<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Andris Biedrins has been named to Latvia's preliminary 22-man squad for September's EuroBasket. The NBA star has not played for the national team since signing with the Golden State Warriors - and then only for the junior sides - so there was a doubt about whether he would compete in Spain. But he will be one of 17 players who will assemble in Tallinn, Estonia, on July 25 to begin their pre-tournament preparations with a round-robin against Estonia and Hungary. </div> Source: Yahoo! Sports
Hmm, is this good or bad? It'd be nice for him to get some more practice in, but I don't want to see him worn down at the end of the season because of it, and there's always the chance of injury.
<div class="quote_poster">HiRez Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Hmm, is this good or bad? It'd be nice for him to get some more practice in, but I don't want to see him worn down at the end of the season because of it, and there's always the chance of injury.</div> I say bad, I want him 100% by training camp.
Would you rather see him serve in the military. Let the kid serve his country with the gifts he has been given...
Ok here is some local input Biedrins arrived to training camp with 2 coaches Kosta Jankov and Russel Turner (who is warriors fitness trainer i think and coach assistant of Nelson ). They are helping Ab and rest of national team. From what i read in interviews Russel is coaching and checking that Ab get in shape according to warriors plans, since he has a hard season up ahead, and national team coaches are ok with that (more or less). He also said the he is doing some scouting as well while he is here. From what it looks like everything is going well, and warrior and national team coaches consider this like experience exchange, and young guys have extra motivation to train harder. But i think there is only 1 real prospect ( http://www.nbadraft.net/profiles/ernestskalve.asp ) , and he his stocks are way down, since he had problems with injuries. And I think it's a good thing that AB plays for national team, since team is being build around him, and he will be getting a lot of touches and finaly we might see him shoot jump shot Since there is no bigger star here to dump ball to. Sure longer season and injury risk sucks, but i think he can learn a lot here, and 1 thing he will learn for sure is some leadership.
<div class="quote_poster">AnimeFANatic Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I say bad, I want him 100% by training camp.</div> I think championship ends 1 week before NBA training camps start.. so he will be in shape and get some free time + we suck, we should be lucky to make to top 8. Found nice video ( http://www.spoki.lv/index.php?area=1&p=news&newsid=1253 )
I agree with hipokrat that it's a good thing that Beans plays on the national team. This forces him to be more of a first option offensive player rather than 5th option offense. I really liked his game when he did try to score in the post when there was no Baron or Jrich healthy and we were stuck with Dun and Murph still.
Andris Biedrins is a basketball player. Of course I don't want to see him get hurt as a Warriors fan. But it's good to see that he is finally going to get his shot at playing for the Latvian national team, after I guess electing not to in the past. Andris Biedrins is a basketball player and he ought to play especially in the competitive Eurobasketball tournament or whatever it is and for his country. I don't remember seeing great enthusiasm for basketball in Latvia (though I like their word for ball - "boomba"), but I bet it will be a treat for the basketball fans in Latvia to see their basketball star this fall. I wish the best for Andris Biedrins and team Latvia this fall. I am even interested in seeing him perform as well, especially with his much improved and quite impressive developing low post game where he has shown some nice moves including Kevin McHale's up-and-under move which worked superbly last season. Maybe it will be something to get his confidence going in his individual game where he can come back to the states ready to shine even brighter for the 07-08 season.
In my selfish Warriors fan's mind, I don't want any Warriors player to join their national team, because not only they can get hurt, they may not get a rest for the next season. But, since I was born in foreign country, I also know how much it means for Biedrins, especially when this is his first time joining a national team, and he may be a center piece for Latvia. BTW, how popular is Biedrins in Latvia? South Korean used to go nuts whenever Chan Ho Park or Se Ri Pak did well...
<div class="quote_poster">Kwan1031 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">In my selfish Warriors fan's mind, I don't want any Warriors player to join their national team, because not only they can get hurt, they may not get a rest for the next season. But, since I was born in foreign country, I also know how much it means for Biedrins, especially when this is his first time joining a national team, and he may be a center piece for Latvia. BTW, how popular is Biedrins in Latvia? South Korean used to go nuts whenever Chan Ho Park or Se Ri Pak did well...</div> I know hipokrat can answer this much better than me. I was there during Biedrins' second season where he averaged less than 15 mpg and the Warriors kind of sucked under Mike Montgomery. I noticed a couple of basketball magazines with Biedrins features before the NBA season started. I think they were mostly about speculating how much PT he may get and what expectations may be compared to the previous season. I also lived in a village (Rezekne) far away from Riga, the capital and main Latvian city. In Riga and perhaps more on the Western side Andris may be more popular but I didn't meet people who seemed to really know who Andris Biedrins was, besides this one person from Rezekne who is extremely tall and young and plays for the national team for a younger age group, since he had met Andris before through basketball. Perhaps after last season Biedrins is more popular.
<div class="quote_poster">Kwan1031 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">BTW, how popular is Biedrins in Latvia? South Korean used to go nuts whenever Chan Ho Park or Se Ri Pak did well...</div> Well we have 3 leading sports - Basketball, Icehockey (only during world chapionship time) and Football (socer). I'd call basketball the most popular since we have some deep traditions and history ( Latvia won the 1st Basketball championship in ~30s, before WWII and 50 year occupation ). Recently basketball in club level has flourished since all 3 Baltic countries united basketball leagues into Baltic basketball league (www.bbl.net). We have few players playing prety well in NHL all time for years now, but Biedrins is kinda special. Nobody believed that we can create a NBA player in our basketball system, and Biedrins x-coach (who also was starting PG for big soviet team in 80s) was called crazy by leading sports newspaper back in time when said that he will train one of his players to NBA level. Biedrins is without doubt is one of most famous athlete now, and his NBA success alone gives big boost to basketball movement. And these big championships are important for ppl. Press follows training camps almost daily, and these championships are just great way to entertain, and a lot of fans go to support national teams. I did not support Biedrins coming over last year, since he had work to do his game over there, but this year I think it's necessary for him to bring his game to next level. I'd hate to see him got injured like any other GSW fan, but then again if he made 82 games without one, i hope that about 6 more will not hurt him. And imagine if he develops some confidence about his abilities, and what if he can shot jump shot? This is best way to find out.
<div class="quote_poster">Clif25 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I know hipokrat can answer this much better than me. I was there during Biedrins' second season where he averaged less than 15 mpg and the Warriors kind of sucked under Mike Montgomery. I noticed a couple of basketball magazines with Biedrins features before the NBA season started. I think they were mostly about speculating how much PT he may get and what expectations may be compared to the previous season. I also lived in a village (Rezekne) far away from Riga, the capital and main Latvian city. In Riga and perhaps more on the Western side Andris may be more popular but I didn't meet people who seemed to really know who Andris Biedrins was, besides this one person from Rezekne who is extremely tall and young and plays for the national team for a younger age group, since he had met Andris before through basketball. Perhaps after last season Biedrins is more popular.</div> Well sure Biedrins appears a lot on newspapers, but we have small country with 2.4 million ppl living here, there are simply not a lot of local sport events to follow, and sports fans care about Beidrins, so if he had few good games, or other important events connected to GSW sure he will be on front cover. And yeah Rezekne is kinda strange place it is close to russian border, and half of ppl are russians there, other half of ppl have a strange local dialect that most other latvians don't even understand lol, but naturaly they speak latvian as well. And it's officially most poorest region in European union, things simply have not gone well there, since we regain independence. I prefer west side of Latvia better, with sea, i myself live in capital city Riga. And there once was Biedrins special edition journal, witch was all about him, warriors and stuff. Was very interesting all about how and where he lives, where he eats, his car, teamates and ton of interviews.
Ok, I just came from that game. Biedrins played only 17 minutes but posted double-double and was very impressing on both ends of the court. Boxscore here : http://www.basket.ee/index.php?mid=6§i...&gid=2007093001
Yeah, Beans had 10 PNK and 11 L, including 8 KL!! Not to mention 7 VM and 2 V. Overall, he filled in the box score nicely with 1 PK, 1 VL, and 1 RS, too!!
<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah, Beans had 10 PNK and 11 L, including 8 KL!! Not to mention 7 VM and 2 V. Overall, he filled in the box score nicely with 1 PK, 1 VL, and 1 RS, too!! </div> Seems he's becoming the multi-skilled center we've always hoped for.
What's with the field goal %'s from both teams. Yuck! Legal basket interference have to do with that?
<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah, Beans had 10 PNK and 11 L, including 8 KL!! Not to mention 7 VM and 2 V. Overall, he filled in the box score nicely with 1 PK, 1 VL, and 1 RS, too!! </div> I can translate those for you PNK = points L = rebs KL = def. rebs VM = fouls against him V = fouls PK = turnover VL = steal RS = assist
Here are the hilights: http://esports.risinajumi.lv/temp/Tallina_...un_28_07_07.mpg Open link with media player/File/Open URL. AB hide nice drive from 3pt line, with a spin move and dunk. And it was the 1st game, thats why game looks that crapy. And it's friendly, Euro championship starts september.
<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">What's with the field goal %'s from both teams. Yuck! Legal basket interference have to do with that?</div> Most teams are finishing training camps now, and have not worked on gameplan at all, usualy teams work only on getting players into shape (so they would be in good shape comming into championship games, not friendlies) , and they have a month l8er to train strategy during friendly games. It's more then posible that both teams where working hard in weight room just yesterday.
