How Average European Team Destroyed G League's Best

Unicaja Malaga won the FIBA Intercontinental Cup beating G League United. The final game was another clash between the two basketball schools - European and the American one. In this video, BasketNews' Augustas Suliauskas analyzes how different the two styles of play are and which European fundamentals helped Unicaja to beat the G League's team.

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[nikoskukoc]

european teams are real teams, gleague teams are just groups of players who try to prove things for their career, no team goals, no legacy, nothing

[deelak]

No one thinks the G league is the second best league in the world. Its clearly the euroleague.

[GiorgosPlanar]

The saddest thing is not the disrespect for the opponent. The saddest thing is that their motivation is to "make millions"

[mamamo]

Nothing against JTA, but his desperation to get back to the league made him say those things. Don’t disrespect other leagues, don’t disrespect your opponent and accept it your NBA bench riding days are over. Be grateful that you can still play the game.

[iiJaRhonNaDeS]

GLeague is literally set up for players to play as individuals. I’m not surprised they got whooped by a legit Euro team. Completely different mindset of the players.

[Robredomania]

Unicaja is not a Euroleague team for the moment. You can describe them as Eurocup level.

[rangerbelette]

Imo the reason why FIBA and NBA evolved the way they are now is about the professional structure. NBA teams are franchises, as long as they don't have financial issues, they belong to the NBA. Being bad only means better chance to get a better player next draft. So what they need is showmanship to keep money getting in. This reflects on the NBA rules and play style. In Europe, professional naional leagues are organized by level. If one team has the poorest results they play in lower grade league next season with tremendous impact for the team organization and finance. This also reflects on the playstyle; team strength over individual talent

[vince]

"Why do we have such a difference" Well it was answered by a player, as he said "We want to play in the NBA to make million". So they focus on their own contract not on the team results. That's where the difference lies.

[mrtardigrade]

Izan Almansa said that the in g league players don't care about winning games, they are there to get to the NBA and show their skills so they end up playing to show off and not to win

[josesanmiguel]

To give some context, Unicaja is a playoff team in the Spanish ACB league. They were champions once (2004-2005 season). They were a bottom half Euroleague team from 2001-2002 to 2018-2019, they played in the final four once (2006-2007 season), and they haven't played in Euroleague since the 2018-2019 season. And (this is my personal opinion) if they played Euroleague now, it would be very unlikely that they were in the top half of the teams.

[taylanac]

The fact that some basketball players occasionally get together and shoot a basketball to a hoop does not make them a team, thus these teams do not add up to a league. It's barely more than a pick-up game.

[BigPlasticPlant]

I was at this tournament, the finals game was a real eye opener. G league team broke down quickly as soon as their shots weren’t falling, there was little communication on the court, a lot of complaining to the refs and a lot of “hero ball”. Tuscano-Anderson spent most of his time complaining about calls, no calls, anything really…. It was boring and frustrating to watch.
Malaga themselves went through a few patches of poor shooting and their captain Diaz sometimes struggled to even get the ball up the floor but they played as a unit, moved the ball and involved everyone in the offence. There was no bad body language or complaints if a shot didn’t fall.
More shockingly, if you think Malaga are an average team, is that on the Friday G league only beat Tasmania on the final play of the game and by a couple of points, they got extremely lucky, they really had no right being in the final game and it would have been far more entertaining to see the Tasmanian Jackjumpers and Jordon Crawford (who was incredible the whole tournament) in the final.

[zauri.vashakidze]

If that was Barcelona or Real madrid they would get swept by 50 points.

[enmorot]

That speech is a summary of American culture: Ignorant, arrogant, money above all else.

[joachimmahoudeaux]

Evan Fournier summarized the differences, he received 3 propositions:
- Washington in NBA: it was meant for mentoring youngtsters in a franchise that will do nothing more than tanking, he refused, no goal, nothing to win
- G-League: he thinks it’s not a real league, only a development one, nothing to win
- Euroleague with Olympiakos, he wanted Paris in Euroleague too but too much point guards there.

Euroleague is definitely way more attractive than playing in those 11th to 15th NBA teams, that’s why he’s accepted the Olympiakos contract. On the other hand Batum will continue in the Clippers, and Yabusele will play for the 76ers: competitive NBA franchises that will go to the playoffs.

The Euroleague is way more motivating than playing in tanking NBA franchises or G-League: team defense fundamentals are way higher, higher IQ, shorter sized court meaning you have to rely on team efforts rather than individual skills. And we all know NBA hates team defense, the pundits in the USA have no clue about what’s team defense.

[edyxfql]

How is Toscano-Anderson talking like that? He was dog shit in the nba, unplayable.

[Brqinstorm]

Outside of comparing the league, I think it's also important to compare the way players are taught the game. In my opinion, AAU basketball has destroyed North American player's fundamentals. (At this point I don't think it's an opinion but a fact)
They basically spend their summers playing pickup games where they run ISO every posession. And they do this for their entire youth. Until they get to college.

Meanwhile Europeans will play at club level and learn the basics and then start playing in an academy. The best players play senior basketball in their teens where they HAVE to be exceptionally good with their fundamentals because they are the smallest, weakest player on the court.

We've seen the cracks in the USA team. They are no longer the runaway favorite that they were in decades prior. They can lose to any of the best nation in Europe in a tournament. The gap has closed significantly. It took a godlike 4th from Curry to close the deal against France.

There is no debate that the pecking order is NBA>Euroleague and after that somewhere, the NCAA and the G-League.

[hdim]

Frankly speaking, I usually watch some NBA highlights and it's entertaining.
Every time however I try to watch a full game it's unwatchable.
Players make aweful decisions and it feels like they invested fully on their physicality and 3 point shots instead of intellectual basketball.
Yes, having some AMAZINGLY skilled players helps, but what they do, can't be replicated by 99% of the players

[DimShamrock]

Best thing I saw all week. Congrats to Unicaja. They did everybody proud.

To all guys in the G-League, tell your patrons in the NBA that they're next. Curry, Durant and James won't be here for much longer. 😁

Here in Athens, we are still waiting for that Celtics game, you know. Just saying. ☘