Vasileios Kavvadas Won The Greek Youth All Star Game Slam Dunk Contest
Being able to win a dunk contest does not mean he is capable of playing in the NBA. Jan Vesely won quite a few dunk contests and now he is riding the bench of one of the worst teams in the league. Being able to dunk does not make you athletic, and winning a YOUTH dunk contest in a barely watched GREEK league, is not much of an accomplishment. The athletic ability isnt on par with that of the NBA, College or even highschool players.
Im not being racist. The fact of the matter is that a lot of EUROPEAN, not just greek players, are no where near the standards of the American players, in terms of athleticism. That is why most European big guys find their niche in the league by having better overall skill level and extended shooting touch. It is not racist when that I say an American high schooler in general is more athletic then a Greek or and other European because the fact of the matter is, they simply are. Look at combine results from the past 10-20 years, all the outstanding players from each years draft, hell just look at mixtapes on youtube, hardly any Europeans will be beating every other player down the court, and their heads certainly anywhere near the rim. Then go search up some American or Canadian ballers and see them bolt down the court and break neck speed and soar their heads well over the rim, ala Andrew Wiggins, Demar Derozan, Lebron James, the young Kobe, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Quincy Acy, Blake Griffin, Joe Alexander and the list goes on and on and on. European players are not heads and shoulders worse then American/Canadians, but the fact of the matter is, 95% of the elite athletes in the game of basketball come from the continent of North America. There is a reason all the most of euro players outside of stars like Drazen, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli and a couple other guys are big men with jumpshots, because none of the guards outside of these select few star players are quick enough to guard, hence why Marco Bellinelli is such a hard piece to use because he simply cant defend. Its not all Greek players my friend, its European basketball in general, it is a COMPLETELY different style of basketball, it is 100% more skilled based, whilst in the NBA all anyone cares about is athleticism, that is why Greek players dont make it in the NBA, because they are raised from a young age with Euroleague styles of play, were skill is heavily favoured over athleticism. Euro players a good portion of the time simply dont play the same style of ball that the NBA is built for.
you are politcly corect
well I'm from europe and I'm not. I can say truth
Black people are more athletic then white (I am white). On 20y black man with 30ich vertical comes 1 white man with 30ich vertical. I'ts simple fact and no need to rose things up with "Americans"...It's not anything racist, just fact. See 100m spritn.
And basketball is very "unfair sport" dominated by tall and athletic man. You won't se any 5'5 slow NBA or Euroleague player no mather how skilled he is and how much he works hard
Props to him but dunking does not mean you are an NBA level athlete. He is a 6'8 260 pound post player and in todays NBA game post players are really athletic man this this guy isn't even close to them. And its not about race he wouldn't be an NBA athlete if he was black, asian or otherwise.
@he_gets_buckets and @pohani komarac :
it's not only because of being european or american, white or black ... that is also an issue about how detecting selecting and developping young prospects.
INSEP in france select young players on athletic abilities first and make them work on their body and their skills before letting them compete on youth professionnal teams.
YEs it's an unffair game where athletic abilities are much important than in other sports (as soccer for example) and can do the difference. So you have to select young prospects on athletic abilities first and then make them work on their skills... IF you wan to have NBA caliber players. Maybe that is the reason why french player currently are the first contingent of foreign players in the NBA. And maybe that is the reason why several other countries tried in the past to imitate this kind of system (as Australia I think).
All the french players who came into the league were good athletes or showed some physical intriguing qualities : Petro Moiso were not the best inside french players but they had size, wingspan and upside at a very young age. Parker : speed, quickness. Noah : foot speed, lateral, wingspan, motor. Pietrus : jump jump jump. Seraphin : strength; wingspan. Batum : length, jump, quickness, lateral. Abdul Wahad : strength, jump. Beaubois : jump, quickness, speed. Mahinmi : length, wingspan. .....
Gobert : size, wingspan.
Jaiteh : strength, length
Rigaudeau : was a terrific player but wasn't able to compete and win PT in the mavs team... even if he was more skilled than lots of mavs players at that time.
bball is a game of athletes... not only because you can't succeed without skills (moiso and petro ???).
bball is nor track and field but neither ping pong.
I just said that there are more black athletic people, then white.....I don't know why evryone trying to be politicly corect....It's not anything racistic, it's just fact
americans are not more athletic then europians, it's african american population, but they are not anythig more athletic then french african population in %
....................................
of course athleticisam is not only important thing in basketball. But tall, athletic,fast man will always have starting edge over slow, short and unathletic man in basketball.
There will always be exceptions, but gus who is tall, skilled, athletic, fast etc will always be "Michael Jordan"...short, skilled, athletic, fast will be "Nate Robinson", tall, unuthletic, unsklled "Ostertag"...etc.
What you said is racist and the fact you can't grasp that it is racist is proof that you are retarded.
And this "I just say what is true" line is really ridiculous. You know, whites and Asians have higher I.Q.s than blacks.......guess it's "not being racist" to make statements like,
"whites are smarter than blacks", or "blacks can't play in Euroleague because they are not smart enough".....
as long as you add in the, "not being racist, just being honest" part.
You are a very ignorant and stupid person.
And that's why France has won so many gold medals..........oh wait...........
And that's why France has so many good NBA players that they developed besides Parker..........oh wait.
Just STOP. You guys all sound like a bunch of clowns.
I never told it was a good thing towards FIBA bball... (last perf was not so bad... without noah ?) it proves the difference between FIBA bball and NBA bball and the difference in the way bball is played.
Lots of french NBA players : cause they have this athletic potential you need to succeed in bball and in the nba.
"And that's why..." : you're really ridiculous... Bozo.
"Kavvadas is the biggest talent at the center position in Europe since Sabonis."
Posted by European Baller.
Who sounds a lot like the same raging troll who goes by European Basketballer. Documented proof:
http://www.nbadraft.net/forum/vassilis-kavvadas-how-can-he-not-be-2013-mock
Care to respond?
Vasileios Kavvadas, who according to this forum is, "not athletic enough for NBA and cannot jump"............
won the Greek Youth All Star Game Slam Dunk Contest.