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Argentinian raised Manu Ginobli
of the San Antonio Spurs ,who earlier this year the latter was voted the popular
person in his country over the national president in a gallop poll style survey.
Arhur Aggie was the star in the 1990 landmark documentary
Hoop Dreams, in Brazil $4,000 a year is the per capita income, the ability to
call 911 for help is non-existent where people settle differences with machetes
in their poverty stricken favellas. Point is, the inner city government projects
of Cabrini Green in Chicago look like a paradise compared to Jorge's hill top
hell.
It is widely established that a continuing trend that is that more foreign players
are being selected to the NBA draft, maybe this is because they are more disciplined
players with the height and talent to get the opportunities in the ever growing
market of hoops. Every kid dreams of making the "L", that illustrious
12th letter in the alphabet that stands for the NBA League, against all odds kids
everywhere hope to be that one in a billon to cash in
on NBA money, a flashy lifestyle, and eternal fame for your deeds.
But for every Hilario and Ginobili you will see
a thousand kids come to the U.S. from overseas to play high school ball that
won't make the "L", a free education is their lottery ticket and chance
out of the third world. Most U.S. high school coaches will take foreign player
with exceptional height, speed, or talent to give their team the "X factor",
that is, a kid that will allow them to beat the cross town rival and add fame
to their program.
Nowadays, that is becoming more the case in America:
kids are coming from overseas to live out the American dream.
For example, take Mexican born Hector Hernandez from Colorado, this 6-3 170
lb. freshman was touring with his Mexican travel team in Colorado four years
ago and was offered a student visa, an education, and the chance to be a star.
Fast forward to now and we see a 6-8 235 lb.
beast of a senior who was selected as Colorado's prep player of the year and
has accepted a scholarship offer from Fresno St. University for this upcoming
year. Is it unfair that Hernandez received this offer over a American born player,
only a bigot could think so, and plus, Hernandez obviously overcame the difficult
barriers of learning English, studying to pass his SAT's, and playing well on
his Pump
and Run team to be offered a scholarship.
Hernandez is spurred on to achieve because of
a whole new batch of role models he sees in the form of the NBA's Eduardo Najera
of the Dallas Mavericks and highly skilled Sacramento Kings Summer Pro League
star Adam Parada ,who recently graduated from the University of California Irvine
recently. The young eighteen year old Hernandez looks up to those two trailblazers
and hopes to play along side them for Mexico on the National, but with their
success he also dreams of being their teammates in the NBA.
Unfortunately, facilities, training, and conditions
in countries south of the border are not equal to the lavish gyms, competitions,
and opportunities in the United States.
I found out about some of these ball players on the world's most definitive
international website dedicated to players and teams abroad called Eurobasket.com,
it gets 30 million hits a month and has educated me on all things basketball
overseas , there you can check out any of 198 reporters covering 243 leagues
in 146 countries. Yes, this CNN quality site illustrates that the world is just
crazy about it's basketball, move over soccer, basketball is on the rise in
the world.
Yes, the world has caught the love of basketball,
in geographic areas such as South America, Asia, the Middle East there are leagues
where the local players from their own countries can make an average of $5,000
to $10,000 a year, most of these leagues prefer to bring in a talented American
player who starred in college or recently retired from the NBA, those "hot
properties" can make up to $100,000-$600,000 a year in signing with a good
team in Europe.
Garo Saliban, a reporter who covers Canada, Armenia,
and the Middle East for Eurobasket.com insists that the site is intended to
give "positive exposure" to those men everywhere who love this beautiful
game of basketball across the globe, "If we can help that one young talented
man get an opportunity to live his dream and get world coverage and fame why
not, than we have succeeded in our mission." He adds: "Realizing this
potential that the site offers, many players do ask us to run their profiles
on the site hoping to get better employment opportunities in higher paying teams,
But often than not, the players will get dropped by their same teams as soon
as they know the player wants to expand their horizons this way.
This is very sad."Fans from he U.S. hope to track and idolize that one
overseas success story that will capture their imagination like a Yao Ming,
it's like we expect to see someone from overseas challenge our homegrown LeBron
James, Shaq, T-Mac, or anyone else from here that is at the top of the NBA food
chain.
Can our local boys keep up with the world? Best
to ask Dirk Nowitzski, Steve Nash, and Tony Parker, the world by sheer numbers
and desire is putting more international players in the "L" every
year. NBA GM's will draft unproven foreign players just off that word "upside",
like any good manager the NBA GM's will think outside the box and "outsource"
for employees in an attempt to leapfrog over the next franchise, overseas prospects
have just become more attractive than the predictable athletes we get to see
play in the NCAA's more than thirty times a year.
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college player who recently went down to the NBA sponsored top 50 prep camp
in Brazil, "When I was invited by the Detroit Piston's lead international
scout Tony Ronzone I was excited.
The opportunity to give something to these worthy
kids has been a peak experience in my life." Freccero was honest when asked
just how good the talent is coming out of South America "You have some
good players with height around the 7 foot range, and some of the guards were
fast and competitive, but the best from this camp wouldn't generally be considered
mid level college prospects or even a high major athlete like a Dior Lowhorn
from Berkeley high school, they're were some high major potential kids that
could make the cut with a Pac-10 school given their height."
Recognition, respect, and an extra helping of
sponsorship is what Freccero's deserves, his group is called triplethreatonline.com
and I highly recommend you check them out and consider utilizing them or sponsoring
their efforts to help disadvantaged in the U.S. and Brazil.
Triple Threat teamed up with the top Brazillian basketball academy known as
the Bolar Camp, they are the premier basketball organization in Brazil that
is run by Rogerio Wernick, to see photos of the special techniques they used
together to improve the life of the kids go to bolar.com.br This recent visit
brought satisfaction for Freccero as he states, "Many of the kids down
there just adore soccer, the national sport, when the ball was on the ground
they'd just have this instinct to kick it around and we would have to train
them to use their hands as much as their feet."
Will the NBA have NBA lottery prospects out of
South America or Africa anytime soon? I took a litmus test and asked three NBA
GM's recently at the Long Beach Pro Am if they thought that a 1st round or draft
lottery pick from overseas out of high school was on the horizon, their overwhelming
answer was, "not a chance." They all told me that having a super talent
such as Nene Hilario comes along once in a great while, the facilities, the
competition, the training is just not there for this to happen nowadays on the
regular for kids so young.
But watch out world, with a little better training
and resources the world is going to be calling out "next" to give
the American born players even more competition in the NBA drafts of the future.
To contact Tony Freccero about his Triple Threat
Camps call: (510) 432-0742
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