Why is the United States so much better at basketball than the rest of the world?

I don't get it...its not like basketball is a new sport to them....Its been around for YEARS over there...are there top athletes just focused on 'football or something? How can Americans hold such an edge for so long? (at least thats the most popular opinion....I have none when it comes to euroleague cuz I dont give 2 sh*ts about it..no disrespect they love the same game I do) Is it race? if so, are there whites better then the whites America produces basketball wise now, or have in the past? If not better than the past WHY now but not compared to then?...Are there training methods hopscotch and coaches a bunch of Javale McGees?

I just don't get whats holding them back from having there own West, Bird, Barry, McHale, Stockton ETC...OR, for the Africans that reside on the otherside of the sea...Why no European African Shaq, Jordan, Kobe, LeBron, Malone ETC you get the point

I mean sure theres Dirk, Drazen, Sabonis etc...but they Dont deserve to be ranked aside those past great players at all (IMO, not hating euroleague)
And...the F*CK is with there music in highlights? :lol

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy-f3C7e_kU[/url] [B]THAT STACHE[/B] :bowdown:

Our youth system is part of it.

african slaves selective breeding + invention of the game

It just shows how important it is to start basketball at a young age to be successful at the highest level.

Basketball is an unpopular sport in most European countries. Even in those with the best basketball leagues.

Many European children dream with playing football, tennis, winter sports, motorsport, etc. Not with basketball. In proportion to the number of players USA is no that dominant.

In fact Europe provides most of the good white players, and some of the best players in the league are europeans.

[QUOTE=TaLvsCuaL]Basketball is an unpopular sport in most European countries. Even in those with the best basketball leagues.

Many European children dream with playing football, tennis, winter sports, motorsport, etc. Not with basketball. In proportion to the number of players USA is no that dominant.

In fact Europe provides most of the good white players, and some of the best players in the league are europeans.[/QUOTE]
How would you rate those white european players to the great white American players of the past?

Other countries just didn't embrace basketball as much as americans do.

a) money

B) population

C) popularity

D) race

E) drugs




more money to invest in developement of players

more people than most countries

more popular in the US than in say ( canada - hockey, europe - soccar, japan - baseball etc.. )

more black people with education and equal opportunities to take advantage of both that and genetic advantages

more advanced HGH, steroids, supliments to ensure physical strength, conditioning



many factors.

Great black athletes making their bones in the competitive playgrounds around the country and great high school/college basketball programs.

Huh?? Euroleague told me Americans are inferior basketball players to essentially everyone else.

[QUOTE=KG215]Huh?? Euroleague told me Americans are inferior basketball players to essentially everyone else.[/QUOTE]

CONSPIRACY :biggums:

[QUOTE=Haymaker]Great black athletes making their bones in the competitive playgrounds around the country and great high school/college basketball programs.[/QUOTE]

This. I play at playgrounds. And seemingly normal kids through adults who will never make it are ****in beasts.

Basketball is insanely popular at the street level in the US, and we have a lot of people. We also have the benefit of the African American Athlete, who have demonstrated that their abilities in running and jumping translate well to the sport.





Really though, it comes down to the raw amount of people that play the game here. You can't go a block in most urban/rural areas without seeing a hoop.

Because the US (read: the NBA) tweaked the rule to favor their style of play.

coz we da best..

[QUOTE=DuMa]african slaves selective breeding + invention of the game[/QUOTE]
This

[QUOTE=DuMa]african slaves selective breeding[/QUOTE] That is definitely a factor.

[QUOTE=DuMa]african slaves [SIZE="5"]selective breeding [/SIZE]+ invention of the game[/QUOTE]

Then how do you explain this : ?

.
[IMG]http://images.sodahead.com/profiles/0/0/3/3/5/4/7/3/3/fat-black-woman-86335021708.jpeg[/IMG]



.
:oldlol:

First off "so much better" is absolutely wrong.

Why are they better? Same reason why China, the US and Russia do well in the Olympics. Just a bigger pool of players. It's the largest population of any basketball playing country.

If anything countries like Lithuania or Slovenia have more talent than the US per population.

[QUOTE=Nero Tulip]First off "so much better" is absolutely wrong.

Why are they better? Same reason why China, the US and Russia do well in the Olympics. Just a bigger pool of players. It's the largest population of any basketball playing country.

If anything countries like Lithuania or Slovenia have more talent than the US per population.[/QUOTE]

It's like playing Spain vs California.

It's the same pool size

It's about the money. I'm 15 years old and I live in Europe. My dream was to be a basketball player, but all those teams started asking abnormal prices. Like when I want to go to a competition abroad I have to pay 300-800 euros for it. It was last year, I was 14...

Same reason why China is so much better than the rest of the world in ping-pong and badminton.

[QUOTE=DuMa]african slaves selective breeding + invention of the game[/QUOTE]

Invention means nothing. The Brits invented cricket, tennis, and ping pong.

to many high school kids in the states, basketball is simply life.

Spain which is so much smaller than the US in terms of both size and population came very close against the US so I wouldn't say so much better.

No one commits to basketball from such a young age like the US do, it's not nearly that popular anywhere else in the world. The Euro's love football, tennis and a bunch of other sports way more than basketball. Here in Australia, basketball isn't very popular, our football is what all the young athletes are groomed to play.

Most of our schools don't even have high school basketball teams and if they do, the coach will be an actual teacher who is willing to volunteer their time. When I was in high school, we didn't have an actual team. We played once in an interschool competition where the top 2 teams from the North, South, East and West conferences would go on and play for the state championship. We finished the top on the South conference but no one at our school was willing to be our coach so we were forced to withdraw from the comp.

You don't get opportunities to go far with basketball in Australia unless you are one of the best in the country for your age and im assuming that's similar for the rest of the world. It amazes me that you guys have high school basketball games on tv when we didnt even have a team to play on.

Because Wilt had sex with 20,000 women.

One is the priority of sports in their communty and the access to a legit court before becoming a teen helps tremendously.

Brazil has a soccer ball in their flag... so they will likely play soccer growing up and its more of a traditional thing to do. If you are tall you might get later exposure to basketball but its usually around 16 years of age. To me Varejao and Noah would be mirror images if they grew up on the same block. Noah dribbles a little better and is better offensively because of early exposure to good competition and the coordination of the sport.

As far as athleticism goes, African Americans (Both Brazilians and North American Blacks) seem to dominate the fluid sports - soccer, basketball, fighting and track - much more so than Africans (or anybody else for that matter). So nutrition, exposure to the sports and general history would have to play a role. And nearly half the time, Brazilian Africans are from a different set of Africans than US Africans but share a common history, but they have different exposure to different sports.

While in Salvador Brazil a group of about 12 Norwegian men in their 20's were in the same hotel as me. I asked them if they were a sports team and they said they didn't play sports and that the trip was just a college outing. They were all over 6'3 svelte and muscular. So nutritionally, I don't know if America has an advantage on European nations.

Just imagine the US would be if football was the top sport in the country? Right now many of America's best athletes go into a sport in which there is no competition of the international level.

Well if they're so much better than the rest of the world then why did Spain give them such a hard time in the Olympics?

Just imagine if we gave inner city kids the incentive to pickup the books instead of the ball.:eek:

America might stop sliding in secondary education rankings every year.

[QUOTE=Horde of Temujin]Well if they're so much better than the rest of the world then why did Spain give them such a hard time in the Olympics?[/QUOTE]
Here several factors:

NBA rules favor the athletic players much more than FIBA rules.

NBA players are not used to playing under FIBA rules.

Spain has been playing a long time together.

Spain is enjoying a unique generation of players, especially Pau and Navarro are two of the best European players in history.

USA did not take some of their best players.

basketball is a culture, a way of life and theres many reason why that could be an advantage

[QUOTE=pegasus]Because Wilt had sex with 20,000 women.[/QUOTE]
LMAO! Father of the entire NBA

First of all only a few individuals can make enough money to never ever worry about money anymore in life. Most soccer scrubs make more money than good to great basketballplayers in europe.
Aside from that only a few regions are that poor that sports is a better choice in life than education.

[QUOTE=greymatter]Same reason why China is so much better than the rest of the world in ping-pong and badminton.[/QUOTE]

I remember Korea beat China in men's 1v1 ping pong in 2008

[QUOTE=greymatter]Same reason why China is so much better than the rest of the world in ping-pong and badminton.[/QUOTE]

no, this is the reason why china is good at sports
.
[IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/31/article-0-144C3340000005DC-58_306x434.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG]http://zazenlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/article-0-145294AB000005DC-827_634x800.jpg[/IMG]

It's all about popularity of the sport.

Which is the reason we aren't good at soccer. High schoolers here don't try to get on the soccer team. I didn't even know my high school had a soccer team for the first year i was there. We try to get on the bball and football teams.

[QUOTE=pegasus]Because Wilt had sex with 20,000 women.[/QUOTE]


:applause:

[QUOTE=DuMa][B]african slaves selective breeding[/B] + invention of the game[/QUOTE]
:facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm

This question has the same answer as if you would have asked...

"Why is the United States so much worse at soccer than the rest of the world?"