And the Award For Best Basketball Warm-Ups Goes to ... Argentina
By Jason McIntyre
The FIBA Under-19 World Championships were last week, and we would have provided extensive coverage and commentary of the tournament (I love basketball!) if the damn games were on TV. I was able to stream bits and parts, but for the most part I was simply relegated to tracking box scores.(Hey ESPN, how about stepping up to the plate in 2013?)
Fortunately, Luke Winn of SI traveled to Latvia and did a damn good job reporting (file this one away for the 2013 NBA Draft) on the tournament. He took the above video of the Argentinian team warming up for a game. You may want to incorporate into your current workout regimen.
The biggest story from the tournament – besides the US fielding an inferior team because the bulk of college stars (29) declined an invite – was the 5th pick in the 2011 draft, Jonas Valanciunas. He averaged 23 points and 13 rebounds and took MVP honors for Lithuania. He tallied 30-15 against the USA. Naturally, people love him now!
Everyone, of course, is overlooking the fact that he’s 19 and has been playing professionally since 2008. The Americans fielded a team of players who mostly had a year of college experience or were fresh out of high school (Patric Young, the primary US big man, was a non-factor at Florida as a freshman; he’s a dunking machine who reminds me of a young Al Horford). Of course Valanciunas looked great! I asked ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla about this and Fraschilla compared the performance to the top pick in MLB tearing up Class-A ball.
How would Valanciunas have looked against Tyler Zeller of UNC? Or incoming Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis? Would Valanciunas have been pushed around by OSU’s Jared Sullinger? Perhaps, though Sullinger struggled at times vs. Kentucky’s Josh Harrellson in the Elite 8. I’m not even sure Valanciunas would have dominated against a tough guy like Thomas Robinson at Kansas, who is similar to Young, except he’s been battling with the Morris brothers in practice for a year in Lawrence.
I’m not saying Valanciunas will be a bust. I haven’t seen enough of him to make that statement. Will he turn out to be Chris Kaman? Tyson Chandler? Uwe Blab? Gosh I wish the NBA summer league were happening this summer and Valanciunas were playing in it.