<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Draft pick Maciej Lampe practiced with the club on Thursday after receiving clearance from his European basketball team. The 6-foot-11 Lampe was taken with the first pick of the second round, but remained under contract to Real Madrid. The 18-year-old is now available to play in summer leagues at Boston on July 14-20 and Salt Lake City on July 18-26.</div> http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2003/0710/1578968.html
that's good news for the Knicks, they took a gamble by taking him, because nobody was sure Real Madrid would let him play, but I guess they were able to work things out...
Real Madrid Must have a basketball and a soccer team because they spent some major cheese just to get some guy I've never heard of David Beckam, what a loser. :roll:
They said Lampe Looked lost and soft in his practice.. I dont understand why these Europeans are so soft.. Chaney will get on him and develop him into a hell of a player
That is great news for the Knicks. Im sure every team after pick 5 is pretty much kicking themselves for not taking a gamble on him. He might turn out to be one of the biggest steals in the draft history if he is as good as he was slated to be before draft time.
Of course he looked lost. He is young. He's coming to a new country. A new team. A new lifestyle. And a different way of playing bball(american style). He'll be fine. He needs time. And Dexter, yes, teams will regret not taking him. But with the tricky buyout and how much it would have cost, being a mid to low 1st rounder would have not allowed him to come over this season. Buy being a 2nd rounder, the Knicks dont have to follow the rookie pay scale. PS- How do I put a pic in my sig? The pic's source is : http://geocities.com/vintage1886 Its showing up as a red "x"
Grizz- Its not hard to understand why we consider European players soft. I live in Europe for about 5 months out of the year. Watch a few games played between European teams (during the Olympics I guess) and its very obvious why they seem soft; Quite simply there is not as much post play. Back-to-the-Basket scorers are quite rare so post guys don't get a whole lot of touches, and combine lower defensive intensity with surperior outside shooting and you see more made jumpeshots and less kamikaze drives to the basket. Less penetration+little post-offense= less activity under the hoop= less contact under the hoop. They just aren't used to the physicality of NBA basketball. Most of them are quite capable of playing in the trenches but they jsut aren't used to it. NBA players have been banging with top prospects in the post since they were 14 at AAU tournaments and summer camps. Its not so much that European players are soft, its just that in Europe they don't teach or coach physical post-play because its a different game over there. Physical post-play is a skill they aren't taught in Europe- its not that they're scared to bang with the big guys, they simply don't know how. A more accurate way of describing what we call 'European Softness' might be to say; Physical post-play is a skill most European players are not well-versed in. Or; They are very raw when it comes to getting physical down low. Banging is a skill like any other. Calling Lampe soft because he doesn't know how to bang as well as American college players just yet is like calling Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony crappy shooters because if they played in Europe they'd probably be the worst shooters on the team. All Americans however, know that James and Anthony are not poor shooters, they're just a bit raw. European fans know that Lampe is not a 'soft' player, but that his ability to bang down low is raw.
^^exactly they play a much different style of basketball in europe. they take pride in shooting from long range instead of taking it to the rack. they also don't have the strength and conditioning regimes like they have in the US. but each generation is getting more physical and aggressive. take a look at kukoc compared to how gasol plays. gasol is not afraid to dunk the ball, he's still hesistant on defense because he doesn't have the bulk to bang yet, but he will in time. also look at dirk nowitzki who is relentless and driving to the hoop and drawing contact. next season it will be interesting to see how darko does. he's known for being very physical and aggressive for a european player, and it will be fun to watch how his game and mentality develop under big ben and larry brown, and the whole bad boy persona of the pistons.
