Bargnani, Splitter have NBA eyes focused on Europe

	Andrea Bargnani's willingness to go hard to the basket and ability to hit from outside have made him a potential top 10 pick. AP

Andrea Bargnani and Tiago Splitter have some important things in common. They are tall, athletic and immensely promising basketball players who play key roles for two of the best teams in Europe. Both reportedly are under contract to their respective teams through the 2007-08 season. Both have been heavily scouted by NBA teams. And both will eventually have to make the transition from European prodigy to high NBA draft pick, with all the inherent pressures that status represents.

The good news for Bargnani, the 6-foot-10 Italian forward from Benetton Treviso of Italy, and Splitter, the 6-foot-11 Brazilian-born center from Tau Ceramica of Spain, is that when they come into the NBA, they will be joining a league that has evolved dramatically over the past two decades thanks to David Stern's vision of becoming a global sports brand. NBA teams today are better equipped than ever to guide international players through the gauntlet of cultural, linguistic and lifestyle adjustments that await them.

In places like San Antonio and Phoenix, players with international backgrounds have flourished in systems that are similar to the brand of basketball they grew up with in Europe. Those teams demand that players big and small be able to pass the ball, shoot the ball with range and put team goals first. And that involves more than just feeling comfortable in a drive-and-kick offense as opposed to one relying on the pick-and-roll as the main course. It's about embracing a basketball philosophy that celebrates group achievement rather than individual expression. And it's about integrating the fundamentally sound games of well-schooled Europeans with the explosive, flamboyant style favored by most American players.

Longtime NBA people chafe at the idea that these are "European basketball values." They would argue, correctly, that five-man basketball at its highest level was taught and practiced by American coaches such as John Wooden, Red Auerbach, Red Holzman, Pete Newell and Clair Bee for decades before any European player found his way to the NBA.

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told USA Today just this week, "The Euros and foreign players and coaches are doing things in some ways we have forgotten about and used to do."

It's amazing how quickly the NBA landscape has changed. A scant decade ago, a basketball scout describing a player as "European" would most likely be criticizing him as lacking in athleticism and being soft defensively. Today, if a scout says a player plays "like a European," he's more likely complimenting his perimeter shooting or overall fundamental play.