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NBA hits rock bottom

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DaytonBuck

I've always liked them
TORONTO (AP) -- Maccabi Tel Aviv beat an NBA team for the first time in 27 years, topping the Toronto Raptors 105-103 on Sunday on Anthony Parker's jumper with 0.8 seconds left.
Maccabi, the winner of 45 of 51 Israeli titles and three of the last five Euroleague championships, had lost nine straight exhibition games against NBA teams since beating the then-champion Washington Bullets in 1978.
"This is history," Maccabi center Yaniv Green said. "They are still talking about [Maccabi's win over the Bullets[ and I'm sure 20 years from now, they will still be talking about this one."
Parker, who played in the NBA for Philadelphia and Orlando, had 24 points, and Nikola Vujcic added 21 points and 10 rebounds. Chris Bosh had 27 points and 12 rebounds in 45 minutes for Toronto, and Jalen Rose had 18 points in 41 minutes.
"They played this game like it was their championship game, and rightfully so," Rose said. "Those guys are hungry for NBA jobs. You don't just go to Europe because you're turning down the NBA, you're going to Europe because you want to be in the NBA so when you're standing up against a guy in front of you that's is in the NBA, you want to prove to anybody that's watching that you're NBA-worthy."
Toronto's loss was just the second by an NBA team in the 28 games held since the NBA sanctioned international competitions in 1987. The Atlanta Hawks lost to the Soviet national team 132-123 in 1988.
"To lose is unacceptable," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said. "To say, 'To lose to a team like that,' would be disrespecting them. I would look like an idiot to stand up here and disrespect the team that just beat you. You have to respect what they've done, you've got to respect their effort."
Maccabi's Yaniv Green blocked Rose's layup attempt and Mike James' jumper before Will Solomon gave the Israeli team a 95-93 lead with a 3-pointer -- its first lead since the first quarter.
James' driving layup tied it at 103 with 19 seconds left.
But Parker -- isolated with Morris Peterson guarding him -- made a jumper with a hand in his face to give Maccabi the lead. Peterson missed a long 3-pointer at the buzzer.
"We got beat," Mitchell said. "We knew those guys were going to play hard playing against an NBA team. They came out to prove something. It doesn't matter who you play or how good you think you are, you've got to come here to play."
Many of the 17,281 in attendance cheered for Maccabi. The consular general for Israel in Toronto slapped hands and joined the team in the celebration as NBA commissioner David Stern hurriedly walked off the court.
"Everywhere we go, it's such a great organization to be a part of," Parker said. "We always have great fans following wherever we are. It was really fun, it's fun to be a part of history."
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Jalen Rose and Chris Bosh got major minutes so the Raptors had their top team in and playing to win. I don't care how good Maccabi is, no NBA should lose to a euro league team.
 
scarletngrey77 said:
That is a fucking disgrace...
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Why is it such a surprise (or even a disgrace) for one of the worst franchises in the NBA to lose one game ( by a whopping two points) to one of the best franchises anywhere else in the world? I really don't follow the logic. Do you assume it would be an embarassment for the Kansas City Royals to lose an exhibition game to the best team in Japan?

It is not really a disgrace or an embarassment or a surprise. Our All-Star team of Americans finished 6th in the world in 2002. Did people already forget that?
 
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Baseball's a diffrent bag. There's still a lot of MLB quality talent in Japan that hasn't come over yet. Japanese integration into MLB is about where the NBA was at in the early 90's. A euro league basketball team is made up of american nba rejects and international players that can't make the association. If you have Jalen Rose and Chris Bosh you shouldn't be losing losing to a euroleague team. The Raptors aren't great but they aren't the 72-73 76ers. Not too mention the huge homecourt advantage of playing a team from half away around the world.
 
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DaytonBuck: "There's still a lot of MLB quality talent in Japan that hasn't come over yet."

Whoa, ease up my man. Japanese baseball isn't even close to the U.S. Their best players (Ichiro & Hidecki Matsui) are truly great players & would be great in any league, but the Japanese league as a whole just doesn't measure up. Look at how the 3rd best player in Japan (Kaz Matsui) completely fell on his face in the U.S.

Hidecki Irabu was the "Nolan Ryan of Japan." He dominated Japanese baseball, came here, sucked really bad (American hitters, namely David Justice, said he had 'average' stuff), and then went back to Japan and dominated again. Except for a select few, there aren't many quality major leaguers in Japan.

Look at how the Japanese signings dried up after the Kaz Matsui disaster. They were targeting 4 or 5 more players coming over in the next few years before Kaz bombed.

"If you have Jalen Rose and Chris Bosh you shouldn't be losing losing to a euroleague team. The Raptors aren't great but they aren't the 72-73 76ers. Not too mention the huge homecourt advantage of playing a team from half away around the world."

American basketball will never dominate internationally anymore because our players don't care, act like punks, and never learn how to play 5 on 5 basketball.

Its a shame, but David Stern has allowed the League to deteriorate into an unwatchable, unappealing product.
 
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Ichiro's a freak. Wonder how much he'll make when the contract's up.

NBA players don't care about losing to Tel-Aviv, because after the game, they're still collecting millions and millions. Money talks.
 
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Sloopy45 said:
American basketball will never dominate internationally anymore because our players don't care, act like punks, and never learn how to play 5 on 5 basketball.

Its a shame, but David Stern has allowed the League to deteriorate into an unwatchable, unappealing product.
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Some of that is true, but I would still take the Suns over Maccabi by about a twenty-point spread most nights.

I don't think American ball is dead, but I think the combinations are often bad. For instance, Paul Pierce is a "bad" player with great skills. I would not have placed him on the American team. Same with Baron Davis. But players like Antonio Daniels never get mentioned for such teams. If I was choosing an American team, I would go for 5 "all-stars", and a bench full of good role players. Might be a better way to win nowadays than a pseudo-"Dream Team" repeat. Watching Marbury in the Olympics was painful.
 
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The NBA is nothing but glorified street ball with emphasis on individual accomplishments rather than team goals. ESPN is a major contributor to the decline, by focusing on player highlghts and sound bytes rather than what teams have done.

The NFL is barely any better. That's why I love college football so much because, fortunately, it hasn't changed much at all over the nearly four decades I've been watching it. And as much as it pains me to say so, we owe that to the NCAA.
 
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RugbyBuck said:
I agree completely, Mili. I don't watch much NFL. I don't feel at all connected to the teams and don't feel the need to feed the machine.
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I'm glad to see there are others who share my attitude about NBA basketball. I watched the great finals between Russell and Chamberlain and a few years after that until Havliceck retired and then I lost interest. Too much WWF and not enough basketball (and I'm getting tired of the posturing in NFL football too). Steps, palming and hand checking have taken all the fun out of the game for me.

What still amazes me is that they make any money off this shit.
 
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I enjoy watching the Cavs games when they play like a team. They sucked last year when the didn't play like a team so those games sucked. Hopefully this year the will play like a team the whole season.
 
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