On the surface it is two American teams, the Los Angeles Lakers against the Orlando Magic boxing out for the NBA championships, but their roots are deeply spread all over the world.
The 2009 NBA Finals are being broadcast to more than 200 countries in over 60 languages, but the dreams they represent go even deeper.
While it certainly is a global game, the reality is that regardless of your passport, very few players make it to the NBA. Just like hockey players and the NHL, basketball players aspire to make it to the NBA and of those precious few that do succeed, a lot fewer make it to the NBA Finals. Ask Steve Nash or Yao Ming.
So imagine the odds if you are from non-basketball hot spots like deepest Africa, Turkey or a French island in the West Indies of ever making it to the NBA Finals.
Dreams of a whole new generation will start from watching the performance of these hoop titans.
“That is what the exposure from being in the NBA Finals will do. And should we be victorious it will show my fellow countrymen that working hard and following one’s dreams can pay off,” says DJ Mbenga, a center for the Lakers from Africa’s Congo.
Hedo Turkoglu, a Turk and star forward for Orlando, has performed well all over the world – from the Olympics to the high-level play of the European leagues- but realizes that this is rarified air.
Hedo Turkoglu
“It means a lot to be here at the height of the sport. As a kid back in Turkey I dreamt about coming to the NBA. Then you want to be one of the better players in the league, respected for your talents regardless of your origins. Then you want to reach the finals. It doesn’t matter if you’re from New Zealand or New York, that is something not very many get to experience in their NBA careers.”
Not all players are able to enjoy the relatively direct route that Hedo has taken to get here. Some players have taken a very circuitous route and thus have developed an even greater appreciation for what it means to be able to get this rare opportunity.
Magic center Marcin Gortat, a long way from his native Poland, is one of those players.
“I certainly went the long route to get here,” says the affable Pole.
“I started in Germany where I played for four years. I was then drafted in 2005 by the Phoenix Suns and played for several years in the summer leagues and been fighting hard for everything to get to this point. There have been many obstacles along the way. It has not been easy.”
At the same time, Gortat is well aware of what his presence here means to his countrymen.
“It is a great happening back in Poland right now as there are hundreds of thousands if not millions watching these NBA Finals, so I feel a huge responsibility as the lone representative of my country. While I feel both pride and pressure to succeed, I have worked all my life to get to this point so I am loose and cool to produce at this level.”
Gortat’s opponent and fellow European, Laker sharpshooter from Slovenia, Sasha Vujacic, can relate to the pressures of representing one’s home country.
“I remember watching old tapes of Magic Johnson against Larry Bird in the NBA Finals and now I am here. It is an amazing feeling. And it is something totally different (from the regular season). Now I am filled with emails, text messages and interview requests from my compatriots and the media back in Slovenia”.
Sasha Vujacic
Those historic NBA roots also apply to Orlando’s Mickael Pietrus, a Frenchman growing up on the island of Guadalupe, who has the memory of one particular player embedded in his psyche remembering how he inspired him to succeed.
“I watched the NBA Finals when I was six years-old and saw Michael Jordan hoist that trophy. I told myself then, ‘I’d love to play in the NBA’ “.
Adds Pietrus, “And life goes so fast. At one moment (I’m) playing for France and in an instant I am where Michael Jordan used to be- in the NBA Finals.”
The pride of Spain, Lakers’ star forward Pau Gasol perhaps sums it up best.
“Regardless of one’s roots, any athlete at the world class level wants to know how he fares amongst the very best, and in our case these are the NBA Finals.”
Indeed.
This article is a reprint of Randy William’s article that first appeared on the Canwest News Service in the following papers and websites:
OPening up the NBA to the global talents that had been developing out there, is something that was inevitable and overdue to grow the league. It makes good business.
Since the days of Toni Kukoc and Luc Longley the NBA has really grown globally as well.
No doubt the NBA and the sport are much better off with foreign players participating in the best league.
No doubt the quality of play in the NBA has gone up since the arrival of foreign born players.