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Originally Posted by Thespiralgoeson
I honestly think that's it more than anything. Same with the doubts about Luka. If some 18 year old kid had dominated the NCAA the way Luka did Euroleague and Liga ACB, the hype around that kid would reach Lebron level. Nevermind that even the most highly touted draft prospects typically can't sniff a rotation spot in Euroleague.
The ultimate irony is that with 3 point revolution and pace-and-space, the NBA is now far less physical than European basketball. As Luka himself has said, it's way easier to score in the NBA than in Europe.
I'm not sure where the "soft" Euro stereotype came from, but it was always garbage. As if Drazen Petrovic or Arvydas Sabonis were soft. And for Euros that were hyped as the next Dirk and disappointed in the NBA, it wasn't because they were soft, it was because they just weren't good at basketball. Darko didn't suck because he was soft. He sucked because he sucked.
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Great point bring up Sabonis….
He's one of the great sports "what if's" of my lifetime.. I would have loved to have seen him in his prime in the NBA. A healthy Sabonis from the age of 21 in the NBA could have possibly been one of the greatest to ever play the game.. but by the time he made it to the US, his knees were shot and he had suffered a torn achilles. By the time he came over to the US, I have always heard that his legs/knees were in such bad shape that he could qualify for handicapped parking but he still put up 16 points and 10 rebounds one year..