Euro Trash Talk

Nick Van Exel, never known to be a model of restraint, stirred up a hornet's nest last week when he summed up long held prejudices about the vanilla Dallas Mavericks.

According to Van Exel, the Blazers thought the Mavs are "a bunch of soft white boys and can't get it done."

After the Mavs won the game, Van Exel went for the Nobel Peace prize. "I guess we showed them. We've got to step up. White, black, green. It doesn't matter. This team has a great record with a bunch of white boys."

White, black, green . . . the NBA is looking for sharp shooting, fundamentally sound 7-footers with crossovers.

Nowadays, it just so happens that imports, primarily from Europe, seem to fitting the description.

As few as five years ago, many NBA teams refused to draft Europeans players because of the myriad of issues they faced. They had confusing, complicated contracts with their European teams, were often seen as lumbering oafs, and their defense had as many holes as Chris Webber's story on all that money boosters gave him at Michigan.

Now Euros are all the rage. They still have confusing contracts (ask the Jazz about Raul Lopez), there are still a fair share of lumbering oafs (no offense Vitaly Potepenko), and not even the top Europeans in the NBA are going to have shot at the Defensive Player of the Year anytime soon . . . but they are coming to America in record numbers these days -- Frederic Weiss and Mirsad Turkan be damned.

Cue the Neil Diamond soundtrack.

In a few years, the NBA may be able to take the NHL's lead and turn All-Star weekend in an America versus the World competition.

The Europeans could field a team of Vlade Divac, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stojakovic, Andrei Kirilenko, Hidayet Turkoglu, Tony Paker, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Jake Tsakalidis, Vladimir Radmanovic, Toni Kukoc and Zeljko Rebraca that would scare the crap out of any All-Star team in the world right now.

With the recent sucess of players like Nowitzki, Stojakovic and Gasol, everyone is looking for a clone overseas. Several NBA GM's told Insider earlier this month at Portsmouth that as many as 12 foreign players could be drafted this year -- most of them from Europe.

While several of these players, like Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Bostjan Nachbar, may play in the leauge next season, most teams don't mind drafting a Euro and letting him season in overseas for a few years. It's a win-win for players and the teams that draft them. The players get more playing time than they would in the NBA and teams are able to keep their contracts off their cap until they player is ready to produce.

The NBA draft is no longer about instant gratification. Good things come to those who wait.

The Kings did that with Stojakovic, the Jazz did it with Kirilenko and Raul Lopez and a lot more teams are expected to jump on the bandwagon this year. Most lower first-round picks don't work out anyway. Why not hedge your bets by drafting a European?

The gamble seems to be playing big dividends. This year there's already a lot of buzz about two European players who have already been drafted and another player who teams passed on last year.

Marko Jaric, a 6-foot-8 point guard playing in Italy for Kinder Bologna, and his teammate, Emanuel Ginobili, a 6-foot-7 shooting guard, should be able to opt out of their European contracts and head to the NBA this season.

The Clippers drafted Jaric in the second round of the 2000 draft. Jaric was impressive at the Chicago Pre-Draft camp in 2000, and two years of playing professional ball for the best team in Europe have turned him from a good prospect into an unbelievable one. This season, he averaged 16.7 ppg, 2.5 apg and 3.1 spg on 52 percent shooting. One GM told Insider that if Jaric were in this year's draft, he'd be a high lottery pick.

"He's a fantastic athlete that can play both guard positions," one GM told Insider. "But I think his value is at the point. He's a great decision maker on the break, has solid handles and looks to get his teammates involved. He thinks pass first and I think that is what is so intruiging. He's really improved his leadership skills the last few years playing at such a high level. He's got the potential to be very special."

Now you know why Jeff McInnis is packing his bags in L.A. With Keyon Dooling and Earl Boykins already on the roster and Jaric coming in, the Clippers are unlikely to make a serious bid for McInnis this summer. Sources close to the Clippers say that the team feels that Jaric can come in and contribute immediately. With the team also interested in developing Dooling, another tall point guard, there doesn't appear to be room for McInnis in the Clippers' plans.

Almost as intriguing is Ginobili, a sharp-shooting guard with great hops. The Spurs drafted him with the second to the last pick in the 1999 draft and let him stay in Europe. It paid off. Last year he was named the MVP of the Euroleague Finals. In San Antonio he would've languished on the bench. If he were available today, he would probably be a mid first-rounder.

"He's a very good athlete, who can really shoot," the same GM told Insider. "Like a lot of Europeans he can also handle the ball and has great fundamentals. He has suprising leaping ability. He's not quite the prospect that Jaric is, but he could put up a lot of points in the NBA."

That's music to the Spurs' ears. Ginobili averaged 17.1 ppg and 4.4 rpg on 62 percent shooting for Kinder Bologna this season. The Spurs' current shooting guards, Steve Smith and Antonio Daniels, have one more year remaining on their contracts. If San Antonio can get its hands on Ginobili this summer, it can spend the year grooming him. Perhaps an all-Euro backcourt of Tony Paker and Ginobili can convince that tall kid from the Virgin Islands to re-sign with the Spurs in the summer of 2003.

The other intruiging player on NBA radar screens is Ognjen Askrabic, a 6-foot-9, sharp-shooting forward from Bosnia. Askrabic is another phenomenal athlete who is incredibly quick for his size, can put the ball on the floor and hit the NBA three.

Askrabic went undrafted last season, meaning he's a free agent this summer. League sources told Insider that several teams are already lining up to bid for his services, but it looks like the Mavs may have the upper hand. It shouldn't come as any suprise that Mark Cuban is willing to fork out the big bucks to lure him deep into the heart of Texas.

Great, Askarabic is just what Van Exel needs -- another "soft white boy."

Draft Rumors: NBA still courting China, Yao Ming

The NBA is doing its best to convince the Shanghai Sharks that letting Yao Ming play in the NBA makes sense for both countries.

The league recently guided a group of Chinese and Japanese journalists through Dallas and Denver to give the countries a better glimpse at how Wang Zhi-Zhi and Menk Bateer are faring in the NBA.

The league is anxious to ge a stronger foothold in China, where the NBA is growing in popularity. Currently six games a week are airing in China and the fan interest seems to growing since Wang and Menk entered the league.

"Right now, the most exciting market would be China," Cheong Sau Ching, part of the traveling party and senior director of public relations for NBA Asia, told the Denver Post. "We want to grow this market. Asia still overall, be it economy or what have you, represents a lot of potential."

A lot of that potential could be realized if the NBA can find a way to convince Chinese officials to let Yao play in the NBA next season.

Next month, Chinese officials reportedly will allow Yao to visit the U.S. for 10 days and work out for about half-dozen teams. The visit will likely take place after the NBA holds its lottery drawing and there's a clearer picture of who will be drafting where. Sports Illustrated recently reported that Chinese officials are hoping he is drafted by a big-market team with a big Asian population. There are already rumors that workouts are being set up in New York, Chicago and Golden State. Denver's inroads with Menk also make them a likely target.

If Yao was drafted by, say, the Cavs or the Grizzlies, would they refuse to release him? League sources told Insider last week that they were confident that they could work out a deal with the Sharks, regardless of who drafts him, but the problem for NBA teams is the uncertainty.

Yao is a No. 1 or No. 2 pick in the draft if he's available for next season. However, that high of a pick is too valuable to waste on Yao if the Sharks won't release him. With Chinese officials vowing not to officially release him until they see who drafts him -- teams are in a bit of quandary.

He might be too good to pass up, regardless of the dilemma. In Yao's last game, he was 21-for-21 from the field and finished with 49 points, 17 rebounds, six blocks and three steals. . .

It looks like Alabama's Rod Grizzard will throw his name in the NBA draft after all. Several league sources said that Grizzard has been actively researching his position in the draft with the help of an agent advisor (not the same as hiring an agent) and is likely to throw his name in the draft and test the waters.

NBA scouts project Grizzard as a late first-round pick right now. His shooting struggles this past season have really deflated his stock. Grizzard has the height and scoring mentality that excite scouts. He projects as a shooting guard in the pros and really has the ball-handling skills to play point forward in a pinch. However, Grizzard is built like a bean pole. He really lacks the physical strength to compete in the NBA. He also can be very streaky and lacks aggressiveness. A strong senior season would increase his chances of being drafted in the first round. . .

Florida's Brett Nelson will be the latest underclassmen to declare for the draft. The Gainesville Sun reported that Nelson will not hire an agent to protect his college eligibility.

Nelson is declaring despite a lukewarm reception from NBA teams. He was not projected in the first round by any of the scouts Insider talked to. . .

Indiana's Jared Jeffries has dropped out of school to prepare for the NBA draft.