By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The English edition of ESPN published an article by the network’s international basketball expert Fran Franschilla, which ranks to basketball leagues around the world not including the NBA.
As expected Euroleague – including Eurocup – is considered the top league outside the US and the rest of the ranking, at least on the European front, is pretty similar to Eurohoops annual domestic league rankings even though it’s obvious that NBA prospects in each league play a major part in ESPN’s ranking.
What’s interesting is that the Basketball Champions League is absent from the Top12. This omission is a sign for the lack of publicity and fans interest that so far is plaguing the new competition of FIBA.
Speaking about the differences between ESPN and Eurohoops ranking, it’s obvious that the progress of teams like AEK and Aris are not reflected on the ESPN ranking of the Greek league (9th) and also the Israeli league is not included despite the presence of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Amare Stoudemire’s Hapoel Jerusalem.