According to the FIBA World Ranking last updated in mid-November, 11 of the top 15 basketball countries in the world (including eight of the top 10) are from Europe. At the top of the list is the world’s best team as of now, Spain. The US (No. 2) and Argentina (No. 3) are the only non-European teams in the list. France, Serbia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Greece and Italy complete the top 10. That speaks volumes about how well-run and competitive their leagues are, and those benefits flow into the national teams in the continent. What are their secrets?
Proliferation of leagues. All of the competitive countries in the region have their own strong leagues, and are allowed to have multiple foreign players of very high caliber. On some professional teams, you can see five or more different nationalities represented. Many teams are coached by Europeans from other countries. This creates a tremendous resource for learning other high-end styles of play, and contributes to their overall growth. There is no hoarding of knowledge. Everyone shares. The two-year-old European North Basketball League (ENBL), for example, has 15 teams from nine countries. How can you not keep improving when experiencing all those styles of play and measuring yourself against the best international players?
Concurrent play. All the leagues allow teams to play elsewhere at the same time. For example, the BC Wolves of Vilnius, Lithuania (which recruited UP’s Juan Gomez de Liaño), play in the very tough LKL (Lithuanian Basketball League) and the ENBL. Lithuania is ranked No. 8 in the world, and will see action in the FIBA World Cup later this year. Six of their national players are on the roster of LKL-leading BC Zalgiris Kaunas, three are on the second-running BC Rytas, and another three are with the third-ranked Wolves.
Two of their star players are in the NBA: Domantas Sabonis of the Sacramento Kings and Jonas Valanciunas of the New Orleans Pelicans. All of them – except for Sabonis and Valanciunas, obviously – play in two tournaments simultaneously for most of the year. Fortunately, most of Europe (save for Italy and non-European Union member UK), is accessible by land, and their visas are recognized by several neighboring countries. The constant play, travel and practice simply makes them tougher. They play most heavily during the harsh winter cold.
Leagues are independent entities. Leagues do not restrict entry, and are not beholden to any individual countries or teams. Anyone who can compete and follow the schedule can play. And the schedules are flexible. For example, the BC Wolves went through several LKL matches before they began play in the ENBL. In the ENBL, they started after almost all of the other teams had played four games. All of their listed games will be road games, including two just 21 hours apart on Feb. 1, Philippine time. In the last month, they’ve been all over Lithuania, and in Estonia, Latvia, Poland and even Israel, mostly via the team bus. They aim to make it to the EuroLeague in upcoming seasons.
Teamwork. You will see much more passing and less dribbling in European basketball. As we all know, the ball moves faster than the man. They also treat the three-point shot as a regular attempt, and teams routinely shoot 45 percent or more from three-point range. Lastly, there’s very little isolation and one-on-one play, and it’s usually for imports in desperate situations. There is a different level of discipline. European basketball is simply less frivolous.
More imports. This is perhaps the Europeans’ secret weapon over the US. They allow more American imports than other leagues around the world. Some teams hire up to five reinforcements at a time, almost all with US college play, and the majority have NBA and G-League experience. On the surface, it may appear to be a band-aid solution, but the Europeans do two things well. They get the imports to play within their system, and they learn the American style of play. Imports never play the entire game (even if the games are shorter) and they have specific roles. While a few lead the individual statistical categories, they don’t do it all, unlike imports in Asia. Some teams have only two or three imports, but only play the strongest ones heavily in their main tournament. Meanwhile in the NBA, all players are considered equal, but they just keep bringing in more Euro players, instead of studying what makes them great.