Retired NBA player Gilbert Arenas railed against European players during a discussion about the lack of defense in today’s game.
During a recent episode of his podcast Gil’s Arena, Arenas was joined by several other retired pros to talk about ways to “bring a competitive balance to both sides of the ball.” At one point during the conversation, Arenas offered a unorthodox solution: get rid of the NBA’s European-born players.
“I know what they can do,” Arenas said. “Get rid of all the Europeans.”
While some of his colleagues burst into laughter at the absurd idea, Arenas appeared to be completely serious.
“You go to college to learn defense,” Arenas continued. “What college do Europeans go to? They don’t go to college whatsoever. They have no athleticism… They have no speed, no jumping ability. They are a liability on defense. There’s 150 Euros in the league today. Name the top 10 defenders. None! Just Rudy Gobert and [Giannis Antetokounmpo]. Other than that, they’re just offensive players. They’re not defensive players.”
Gobert currently has the best defensive rating in the NBA at 103.9. Included in the 25 are Antetokounmpo, French-born Victor Wembanyama, Serbian-born Nikola Jokic, Latvian-born Kristaps Porzingis, Bosnian-born Jusuf Nurkic, and Lithuanian-born Jonas Valanciunas.
Then, Arenas went one step further when he offered his theory about the NBA
changing its rules for the sole purpose of letting European players succeed.
“The NBA took away aggression,” Arenas said. “They took away aggression to open up the Euro league. When they first started getting here, it was too rough for them. They didn’t make it. So eventually, they softened the rules. They did’t soften the rules for the Americans. They softened the rules to open it up internationally.”
Arenas’ apparent disdain for European players isn’t new. Months ago, Arenas praised Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green for smacking Nurkic during a game and getting ejected.
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