Foreign flavor

Long before Nicola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Dallas’ Luca Doncic stamped their class in the NBA, several foreign players already made waves in world basketball including the Olympics. No professional basketball player has ever scored more career points than Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt, a 6’8” shooter with unlimited range dubbed, “The Fabulous Oscar”. Schmidt scored nearly 50,000 points in his illustious career. Kareem Abdul Jabbar scored a total of 38,387 points during his career.  In 1986, Schmidt poured 43  points against the U.S. national team and 46 points also against the U.S. Team in the 1987 Pan American Championship.  In that Pan Am game, Schmidt nailed seven three-pointers to lead Brazil past the U.S. Team, 120-115. David Robinson said, “It’s hard to guard someone who does’nt have a conscience”. He once scored 56 points in an Olympic game versus Mexico. Alexander Belov of the Soviet Union will forever be known for one play, the controversial last-second field goal that defeted the U.S team in the 1972 Munich Olympics. In the dying seconds of that game, Doug Collins stole the ball and was fouled. Collins hit the free throws to give the Americans a 50-49 lead. For some reasons, the referees gave the Soviets repeated chances to inbound the ball. On the third try, Zurab Sakandelidge threw an 80-foot pass to the 6’7” Belov, who scored to give the Soviets a controversial 51-50 win.

Here are some observations:

1. Belovs “clear out” of the defenders was Akin to mugging.

2. The inbounding passer stepped on the baseline while firing the key pass.

3. Belov had illegally set himself in the three-seconds lane for as many as five seconds. What an irony, USA has won seven consecutive gold medals with a 63-0 record.  Belov was drafted by the New Orleans Jazz in the  10th round in 1975.  But Soviet rules did not allow him to sign with the Jazz. (“Klarong gisurambaw ang U.S. team kay charging man gud to unta si Belov”). The Americans skipped the medal  eremony and to this day, have not accepted their silver medals.   Rimas Kourtinaitis was a sweet-shooting guard for the Soviet Union and helped his team to the gold medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. In the semifinal game against the US, Kourtinaitis torched the Americans with 28 points including 4 treys.  Even the U.S. defense specialist Stacey Augmon could not slow down the shooter fom Lithuania.  Kortinaitis later served as Lithuania’s minister of sports for four years.

Winds of change

Looks like the winds of change is blowing into the  Brooklyn Nets direction. As I mentioned in previous columns, a healthy Lakers squad will be hard to beat and will be on track for back-to-back titles. But with Blake Griffin jumping into an already star-studded squad, it looks like the Nets have become the favorites to stop the Lakers.  Griffin, who was hobbled with injuries, forfeited $13.3 million to secure a release from the Detroit Pistons.  The only thing missing in Griffin’s career is a championship ring. The Brooklyn Nets could provide the answer no doubt.  The 6’9”, 250 lbs. Griffin has played 642 games in 11 seasons with the LA Clippers and Detroit Pistons, averaging 21.4 points per game.