All-Star Weekend reminder of league’s global reach
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If you still need Giannis Antetokounmpo to be the cute, aw-shucks Greek Freak, living a level of stardom beyond his dreams, he will oblige. He can still wear that mask, even though it defies what he has become: an edgy NBA superstar who openly wants to be the best and who just might be hiding a cudgel behind that wide smile.
Ask him about standing opposite LeBron James as an NBA All-Star Game captain, and he’ll say, “It’s crazy. Before I came into the league, I was looking up to him. Now I’m in the locker room and sharing a meal with Team Giannis. Like, I’m leading the all-star team! You know, picking teams with LeBron James! If you told methat six years ago, I would never, never, never thought I would be in this position right now.”
But it’s not 2013 anymore. Antetokounmpo is not an 18-year-old NBA mystery. He’s the 24-year-old, three-time all-star who reiterated last week that he doesn’t think he can be guarded. He’s an MVP candidate guiding the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA’s best record.
And on Sunday night, he was in the All-Star Game catching and dunking a ridiculous high-bounce alley-oop from Stephen Curry. And don’t look away: He’s catching another pass, this one a toss off the backboard from Paul George, and swinging on the rim en route to a game-high 38 points. Onthat play, James was wise enough to get out of the Freak’s way.
In the moment, it felt symbolic. King James, the long-standing best player in the game, is 34 years old and moving closer to giving up his crown. When it happens, Antetokounmpo will be in his prime. As a superstar with an evolving skill set, he has a chance to enjoy his own reign as the NBA’s premier player. It would be a face unlike any that has owned the league. AmanofNigerian descent who grew upin Greece and didn’t live in the United States until the NBA drafted him.
Twenty-one years after Dirk Now- itzki came over from Germany and began the greatest NBAcareer ever for a pure international draft pick (no U.S. experience before the NBA), the global evolution of the league is stunning.
In a year in which 108 international players opened the season on NBA rosters, the league had a record seven international All-Stars and 18 international participants in All-Star festivities. But it’s not just the numbers that impress Nowitzki. It’s the quality of those players. They aren’t just players enjoying career years or thriving in the Robin role on their teams. They are franchise-carrying stars, just like Nowitzki was for most of his career. There’s a difference.
“They’re not only playing and contributing, but being franchise players,” Nowitzki said. “That’s been a big change over the last 20 years. It’s a different thing when you’re that kind of guy, when you’re influencing teams and the whole league in that way.”
Four miles from the All-Star Game spectacle in Charlotte, the NBA and FIBA hosted the Basketball Without Borders Global Camp at the Queens University of Charlotte. For the fifth straight year, the event was part of All-Star Weekend. It featured 63 boys and girls, all between ages 16 and 18, from 31 countries. They practiced, scrimmaged, underwent athletic testing and measurements and ran through drills for three days. All 30 NBA teams came to scout.
It’s the hidden gem of All-Star Weekend and one of the league’s most important developmental programs. Throw in the league’s establishment of basketball academies worldwide and its announcement last week of a league in Africa, and the NBA is serious about extending its global reach.
“I have this conversation with ministers of sport in countries around the world: Sometimes there’s the notion of when’s the next great player coming?” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “As opposed to, when are we going to develop the next great player?”