2007-02-05 18:49:58 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Sports ➔ Basketball
hell nah.there were several europeans who flourished in the NBA before the german sensation. players such as drazen petrovic of the nets and sarunas marciulonas( gosh i have no idea how its spelled) of the warriors come to mind.. dirk may be the best player to ever come out of europe but he didnt popularize the euro trend
2007-02-05 19:14:59 · answer #1 · answered by anton l 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no. a lot of very popular superstar european (and other countries as well) players emerged in the nba way before dirk. the drafting of international players is not a "trend" as you call it but an indication of the incredible talent that derives from other other countries such as europe. at the end of last season, there were 82 international players from 38 different countries (52 being from europe) playing in the nba. and that number keeps on growing every year. so yeah... dirk didnt necessarily popularize a "trend" of european players because the league has been on the lookout for more international players to bring into the nba since before people knew who dirk even was.
2007-02-06 03:22:51 · answer #2 · answered by thizzin' 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Although Dirk popularized the European "Superstar" image of the NBA, he was most definitely preceded by some great players. Until it was found that the sport was booming in Europe in the mid to late 1990's, all foreign players such as Drazen Petrovic, Zadrunas Ilgauskas, and even Toni Kukoc were all just role players on their teams. When the United States national teams began to find that European ball clubs were playing more organized styles, their attitude changed. (Their losses in those games played a big part as well.) The idea of grabbing a superstar like Dirk from Europe, and letting him play his style in the United States is just another thumbs up for Mark Cuban.
2007-02-06 04:16:05 · answer #3 · answered by jayevans2121 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You should see more clearly before you generalized something. Maybe no cause as my memory recalls there's some european players before him and maybe one of them popularized the trend.
2007-02-06 03:34:38 · answer #4 · answered by Enigmatic A 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
nope. although he is an excellent basketball player, i don't think that he is the one that popularized the european tred in nba
2007-02-06 04:55:07 · answer #5 · answered by Nadash13 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think there were a couple of players before him but he is the best of them.
2007-02-06 03:23:14 · answer #6 · answered by gman 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes i agree
2007-02-09 21:29:54 · answer #7 · answered by jerry 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
probably yes
2007-02-06 02:57:02 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋