[European BasketballerParticipant]

 Greek national team NCAA players Tyler Dorsey (Oregon) and Zach Auguste (Notre Dame) have both made it to the Elite Eight.

Discuss please.

 

 

[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

I think its quite clear that the fantastic Greek youth program is what turned these 2 into Elite Eight calibre players

[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

I think its quite clear that the fantastic Greek youth program is what turned these 2 into Elite Eight calibre players

[McDunkin]

Years ago you banished Ioannis Papapetrou from Greece and called him a lesser prospect for going to American high school and then Texas university…what has changed?

[McDunkin]

Years ago you banished Ioannis Papapetrou from Greece and called him a lesser prospect for going to American high school and then Texas university…what has changed?

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 I never said any such thing. I just said you were wrong when you claimed he was the best talent and prospect Greece had. He’s a good young player, and he’s talented, but it’s ridiculous to say he is the best young talent of Greek basketball.

And you would know that if you were not just always assuming every player in Greece sucks. Which is exactly what you do.

 

 

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 I never said any such thing. I just said you were wrong when you claimed he was the best talent and prospect Greece had. He’s a good young player, and he’s talented, but it’s ridiculous to say he is the best young talent of Greek basketball.

And you would know that if you were not just always assuming every player in Greece sucks. Which is exactly what you do.

 

 

[Hype Machine]

Im keen to see if the Greek National team can win their Olympic Qualifying Tournament coming up later in the year. Should be possible with tricky games against Croatia, Italy and Mexico looming.

I can’t help but feel like theres some lingering resentment towards Greek Players from the basketball community after they gloriously beat Team USA a few years ago. No one ever gave them credit for that win…instead blaming team USA for the loss and their ‘attitude’. Just felt like sore loser talk to me…

Additionally, I feel like it perpetuated a reputation that Greek players are only good at International Basketball…which prevents them getting scouted fairly.

Even on this site…all the dude did was ask for people to comment on 2 NCAA players who are currently playing extremely important games…and he gets negs.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hype Machine]

Im keen to see if the Greek National team can win their Olympic Qualifying Tournament coming up later in the year. Should be possible with tricky games against Croatia, Italy and Mexico looming.

I can’t help but feel like theres some lingering resentment towards Greek Players from the basketball community after they gloriously beat Team USA a few years ago. No one ever gave them credit for that win…instead blaming team USA for the loss and their ‘attitude’. Just felt like sore loser talk to me…

Additionally, I feel like it perpetuated a reputation that Greek players are only good at International Basketball…which prevents them getting scouted fairly.

Even on this site…all the dude did was ask for people to comment on 2 NCAA players who are currently playing extremely important games…and he gets negs.

 

 

 

 

 

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 I have doubts that Greece will qualify. They have the talent obviously, but Italy will be playing at home, and the schedule is against Greece. Because the way it works, the players that play in the big European clubs will have zero time off, zero time to practice, and if they did play they would just be thrown into the team. And they would all be dead tired. 

That affects Greece the most of all national teams, because it is the team that relies most on players in big European clubs, where the majority of the team is playing into late June.

Then you have the issue that Bucks coach has said repeated times that Antetokounmpo needs to spend the summer working on his shooting. They already let him play last 3 summers with Greece junior and senior teams. 4 summers in a row would be almost unheard of for an NBA team allowing that.

Then there is the fact that the 3 leaders of the team, Nikos Zisis, Vassilis Spanoulis, and Ioannis Bourousis have very good chance to quit the team. Bourousis and Zisis both said they were retiring, then they changed and said they were unsure and would not decide until the last minute. Spanoulis said he was retiring, then changed it to he would play only if Greece was at the actual Olympics. But that he could not keep playing 11 months a year (club season in Europe is 10 months and national team is now 1 month), which is what he has been doing for years.

Then there is the same issue Greece has every year almost, where suddenly a bunch of the best players of the team (5-8) of them somehow magically get strange excuses as to why they can’t play. "My wife is having a baby", "I’m a free agent", "I’m tired", "my NBA team blocked me from playing"…it’s stuff like this for numerous of the best players every year for years now.

And Bourousis even said that he had a contract from Spurs last summer, but they said he had to quit the national team if he wanted it. He said that this summer he would like to go to NBA, and that all the teams right out just say you have to promise you won’t play for Greece anymore, or they won;t even consider you.

I can say all these exact same issues came up 4 years ago in 2012. So I don’t know about them qualifiying. It seems like too many factors against them to beat Italy at a do or die game in Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 I have doubts that Greece will qualify. They have the talent obviously, but Italy will be playing at home, and the schedule is against Greece. Because the way it works, the players that play in the big European clubs will have zero time off, zero time to practice, and if they did play they would just be thrown into the team. And they would all be dead tired. 

That affects Greece the most of all national teams, because it is the team that relies most on players in big European clubs, where the majority of the team is playing into late June.

Then you have the issue that Bucks coach has said repeated times that Antetokounmpo needs to spend the summer working on his shooting. They already let him play last 3 summers with Greece junior and senior teams. 4 summers in a row would be almost unheard of for an NBA team allowing that.

Then there is the fact that the 3 leaders of the team, Nikos Zisis, Vassilis Spanoulis, and Ioannis Bourousis have very good chance to quit the team. Bourousis and Zisis both said they were retiring, then they changed and said they were unsure and would not decide until the last minute. Spanoulis said he was retiring, then changed it to he would play only if Greece was at the actual Olympics. But that he could not keep playing 11 months a year (club season in Europe is 10 months and national team is now 1 month), which is what he has been doing for years.

Then there is the same issue Greece has every year almost, where suddenly a bunch of the best players of the team (5-8) of them somehow magically get strange excuses as to why they can’t play. "My wife is having a baby", "I’m a free agent", "I’m tired", "my NBA team blocked me from playing"…it’s stuff like this for numerous of the best players every year for years now.

And Bourousis even said that he had a contract from Spurs last summer, but they said he had to quit the national team if he wanted it. He said that this summer he would like to go to NBA, and that all the teams right out just say you have to promise you won’t play for Greece anymore, or they won;t even consider you.

I can say all these exact same issues came up 4 years ago in 2012. So I don’t know about them qualifiying. It seems like too many factors against them to beat Italy at a do or die game in Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

[raybeasParticipant]

My grandparents vacationed there once for 6 days-7nights.

[raybeasParticipant]

My grandparents vacationed there once for 6 days-7nights.

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 No. Because Greece does not allow any naturalized citizens to play in any of its national sports teams, at any level.

You have to have Greece citizenship rights (without being naturalized) at the moment of your birth as the first qualification to play for Greece.

The second qualification is that you must be able to either already Greek fluently, or you must be able to do so within 2 years after joining the national team program.

Auguste and Dorsey both had Greek citizenship rights at birth (non naturalized). Auguste already speaks Greek fluently, and Dorsey has been learning to speak it for over a year now.

You also have to have some kind of Greek heritage, ethnicity, cultural aspect, religion, etc.

Basically, you can’t play for example, for any Greek national team, in any sport, if you have just a Greek passport. It’s not like you are talking about when Nikola Mirotic or Serge Ibaka play for Spain, or when Hakeem or Seikally or Ewing, or whatever played for USA.

It’s not like that. You can’t just have a passport and be a naturalized citizen. You have to be a natural born, and you have 100% full citizenship. 100% full citizenship is not the same as having a passport.

And 90% of the naturalized FIBA players, and 100% of the naturalized American FIBA players that are playing in national teams, get paid by that country’s national federation to do so. Greek players do NOT get paid any money to do so. It’s a tortally volunteer system.

Finally, players like Dorsey, Kostas Antetokounmpo, Auguste, Calathes, Koufos, etc. have all been offered to go into Team USA program when they were young. They all declined and chose to play for Greece instead.

So the simple answer is no. You would not be eligible to play for Greece because your grand parents vacationed there.

Seikally has Greek ethnicity on his mother’s side (from Syrian Greek diaspora), and he was raised in Greece, he apeaks Greek, he was completely developed by Greek basketball program. He trained in the youth and SENIOR Greek national teams, and he was in the youth club of Greek team Panathinaikos, as well as their senior club for a short time.

With all of this, he was not given permission to play for Greece, and yet, after just 2 years in USA, he was playing for Team USA.

Qualifications to be eligible to play for Greece national team are about 10 times more stringent and harder than qualifications to be eligible to play for Team USA. Team USA has EXTREMELY easy eligibility rules. Probablky the most lax of any country in both European football (soccer) and basketball.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 No. Because Greece does not allow any naturalized citizens to play in any of its national sports teams, at any level.

You have to have Greece citizenship rights (without being naturalized) at the moment of your birth as the first qualification to play for Greece.

The second qualification is that you must be able to either already Greek fluently, or you must be able to do so within 2 years after joining the national team program.

Auguste and Dorsey both had Greek citizenship rights at birth (non naturalized). Auguste already speaks Greek fluently, and Dorsey has been learning to speak it for over a year now.

You also have to have some kind of Greek heritage, ethnicity, cultural aspect, religion, etc.

Basically, you can’t play for example, for any Greek national team, in any sport, if you have just a Greek passport. It’s not like you are talking about when Nikola Mirotic or Serge Ibaka play for Spain, or when Hakeem or Seikally or Ewing, or whatever played for USA.

It’s not like that. You can’t just have a passport and be a naturalized citizen. You have to be a natural born, and you have 100% full citizenship. 100% full citizenship is not the same as having a passport.

And 90% of the naturalized FIBA players, and 100% of the naturalized American FIBA players that are playing in national teams, get paid by that country’s national federation to do so. Greek players do NOT get paid any money to do so. It’s a tortally volunteer system.

Finally, players like Dorsey, Kostas Antetokounmpo, Auguste, Calathes, Koufos, etc. have all been offered to go into Team USA program when they were young. They all declined and chose to play for Greece instead.

So the simple answer is no. You would not be eligible to play for Greece because your grand parents vacationed there.

Seikally has Greek ethnicity on his mother’s side (from Syrian Greek diaspora), and he was raised in Greece, he apeaks Greek, he was completely developed by Greek basketball program. He trained in the youth and SENIOR Greek national teams, and he was in the youth club of Greek team Panathinaikos, as well as their senior club for a short time.

With all of this, he was not given permission to play for Greece, and yet, after just 2 years in USA, he was playing for Team USA.

Qualifications to be eligible to play for Greece national team are about 10 times more stringent and harder than qualifications to be eligible to play for Team USA. Team USA has EXTREMELY easy eligibility rules. Probablky the most lax of any country in both European football (soccer) and basketball.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[frogmanParticipant]

FIBA has the stupidest eligibility rules ever.  I’m sure I could technically play for the Mongolian national team somehow.

[frogmanParticipant]

FIBA has the stupidest eligibility rules ever.  I’m sure I could technically play for the Mongolian national team somehow.

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 IF they allow nautrlized players, then yes you could. Each team only is allowed one naturalized player, and that is where the teams can pay players to play for them. Just one.

USA has used several naturlized players over the years.

Greek sports law prohibits any naturlized person from playing on any of its national teams.

Peja Stojakovic wanted very, very badly to play for Greek senior national team, and he already had played in junior programs of Greece. And he met everything, he soke Greek, could read and write it, he was in Greek government service in the Army, he did everything for citizenship, and not just a passport.

The fact he is Balkans born, meant he was eligible to be a Greek citizen, because Greece is a Balkans country, just like old Yugoslavia. And Greece allows anyone that is a Balkans citizen to get citizenship if they need it. Peja needed it because of Yugoslav wars.

But when he came to play at senior national team of Greece, the country’s sports law prohibited it, because he was not deemed to have immediate Greek relatives within one generation (meaning you must have a grand parent that is a Greek citizen already before the time you applied for Greek citizenship.

So don’t pretend like it is easy to play in Greek national team under some diea anyone can play in it. it is 10 times harder to get eligibility to play on a Greek national team, than it is a USA one.

If Greece was under the same eligibility rules as the USA is, both Rony Seikaly, and Peja would have been granted the national team spots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 IF they allow nautrlized players, then yes you could. Each team only is allowed one naturalized player, and that is where the teams can pay players to play for them. Just one.

USA has used several naturlized players over the years.

Greek sports law prohibits any naturlized person from playing on any of its national teams.

Peja Stojakovic wanted very, very badly to play for Greek senior national team, and he already had played in junior programs of Greece. And he met everything, he soke Greek, could read and write it, he was in Greek government service in the Army, he did everything for citizenship, and not just a passport.

The fact he is Balkans born, meant he was eligible to be a Greek citizen, because Greece is a Balkans country, just like old Yugoslavia. And Greece allows anyone that is a Balkans citizen to get citizenship if they need it. Peja needed it because of Yugoslav wars.

But when he came to play at senior national team of Greece, the country’s sports law prohibited it, because he was not deemed to have immediate Greek relatives within one generation (meaning you must have a grand parent that is a Greek citizen already before the time you applied for Greek citizenship.

So don’t pretend like it is easy to play in Greek national team under some diea anyone can play in it. it is 10 times harder to get eligibility to play on a Greek national team, than it is a USA one.

If Greece was under the same eligibility rules as the USA is, both Rony Seikaly, and Peja would have been granted the national team spots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Warned2820Participant]

Tyler Dorsey did not decline to be part of the US program, he was cut from the US U-18 team. Only after he was cut did he play for Greece.

[Warned2820Participant]

Tyler Dorsey did not decline to be part of the US program, he was cut from the US U-18 team. Only after he was cut did he play for Greece.

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 He did decline it. He was invited to play in the Under-19 US national team program. He declined it and chose to play for Greece instead.

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 He did decline it. He was invited to play in the Under-19 US national team program. He declined it and chose to play for Greece instead.

[Warned2820Participant]

Maybe they invited him to tryout again, but he wasn’t beating out the guys already part of the program that had won a gold medal. Makes sense to go with the team where you are guaranteed a spot rather than compete against elite talent.

[Warned2820Participant]

Maybe they invited him to tryout again, but he wasn’t beating out the guys already part of the program that had won a gold medal. Makes sense to go with the team where you are guaranteed a spot rather than compete against elite talent.

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 That is speculation. The issue is he was invited to thr training of the Under-19 team of US and he declined it to play for Greece instead. It is just speculation that he could not have made the US team.

USA played Greece twice, and they barely won both games. In both games played, Greece’s best player, Charalampoopulos, was either knocked out of the game early with an inury (the first game), or played the game with a bad injury, and even got re-injured again in that same game (the 2nd game).

Yet in both games, USA barely beat Greece. Let’s not pretend there was some big difference in the level of these teams. USA was barely better. So since Dorsey was one of the 3 best players probably on Greece’s team, then the claim he could not even make the USA team, which barely beat Greece (with it’s best player out/injured) not once, but twice, is really not a sincere argument. It’s just the same as always fan fiction that USA is a billion times better at basketball than the whole world combined.

When in reality, justy with a healthy Charalampopoulos, Greece probably would have beat them 2 out of 2 times.

 

 

 

 

 

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 That is speculation. The issue is he was invited to thr training of the Under-19 team of US and he declined it to play for Greece instead. It is just speculation that he could not have made the US team.

USA played Greece twice, and they barely won both games. In both games played, Greece’s best player, Charalampoopulos, was either knocked out of the game early with an inury (the first game), or played the game with a bad injury, and even got re-injured again in that same game (the 2nd game).

Yet in both games, USA barely beat Greece. Let’s not pretend there was some big difference in the level of these teams. USA was barely better. So since Dorsey was one of the 3 best players probably on Greece’s team, then the claim he could not even make the USA team, which barely beat Greece (with it’s best player out/injured) not once, but twice, is really not a sincere argument. It’s just the same as always fan fiction that USA is a billion times better at basketball than the whole world combined.

When in reality, justy with a healthy Charalampopoulos, Greece probably would have beat them 2 out of 2 times.

 

 

 

 

 

[Warned2820Participant]

Wow is Greece basketball so bad you have to celebrate close losses? Some guy no one ever heard of isn’t going to make a bit of difference.

[Warned2820Participant]

Wow is Greece basketball so bad you have to celebrate close losses? Some guy no one ever heard of isn’t going to make a bit of difference.

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 Charlampopulos is on every single mock draft. Dorsey is on none of them. "Someone no one ever heard of" – translation, more American racism and xenophobia.

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 Charlampopulos is on every single mock draft. Dorsey is on none of them. "Someone no one ever heard of" – translation, more American racism and xenophobia.

[CynthiaParticipant]

Zach Auguste is American, was born in and went to High School in Massachusetts. 
Tyler Dorsey is American, was born in and went to High School in California.

Both chose to go to American colleges. While both do have some Greek in their blood it is less than 20% each.

This is about as silly as when Chris Kaman played for Germany because he’s like 10% German.

Since the rules to play for European teams are so loose, I might as well sign up for the Bulgarian national team. I could probably start.

 

 

 

 

 

[CynthiaParticipant]

Zach Auguste is American, was born in and went to High School in Massachusetts. 
Tyler Dorsey is American, was born in and went to High School in California.

Both chose to go to American colleges. While both do have some Greek in their blood it is less than 20% each.

This is about as silly as when Chris Kaman played for Germany because he’s like 10% German.

Since the rules to play for European teams are so loose, I might as well sign up for the Bulgarian national team. I could probably start.

 

 

 

 

 

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 The only silly thing is that sites like this always allow racist comments from racists like you. We get it, USA is a very racist country and many Americans are extremely racist. The rest of the world is extremely sick of your racist crap though.

[ZachAttackParticipant]

 I find it kinda funny…

[ZachAttackParticipant]

 I find it kinda funny…

[European BasketballerParticipant]

 The only silly thing is that sites like this always allow racist comments from racists like you. We get it, USA is a very racist country and many Americans are extremely racist. The rest of the world is extremely sick of your racist crap though.

[Hype Machine]

 My favourite is when some American stooge claims a fringe 2nd round player can just go to Europe and dominate if their NBA career doesn’t work out. Like its just that easy.

International leagues chew up and spit out one import after another, and most of the guys who stick around do so because they understand and adapt to the international game, and dont possess garbage fundamentals.

Some lucky ones might get a low-paid roster spot in Sweden, Peurto Rico or Egypt. But after factoring in relocation costs…these guys work out that its better to just stay home and use their college degree to advance non-basketball careers.

 

[Hype Machine]

 My favourite is when some American stooge claims a fringe 2nd round player can just go to Europe and dominate if their NBA career doesn’t work out. Like its just that easy.

International leagues chew up and spit out one import after another, and most of the guys who stick around do so because they understand and adapt to the international game, and dont possess garbage fundamentals.

Some lucky ones might get a low-paid roster spot in Sweden, Peurto Rico or Egypt. But after factoring in relocation costs…these guys work out that its better to just stay home and use their college degree to advance non-basketball careers.

 

[Author]

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