No Yao Ming: Kareem names his favorite int'l NBA players

[stuart]

Previewing Kareem's answers to Interbaskets' members' questions, here, Kareem names his 10-most respected international NBA players, and it doesn't include Yao Ming.

Ibn: Who are your top ten international players and why?
KAJ: These are (ten) international players I respect:

• Pau Gasol is from Spain and the first big man from Europe that played on the front line in a way that impressed me and many other Americans
• Detlef Schrempf of Germany was the first really good one to come along,
• Tony Parker from France as he plays the game as if he was 100% American, not half.
• Manu Ginobili of Argentina is one of the reasons why San Antonio has won world championships.
• Steve Nash from Canada & South Africa because he has shown total mastery of the game.
• Dirk Nowitzki from Germany because he is brought alot of talent to his position
• Linas Kleiza from Lithuania has become a great 6th man off the bench
• Marcin Gortat from Poland is another fine front line bench player that gives the Magic great minutes
• Luis Scola from Argentina is a great role player for the Houston Rockets
• Rudy Fernandez from Spain is a great outside shooter

What do you guys think of the list? It's likely he doesn't consider Tim Duncan or Hakeem Olajuwon as international players.

Stuart

[rikhardur]

Yao is definitely missing there.

[fasoulaki]

Marcin Gortat from Poland is another fine front line bench player that gives the Magic great minutes

WTF

Gortat was the starting center in Cologne before he was signed by the Magics. I do not know if we speak about the same guy but the Marcin I know hardly hit one freethrow per game. His gangling playing style was awful.

I think this is the E V I D E N C E I was searching for that players in the NBA make use of perfomance-enhancing substances.

[Visseira]

Yao is missing, for sure! Gortat's inclusion doesn't make sense! Kleiza... maybe!

[LuDux]

These are (ten) international players I respect:

[DanMajerle]

Gortat beats Sabonis and Kukoc

[Neozyrus]

Gortat beats Sabonis and Kukoc

And Drazen Petrovic????

(Its curious that Kleiza or Gortat?!? are there and people like Stojakovic, The great Divac or Marciulonis (the latest 2 played against him by the way), are missing.

[rikhardur]

Haha Well it's so shocking I even forgot about those

[Dtown]

This is his list of favorite players, not who he thinks are the greatest players. It's hard to argue against something that's a clear opinion.

[LordOfLeyte]

No love for Toni Kukoc.

[Lewis]

These are (ten) international players I respect:

This is his list of favorite players, not who he thinks are the greatest players. It's hard to argue against something that's a clear opinion.

.....

[stuart]

True, it's not a complete dig on Yao Ming, but certainly isn't complimentary that he didn't include Yao in his top ten... especially when he includes centers such as Gortat, and even an international player off Yao's own team (Scola).

http://www.interbasket.net/news/2669...ional-players/

Stuart

[923julia]

Why not YaoMing ?

I can't understand.

[stuart]

Kareem answers (via his Twitter) why Yao wasn't included in the list above - "Because #Yao has been injured so much I didn't want to deny another player a spot. But certainly Yao is one of the top centers in the NBA"

Stuart

[Khalid80]

The only player that really stands out as a ! is Marcin Gortat from the list.

Definitely there r many great NBA international players that were not included like: Sabonis, Divac, Stojakovic, Petrovic, Olajuwon, Mutombo just to name a few..

[Markoishvili]

Kareem couldn`t even remember 10 international players, so he listed Kleiza and Gortat because he saw them play againts Lakers in the playoffs.

He obviously completely forgot about Yao Ming.

[pohani komarac]

that was first that he could remeber

gortat in frot of petrovic, kukoc, radja, divac, stojakovic, smits, mutombo, sabonis, marciulonis, ilglauskas, ming, turkoglu, okur...

[mvblair]

Well, there are certainly some players in history that he should have included, but truthfully, I can understand the list. He probably didn´t have a whole lot of time to answer, so he just came up with some good players off the top of his head.

I´m confused about no Yao too, though. He´s the best center on the planet right now.

[Levenspiel]

I agree this list sounds like just a quick answer, and seeing Gortat there is surprising. But I think he's not the same player of a few years ago. I was truly impressed many times by his play this season.

[rensquared]

The Heck?? Gortat is in there while Yao isn't? This isn't right. I think Kareem just forgot about Yao. Yao should be in the top of that list IMHO