Nikos Pappas Against The Australian National Team

He only played in 11 games during the season. That is why he only got 2 votes. If he sucks so much, then how the hell did he score 17 points against one of the best national teams on the planet?

Okay, since you’re asking for it.

Australia is not one of the best teams in basketball. Far from it. And that’s when all of their players are healthy and participating. Which is not the case this time.

Pappas played 29 minutes and took 14 shots to get to 17 points. He had 43% overall in FGs and just 29% in 3s, which shows that he still has problems finding his range. He had 4 rebounds (which is good for a guard) but also managed 5 TOs and only 2 assists.

He wasn’t even the best player of the team, see what Bogris did in less minutes (i know he is a center, so the shot % will naturally be higher but still).

Such stats against sub-par competition aren’t mind-boggling and certainly will not affect his status. He must stay another year in PAOK, work his ass off, finish up third and do well in the Euroleague for him to be considered.

You are a complete moron.

Piss of Makaros

NBA only fans are truly pathetic.

To Neville, Greece was just sending over a team with some young players that could get some training outside of their clubs. They don’t get any other training because they don’t play with the national team and they don’t play in youth tournaments.

Surely Australia knew that they were scheduling just a training practice Greek team that is basically used for the coaches and federation of Greece to get to know the players a bit better?

I was under the understanding that Australia scheduled them just so they could keep their game sharp and try out more things and get more in shape. I don’t think they scheduled them for competition. I think it was just because Australia has a very hard time to get any teams to travel so far to play them.

If Australia intended for more competition, then Greece would have sent a lot of different players. Giannopoulos is injured and Kavvadas has to help the main team in practice because they have some injuries.

But besides them many of the B selection players were not called. Like Pat Calathes, Dan Mavraides, Steve Panos, Vlantimir Giankovits, etc. So I mean, it’s not like Greece was intending to send Australia a team with competition in mind.

I think surely that this must have been made known to Australia before Greece selected the team. Otherwise it seems like Greece made some odd choices in how they selected the tarining team. I mean Athinou, Tsakaleris, Giannakidis? I have no clue why they would be in the team, if Greece ever had intentions of making a good competition for Australia to prepare.

If Australia paid for Greece to send a team that would be competitive, then Greece did not even try. Sure, they intended to have Giannopoulos and Kavvadas play, and that would have made the team better, but still. We are talking about a team made up mostly of second or third rate Greek League players, most of which are very young and inexpierenced.

There are some very talented young players there, but clearly that team was not put together with the thought of giving Australia anything more than practice sessions. Just think as an example, you have a guy like Bogris that has talent and potential, but that sat on the bench and didn’t play for 2 years. Or a guy like Katsivelis that also has talent and good potential, but was the 16th man of Olympiacos roster and so forth.

So maybe Australi or Greece misunderstood each other on what they wanted out of the 3 game deal?