What is up with these Spanish scam artists? Serge Ibaka obtaining Spanish citizenship in order to compete in the upcoming Eurobasket as well as the London Olympics is more outrageous than the home cooking every international team encountered against Turkey at the past World Championships.
Ibaka probably passed many of the technicalities which keep other players from playing for European nations. He spent 2007-2009 playing in the Spanish ACB, and probably learned a little bit of Spanish. But he was born in the Republic of Congo and is far more Congolese than he is Spanish. Let us take a look at some other players who could have potentially participated in this same type of sleazy movement:
Jan Vesely
Vesely was born and raised in the Czech Republic. In 2008 he made his move to Partizan Belgrade and played there up until this past season (2010/2011). Vesely helped his team win 9 club trophies and has become fluent in Serbian during his time with Partizan. Jan is a perfect example of somebody who could have decided to play for a superior basketball nation but chose to stay true to his roots.
Anthony Parker
As a Toronto native, I have grown familiar with Parker's story while he played for the Raptors. He spent the years 2000-2002 and 2003-2006 in Tel Aviv playing for Macabi. Like Vesely, Parker spent more time abroad than Ibaka. But how absurd would it be if Parker decided to play in an International competition for Israel. Parker is a player who will never be selected for the U.S. Senior men's national team, so this would be his only opportunity to play for a national team.
Josh Childress
Childress played for one of the best club teams in Europe from 2008-2010, Olympiacos. Like Parker, Childress will never be selected for the U.S. team, but he could be an extremely useful addition to the Greek national team. Greece's best wing players have recently retired or are in their twilight years, so he could step right in and be a star. By the way, he wouldn't be the only black guy on the team (see Sofoklis Schortsanitis).
Spain's "Golden Generation" in basketball is beginning to age. They failed to defend their World Championship title in Turkey, falling at the hands of an over achieving Serbian side in the quarter finals. The addition of Ibaka will be a nice addition moving forward. He will be great front court partner with Marc Gasol, and Rubio will have two great players to run the pick and roll with. Spain is the only team to really challenge the redeem team and they have experienced tremendous success in the past 4-6 years. However, this is a ridiculous acquisition which should never have been allowed to happen.
Until next time,
Stevan Sauce Manojlovic
Vesely can't play for Serbia, since he already played for the Czech national team.
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