Pau Gasol vs. America

Photo by lubright via Flickr

In this talk, I make the case that if you’re looking for value, you could do worse than to look around for players, techniques and skills that don’t fit the bigger and tougher macho mold.

via TrueHoop – The opposite of macho

A few months ago, Henry Abbott discussed the role of machismo in sports, basketball in particular. Instead of looking for the bigger, better, stronger, faster and quicker players, Henry proposed the idea of looking for the players, game plans or techniques that don’t fit the macho stereotype, and are thus likely to be undervalued, cheaper, or more effective. In his presentation at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Henry gave seven different examples of less common, “softer” methods that contravene their testosterone-filled counterparts.

An example he lightly touched upon was foreign players and the superb value they’ve traditionally had because of their perceived softness. Although foreign players generally receive a lot of criticism, European players in particular are usually the butt of NBA-related jokes. The cliché for European players is that they’re soft (hey, there’s that word again!), weak, clumsy, erratic, one-dimensional “shooters/passers/ball-handlers”, and incapable of leading a team. Of course, this stigma couldn’t be further from the truth:

Dirk Nowitzki (MVP and Finals MVP), Pau Gasol (second-best player on two title teams), and Tony Parker (Finals MVP) played major roles on championship squads. Vlade Divac, Arvydas Sabonis, Drazen Petrovic, Detlef Schrempf, Toni Kukoc, Dino Rada (Radja in English) and Rik Smits had successful NBA careers (albeit brief ones for a Petrovic/Rada). Marc Gasol, Ricky Rubio, Serge Ibaka (born in Congo but has Spanish citizenship), Marcin Gortat, Danilo Gallinari, Luol Deng (grew up in England, has British citizenship), Omri Casspi and Nicolas Batum are some of the top young players in the league. Hedo Turkoglu, Andrei Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur, Jose Calderon, Peja Stojakovic, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Boris Diaw were once highly productive role players, All-Stars or even franchise cornerstones. Simply put, European players have had, and will continue to have, a lasting impact on the NBA.

From the above list, only Smits, Nowitzki, Gasol, Deng, Gallinari and Rubio were top-10 picks; the rest were either late lottery to late first round, second round, or undrafted. Think about that. Getting Parker with the 28^th pick? Snatching Divac with the 26^th?  How about Gortat at 57^th? That’s great value, which fits seamlessly into Henry’s ideology. GMs, owners, and teams in general tend to shy away from European players because they’re not as masculine as American-born players (in most cases), have less fan appeal, and lack the ability to alter a franchise. This fear allows teams with smarter, riskier management to “steal” these players, improve their franchises and build contenders (you know, the goal of an NBA franchise).

Of course, not every European player is a sensation. There are countless (and I mean countless) examples of European players that never panned out in America. Darko Milicic, Johan Petro, Yaroslav Korolev, Sergei Monia and Nikoloz Tskitishvili are just a few of the higher (selection-wise) European draft picks that never achieved NBA stardom, or even mediocrity. Do these players, among many others, deserve to ruin the perception of European players? No. Should Michael Olowakandi, Kwame Brown, Adam Morrison, Marcus Fizer, and Kendrick Brown ruin American-born players’ credibility? No. There are busts in every draft class, regardless of where they’re from.

The scapegoat for the typical European-style of play over the past few years has been Lakers’ power forward/center Pau Gasol. Despite boasting one of the most versatile skill-sets in NBA history, Gasol is widely unappreciated, undervalued and ridiculed for being a “pansy” (to put it kindly). He’s taken as much ‘heat’ as any other player sans LeBron James. Some of his criticism is well deserved as Gasol struggles against physical post players and tends to randomly disappear at times, most notably in the ’08 Finals against the Boston Celtics and the ’11 Western Conference Semi-finals against the Dallas Mavericks (the only two playoff series the Lakers have lost over the past four years).

But should those weaknesses, combined with a couple of disappointing playoff series, undermine all he has achieved? Gasol’s one of the best rebounding, passing, shot-blocking and free throw shooting big men currently in the game, is effective and efficient, and rarely falters from his role within the Lakers’ offense and defense. He’s won two NBA championships, the Rookie of the Year award, seven European Player of the Year awards, a silver medal at the ’08 Olympics and a gold medal at the ’06 World Championships (including tournament MVP). Throw in All-NBA awards, All-Star appearances and countless other European awards/honors, and Gasol has one of the more decorated basketball résumés of all time.

I’m not here to give Gasol’s Hall-of-Fame speech, I just think he’s on the receiving end of underserved criticism. Criticism that is directly related to his style of play; he’s never going to bulldoze opponents like Shaquille O’Neal, coordinate a defense like Kevin Garnett, or impose his will like Tim Duncan. Gasol will sit back as a second banana, score 18-20 points, grab 9-10 rebounds, dish out 3-4 assists, block 1-2 shots, and shot over 50 percent from the field and 80 percent from the charity stripe. Rarely less and rarely more.

The Gasol conundrum is a microcosm of a much larger problem with most American sports fans. At first, no one took European players seriously. “Really? Those guys are going to come here and play an American sport?” Then, behind Divac and Petrovic, people began to realize Europeans could actually play. Euros had yet to seep through to mainstream success, though, so they weren’t a threat and weren’t taken too seriously. But then the 2002 World Championships, 2004 Olympics, and 2006 World Championships happened, and America’s confidence was shattered. The NBA instituted a new “protocol” for their national team, making it a multi-year commitment, ensuring continuity and increasing future output.

Instead of accepting the fact that players from other countries can be just as good, and sometimes even better than American players, there tends to be a reluctance to do so. “He’s really good, but he’s European…” “He’s an All-Star, but he’s soft…” Is this xenophobia? Not necessarily. But it’s something. And whatever it is, it should change. Not just because it’d be the decent, human-like thing to do (that counts too!), but because it’s what’s best for the game. If Gasol and Nowitzki have surpassed Duncan and Garnett as the creme de la creme of NBA power forwards, so be it. Get used to seeing 18-footers, fadeaways, sharp passes and wet, moppy long hair (that’s constantly being combed behind their ears).

Does that mean the game is worse now? No. The NBA, and it’s players, coaches and gameplans/styles, are constantly evolving. There was no 3-point line 35 years ago. There were barely any black players until the 1960s. Heck, European players didn’t start migrating until the late 80s. Things change. There’s always an adjust period to a major innovation, but it seems the development of European players has yet to be accepted by mainstream America. The public has come a long way since the 90s/early 00s, but there’s still a lot of ground to be made up.

It’s not unpatriotic to claim players from other countries are some of the best in the NBA (and better than other American players). If it’s a fact, it’s a fact, whether it’s acknowledged or not. Tony Parker knocked off LeBron James in the ’07 Finals. Pau Gasol helped defeat Dwight Howard (’09) and Kevin Garnett (’10). Dirk Nowitzki downed Miami’s Big 3 this past June. Who cares where they’re from? They’re playing in America, for American teams. Look at the positive; a game created in Springfield, Mass., has spread across the globe, influencing millions of lives outside the United States, and helping create the most competitive basketball league in the world. Europeans may not play the style of basketball American fans are accustomed to or prefer, but a lot of them are damn good ball players.

Pau Gasol is not macho. And that’s why he’s heavily detested, even by Laker fans. Many want him to be the key cog that’s traded, not Andrew Bynum or Lamar Odom (two American players with far less skill and talent than Gasol). Basketball pundits know Gasol’s true worth and are in the minority of supporters. But to the casual fan — which there are many of — Gasol is an overrated Euro that can’t handle the moment. Maybe it doesn’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things what the general person thinks, but it highlights an American apprehension towards accepting Europeans because of their “differences.”

It’s not that Gasol doesn’t play the right way, it’s that he doesn’t play the American way.