By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In a post for the Player’s Tribune, Italian swingman Marco Belinelli chose the best five European players he’s ever faced throughout his career.
While some players on Belinelli’s list aren’t… the exact definition of “European”, they remain some quite interesting choices, particularly considering how the 2014 NBA champion describes the reasons he picked them.
Per The Player’s Tribune:
Dirk Nowitzki:
Like a lot of European players around my age, I got to watch Dirk as a teenager before he became a huge NBA sensation. He was considered an unknown when he got picked in the NBA draft, but we all knew who he was and what he could do.
So, when someone asks me this question, about the best European players I’ve ever played against, Dirk is the first person I think of.
In 2005 or 2006, I played my first game for Italy against the German national team. Everyone knew Dirk could shoot, so when I switched onto him, I pressed up as much as I could to prevent him from getting a shot up. He was only a couple years older than me, I thought I could meet his energy level and stop him.
But it was impossible.
He drove right past me. He could move like a point guard, and he was so tall that I couldn’t block his shot. What he was doing didn’t look real. He changed basketball in so many ways. Me and my teammates were so amazed by the way he moved, how easily he got baskets. When he came to the NBA, we all knew he would be a big deal even before everyone in the NBA did.
Dirk is one of the five best players of all time, in my opinion. He is amazing.
Hedo Turkoglu:
When I first met Hedo, I’ll admit, I was a little starstruck.
I’d grown up watching him compete for Turkey, and I’d always looked up to his all-around game. Hedo wasn’t really a shooter like most of the European guys at that time, so he always used that to his advantage. Less prepared players would defend him and play him like a shooter because he was European. When he and I both played for Toronto, I’d always try to pair up with him in practice. He took me under his wing.
It was a surreal feeling.
So, something about me — I could always shoot the basketball. I feel like that’s all I did my entire childhood. When I play basketball, the best feeling for me is getting to play how I want to play as much as possible — I like an open, free-flowing game. But I learned that you’ve got to keep growing as a player to find that zone, and always be practicing and adding new things. Hedo was the best at that, so I had a lot to learn from him.
Hedo is a big body. He was a lot stronger than me, but he was also very quick and very good at the pick and roll so he could be so difficult to guard. He could make a pass and get the ball to guys like me exactly where they needed it on the floor. Remember that one playoffs when Hedo led the Magic to the Finals, driving and passing and setting up Dwight? That’s all you need to see. Hedo just knows basketball.
We’d always play one-on-one in practice, almost every day. I won’t tell you who won more games, but that was a treat for me to watch him. He could just beat me in so many ways, he was so clever.
He still could never touch my shot, though.
Peja Stojakovic:
Like I told you before, I could always shoot the ball.
But I was a bricklayer compared to Peja.
Peja was another guy that I had watched in Europe, but I never really got to know him until we both were in New Orleans. But early on during my time there, during a practice, Peja challenged me to a three-point contest. For fun.
He kicked my ass.
I was speechless. I mean, of course I had lost a three-point contest before … but not like this. To start off, he made 40 in a row. It was — excuse my language — fucking amazing. For my money, he’s the best shooter I’ve ever played with, probably the best ever in the NBA. And he is such a professional — he’d get on me to be better, to prepare more and to always be ready. And I needed that at the time.
Years later, I got to work with Peja again in Sacramento, but this time he wasn’t on my team — he was in the front office. And he is just the best person. He has taught me so much about how to be a professional and how to carve out a career in this league. I’m not sure I’d still be playing in the NBA if it weren’t for him.