KB3
Years ago

Dante Draper is Eurocup MVP

ex NBLer and King, Dante Draper, has won the Eurocup MVP http://www.eurocupbasketball.com/ulebcup/home/news/i/84396/3735

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phil
Years ago

lol, didnt i see a post awhile back where ebi ere won the last one??

does it say something about the strength of the nbl that our stars can also dominate in europe??

who will be next?? we have plenty of ex-nbl players over there...

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LC
Years ago

Here's some background on just a few Aussies that plied their trade in Europe whilst garnering some pretty big awards...

David Andersen was All-Euroleague First Team in 2005 whilst playing for CSKA Moscow. He was also one of 50 nominee's for the Euroleague 2001-10 All-Decade Team.

Aleks Maric was All-Euroleague First Team in 2010 whilst playing for Partizan Belgrade.

Matt Nielsen was named to the All-Eurocup Team in 2010 and was also named Eurocup Finals MVP that season whilst playing for Valencia.

Chris Anstey was ULEB Cup MVP in 2006 whilst playing for Ural Great Perm. Anstey was also FIBA EuropeLeague All Star in 2004 & 2005 whilst playing for Unics Kazan.

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Anonymous
Years ago

"Unics" Kazan, ouch tough team.

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phil
Years ago

unfortunately im not sure alot of people realise just what a talent anderson has been. never hear alot of talk about him, but has been consistantly solid throughout his career ( solid is putting it very mildly lol).

good to look at that list and know that while anstey, neilson, ere and draper were all stars they were not light years above alot of our competition. ok some will argue, because they have always been very good but i see the differences between loughton, schencher and guys like that is they have bigger deficiencies in their game, rather than guys like neilson and anstey.

some people dont give our league enough credit

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Big Ads
Years ago

It's not necessarily the quality of the talent in the league but a combination of a couple of things; i.e. the period of instability the league went through a few years ago, the talent depth of the european competitions and the greater source of financial backers that can provide greater salaries.

The beauty of the NBL is that the very good players are very good players internationally, the European competitions can afford more of them which provides an attraction in itself.

If Australian only had a population of 100 million people.........but that's a conversation for a different thread.

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desmondhaynes
Years ago

The ironic thing is he's gone from being a 6th man of the year in a 2nd-rate league to an MVP in a 1st-rate league, his basketball resume certainly looks a bit unusual from now on.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Desmond, you will find that good NBL teams would be right up there in the Eurocup, the standard is pretty similar. Past MVPs include Matt Nielsen and Chris Anstey.

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desmondhaynes
Years ago

I don't disagree with that, but I wouldn't think that would be the view of people from outside of Australia, especially given the salary cap here compared to Europe and the NBA.

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Big Ads
Years ago

It was almost 3 years ago that he wore the purple and gold and Draper was just out of college. It's fair to say he had a big upside and he's fulfilling that potential now that he's had a few years as a professional ball player.

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paul
Years ago

Fair point Desmond, and most people outside Australia wouldnt know how stacked that Kings team was either.

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Hoops

Dante Draper is Eurocup MVP

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