but, in the end, it wasn’t enough.

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