I can't find where I posted the first part of this, but here's the BE link. Maybe I should just use one big thread for all interviews and retroactively put in all the old ones? And yes, he repeats himself a bit, not sure what's up with that. link [continuing from part 1] Afterwards, we were at Amare Stoudemire's restaurant, which is right next to the stadium. A good little restaurant. Afterwards I participated in a clinic for kids at the Jam Session. Each Adidas player was there and we put the kids through exercises, shooting, and we played with them. And then afterwards each player signed autographs. Next I was at Boris Diaw's place who organized a poker tournament for charity. I didn't play because it started at 1 and finished at 5, and I got there at 3:30. I don't remember who won, there weren't just basketball players there. In any case, TJ Parker went very far in the tournament. The prizes were nice: two pictures made by a painter, one of Tony [Parker], one of Boris, and Tony's shoes from the All-Star game were sold in an auction. Saturday night I went back to the stadium to watch the contests. Well not really the crappy ones, with the old players, the Bill Laimbeers. In fact, I didn't really watch, I went to get myself food. I've realized my fantasy! When you're on the bench and you see people coming down with big trays of food, you really want some too. Since the start of the year I've really wanted to do that. So I left to get myself a sweet tray of food: nachos with cheese, chicken nuggets and lots of things. And what was awesome Saturday night was that when you went to get yourself something, you ran into George Gervin, Magic... And best of all Scottie! Finally! I was happy. But impossible to go meet him. I didn't dare. I was blocked. But I went to see another old player that I talked quite a bit with: Gheorghe Muresan. We were together in a suite reserved for foreign players. We talked about Pro A, we talked about Pau-Orthez. He still follows the team, he's sad for Pau. His son who's already 4 feet tall [1m30?] at 2 years old was there... Alright, I'm exaggerating, he must be 12 or something, but he's already pretty tall. Otherwise I still followed the other contests. There was the Point Guard contest where Parker choked a bit. On the other hand, for the three point contest, I had made a little bet with Antoine Le Roy [from Canal Plus, which followed him for the program “Intérieur Sport]: I bet on Danny Granger and he on Kapono. On the other hand, for the dunk contest, I'd made a bet with George Eddy [again, from Canal Plus] and I went with Nate Robinson. George had chosen JR Smith. The dunk contest was pretty close. The dunk over Howard, not bad... Robinson is impressive. There was also my teammate Rudy Fernandez. He wasn't laughable, it went well. What was too bad for the second was that in practice, he had done it passing himself the ball all by himself, and with a small windmill behind. I don't understand why he did it with Gasol, since he managed it all by himself in practice. I know that he also had a second idea, which was to put a mask of Dwight Howard on Pau Gasol. He didn't dare do it, but it would've been awesome. The next day, slept in. After that I did some spots for Adidas TV, which will be on the site [I assume here, but nothing is up yet]. And after I went to the game. It wasn't bad, but the Rookie Game was better. Except of course for Shaq, who was totally unreal. Absolutely awesome. And there was Britney Spears... who's better live But the game was below the rookie game. Afterwards I ate, then had a calm evening because the weekend was pretty intense and I had to leave Monday morning. Had to get back into regular season mode. Because the All-Star Weekend really is something else. Besides, it's exactly what we needed. With 53 games played, it's good to have a break in order to better restart. Personally, I really needed this break.
Batum's old coach at Le Mans was just appointed the head coach of the French national team, that can't hurt his chances. France finished 2nd in the qualifying games this summer, so they aren't officially in it yet. this helps explain a bit what France need to do to qualify. Basically they play one game against Italy and one against Finland for the right to advance to the real EuroBasket tournament.
I love that he idolizes PIP. Obviously Nicolas isn't nearly the player today that SP was, but he does have a similar bodytype and all around game/style of play... especially the D. He's going to be a beast once he matures a bit... strength and experience are the biggest things he lacks. STOMP
Yeah, it's unlikely that he develops point guard skills, but I really can't think of a better player for him to model himself after. He seemingly also has a blend of smarts, fluidity and instincts, in addition to the similar body type.
just for comparison sake/the hell of it, here's a side by side of their stats from their respective first years in the league adjusted out to 36 minutes. ~ age - pts - % - 3s - 3% - FTA - FT% - RB - Ast - TOs - Blk SP 22 - 13.6 - 46 - 0.5 - 17 - 3.8 - 58 - 6.5 - 3.7 - 2.9 - 1.1 NB 20 - 10.2 - 41 - 1.6 - 35 - 1.3 - 76 - 5.5 - 1.9 - 1.4 - 1.1 STOMP
Yup. At 19-20, Pippen probably couldn't have matched what Batum is doing. Of course, Pippen's development was atypical, but still...very few players look as comfortable on the court at 19-20 as Batum looks. If ever someone looked "born to play basketball" it is Batum. That's very encouraging.
PIP was a late bloomer in many ways, no doubt. He started his college basketball career as a 6'1 walk-on/team manager for University of Central Arkansas and became an NBA legend. Go Nicolas! STOMP
I think he can develop point guard skills. I think he's going to become a very good ballhandler, and he'll have a firm understanding of everyone's placement on the court. This will make him a good point forward. I dont think he's quite the athlete Pippen is, so he'll miss out being a top 50 player of all time, but I can live with that
update http://www.lequipe.fr/Basket/CHRONIQUE_NBA_080309.html I’m more and more comfortable and offensively I’m attempting to do more since the All-Star Game (4.7 points and 4.2 shots before, 7.5 points, 6.2 shots after). I hit the rookie wall in December, with five or six games without scoring (5 out of 6 games). I was exhausted. I hadn’t stopped since mid-August, since my arrival in Portland. Now, playing in every game this season has become an objective for me. Especially because I tell myself that if I miss a game it will really cost me. At the moment, I have tendinitis in my knee, my shoulder hurts, but I play… If you want to succeed, you know what you have to do. And that’s to work. I work hard every day. I must have increased my workload ten times over. I worked like that my first professional season at Le Mans, two years ago. But last year, unconsciously, I fell into a comfort zone. Coming here, I started from zero all over again. I’m better than I was last year. Especially physically. I’m doing everything all lot more quickly than before… I’m compared more and more to Tayshaun Prince. And even Scottie Pippen sometimes. They’re great defenders, but also great players who can do a lot of things. I don’t want to be limited to a defensive role. Even if I’ve defended Wade, Kobe, LeBron, Tony and Nowitzki this year. That’s my role. From the 1 to the 4. Except for Yao and Shaq, they’re all for me. And I hope that that will allow me to make a big contribution to the French national team. And I’ve already told the Blazers that this summer I’m going to play for France... During the last days of the before the trade deadline, I had some big doubts about my future. I often heard my name. In fact, it was talked about a lot with Charlotte. Portland's management told me that afterwards. But we have a good chemistry and the decision was made to not change a winning team... There's a lot of talent on our team. But we aren't going to get ahead of ourselves: the objective is still to make the playoffs. After that, we'll see. A bit more from other people about him playing for France http://www.lequipe.fr/Basket/breves2009/20090309_165201_l-affirmation-de-batum.html “I already told the Blazers that this summer I'm going to play for France” said Batum. It remains to be seen what Portland, whom the FFBB (French Federation of Basketball) must contact, and Vincent Collet, who had launched Batum's career and gave him responsibilities at MSB (Le Mans Sarthe Basket, Batum's old French team), think of that. “Vincent will speak with him, we know that he's interested and Nicolas is as well” explains Crawford Palmer, head of relations between the NBA and the FFBB. “After that, there are questions about his rookie contract, knowing that a part of his salary is often linked to participation in the Summer League, where games will last from the 11th to the 19th of July” (the French team's training camp in preparation for Euro 2009 qualification begins... July 11th). “We haven't contacted Portland yet. We will see with the coach [McMillan] if there will be a way to release him, since he [Nate] also has two Spanish players in the same situation. But before that we have to talk about it with Nico.”
