kirk penny

OScar Schmidt..........easy!

Len Bias or Earl Manigault

Oscar for mine.

maybe change this to best International player, then it would be a 2 horse race....

Oscar and our very own Andrew Gaze


Or would it?

ok, maybe i should have said in my post

"Best International player"
Played in a International competition
Also may have played in the NBA

Showtime - that then opens the door to Ginobli, Petrovich, Sabonis or any number of elite players who had more team success internationally than Gaze or Schmidt. Then there's guys like Nash who singlehandedly lead Canada over Australia in 2000 Olympics but didn't have the same storied international career because his team mates always sucked.

No - I think the initial "best never to play NBA" is a better, more easily defined question.

1. Oscar Schmidt (easily)
2. Rimas Kurtinaitis

Bill Murray

Cheryl Miller

Probably need to define eras because it's difficult comparing generations. Also, does the ABA count?

If you include the ABA as being part of the NBA (which it clearly wasn't), it's Oscar Schmidt then daylight. Eddie Palubinskas would be up there and for a while, it looked like Arvydas Sabonis would join these guys before playing late in the NBA.

If you allow ABA players who didn't play NBA, Oscar could be pipped by Mel Daniels. Was a 6-9 center with Indiana, averaged 18.7 points and 15.1 boards per game, winning two ABA MVPs in 8 seasons. Hall of Fame worthy.

brett maher maybe?

duh billy from White Men Can't jump /end thread

Truth be known I have never heard of Galis clearly I have no idea about International Basketball according to Anon.

Sounds like the same people who write on the Fiba site EVERY time that the refs were paid.

Love bing an aussie!!

BTW for me Oscar, mind u I think most players would have the license to shoot the ball as much as he did!

Willy Farely !!!!!!!

Deion Sanders

bodiroga
schmidt
fucka
bias
a couple of Russians from the late 70's and early 80's were very good too

I remember a couple of very reliable sources mention that Phil Smythe's game would have been tailor made for the NBA. I believe Luc Longley was one of them.

gathers wasn't as good as Bias let alone Schmidt

Oscar....no question.

Oscar Schmidt /Dragan Kicanovic.

Oscar had the advantage of being able to play in most major tournaments during his career because Brazil was the only other viable qualifier apart from the USA at that time from the Americas.So this gave him a bigger audience and profile from Australian fans who follow the Olympics and W/Cs.Galis and his Greece teams had to compete against the likes of Yugoslavia and Russia during the same period and so could not always get the team through qualifying and as such was not seen as much in big touraments.With Greece not being overly talented in relative terms to the Yugos and Russians thr fact that they did at times get the W against those teams speaks volumes about his talent. I dont think from memory that Oscar was able to carry Brazil to many wins over teams of this talent in his career. Galis had an increadible range of scoring options and could just get it done in the paint against far bigger oponents. Look Oscar was sensational a pure scorer with great range and may well be the best but Galis was like Iverson in the way he could score, minus the toolish side and plus the ability to make his team and team mates better.
So I stand by my statement. If you dont know about Galis or dont think he is in the mix of this discussion you dont know much about international basketball or it's history.

KIRK PENNY




... not bias

Did u read the title?

I forgot about the Greek legend Galis...definitely up there in the rankings! But Schmidt hands down for mine, and I still rate Lithuanian legend Kurtinaitis too.

how come ppl are mentioning gaze ?? pretty sure he played and has a ring albeit a token ring

People not reading the topic...

That greek guy Galis was amazing - youtube him - was unstoppable

Chris washburn - drafted high and died before playing a game

"Chris Washburn played 72 games over two seasons (one and a half with the Warriors and part of another with the Atlanta Hawks), averaging 3.1 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. He is widely considered to be one of the biggest busts in NBA draft history. In 2005 Sports Illustrated named him the second-biggest NBA draft bust of all time."

Sure you're not thinking of Len Bias?

Ater Majok. :)

Nikos Galis once dropped 50 against Michael Jordan. That gets him my vote.

Here's a nice video of Galis going off for 45 points in the 1989 European Championship against USSR (featuring Sabonis).

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94X7oyzlfeY

Yes Vart. I agree I posted it earlier. I played basketball many years ago with a guy whom emigrated from Greece. He was a decent player, well maybe top local grade S/L level and he used to go nuts talking about Gallis, but at that time due I had only his stories to go on because there was no WWweb back then. I read a bit about him and as soon as I could check him out on youtube I did. As I said he might not be the best but he is worthy of discussion.Those Euro teams back then had lots of talent because the NBA was still coming to terms with believing that someone who was not from the US was worthy of a spot or their Eastern Bloc governments would not let them play as they were then ineligable for the Olympics.

Yes Vart. I agree I posted it earlier. I played basketball many years ago with a guy whom emigrated from Greece. He was a decent player, well maybe top local grade S/L level and he used to go nuts talking about Galis, but at that time due I had only his stories to go on because there was no WWweb back then. I read a bit about him and as soon as I could check him out on youtube I did. As I said he might not be the best but he is worthy of discussion.Those Euro teams back then had lots of talent because the NBA was still coming to terms with believing that someone who was not from the US was worthy of a spot or their Eastern Bloc governments would not let them play as they were then ineligable for the Olympics.