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lmanchur.
01-29-2001, 07:59 PM
I was quite surprised to read in Sports Central's latest edition of the SC Newsletter (http://www.sports-central.org/features/newsletter/index.shtml) that some of you Americans actually pay attention to the NHL!... and not even that -- but that you would "steal" one of the NHL's most original ideas.

From Scott Sepich's (http://www.sports-central.org/other/staff/s_sepich.shtml) SC Newsletter article, "World Domination: What if NBA Adopts World All-Star System?"

What if the NBA adopted the NHL's North America vs. The World All-Star
system? The World team might not be as bad as you think.

With the talent disparity between the NBA's Eastern and Western conferences becoming more apparent, I decided to see what would happen if the NBA adopted the NHL’s North America vs. The World format to liven up all-star weekend. The results were less than ideal, but I think my starting five could give the North Americans a run for their money.
Since nearly every foreign player in the NBA is a center, I have no choice but to start three centers and two guards. The World starters, as I see it:

C - Dikembe Mutombo, Atlanta
SC - Vlade Divac, Sacramento
PC - Arvydas Sabonis, Portland
SG - Predrag Stojakovic, Sacramento
PG - Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas

....Since Canada is not known for their basketball prowess, we'll include them on the World team, allowing Dallas' Steve Nash and the Lakers' Rick Fox on the squad. We can extend that to South Dakota, which might as well be Canada, opening up a spot for Orlando rookie Mike Miller.

(read the full article here (http://www.topica.com/lists/sc-newsletter/read/message.html?mid=1303582842&sort=d&start=29))

First of all... South Dakota is a good one-day drive from the Manitoba border!... but if you consider it Canada, what if we traded you Quebec for South Dakota?... j.j.! :D

I don't think this would work. The NHL is over 50% Canadian (maybe 54% or 55%), and just over 10% American. That leaves 40% of the league for the World All-Stars, and this 40% is a GOOD 40%. I would ALMOST take the World All-Stars over the North American All-Stars... those guys have speed, accurate shots, but don't hit much (well, that's the sterotype), so they are PERFECT for an All-Star Game.

I am not a hard core basektball fan and, of all the players you mentioned, I only know of Steve Nash, because he is Canadian. In the NHL, it's kind of different. I am sure most of you, even if you aren't a hard core hockey fan, you know of Jaromir Jagr or Pavel Bure, as Jagr has won the league's scoring title a few times over the past few years, and Bure was last year's All-Star MVP.

So I now pose my question to you: would an All-Star format of "United States vs. The World" work in the NBA? I say no.

[Edited by SC-Lee on 01-29-2001 at 08:02 PM]

Jersey Devil
01-30-2001, 06:08 PM
Actually, I laughed my head off reading it. The South Dakota comment had me dying. Great column Scott.

Like Lee said though, we'd need the league to be composed of at least 40-50% of non-Americans to pull something like this off.

scsepich
01-30-2001, 08:57 PM
It's nice to know somebody's reading what I have to write.

I agree that the USA vs. World format wouldn't quite work yet, it was just something that came to mind as I was watching the NHL pick their all-stars. There might be a better team if I thought about it a little more (maybe Nowitzki isn't as good a ball handler as I once thought), but I went with the flow and came up with what I thought would be a competitive team.

Maybe the South Dakota comment was a little low, but it was definitely just a joke.

Being a big NHL fan too (and an NHL columnist for SC), I would have to say that the format has been great for the NHL. I don't think there's any question that the European players are equal to the North Americans. While the Russians and Swedes generally don't take the body much, the Czechs showed they could play tough, gritty hockey when they took the gold in Nagano.

I think European players are starting to get their recognition in the NBA. It seems like more teams are looking to guys who have developed good fundamental skills against older, more mature competition overseas rather than gambling on some of the athletic yet problematic kids coming out on this side of the Atlantic.

SNichol
02-02-2001, 03:20 PM
My idea would be to have home court advantage at stake. Whatever conference wins will then have home court advantage for the finals. This way they have something to play for. I like the world format also but put Wisconsin in with South Dakota since we are thought of as part of Canada also!