Gilbert Arenas has clarified his comments about ‘getting rid of all Europeans’ from the NBA and explained it was his attempt at sarcasm.
Arenas turned heads with his take on Gil’s Arena recently, where he blamed the European influence in the league for the boom in offense and lack of defense.
Some of the highlights from his strange rant included him saying that the league could “get rid of all Europeans” to solve the defensive problem.
He also claimed Europeans have no athleticism and that “the league took away aggression to open up the EuroLeague.”
The former NBA player has now backtracked and tried to explain himself.
“For an American style athletic kid, the Euro has done something that we’re just not teaching over here and that’s skilled, that’s team, that’s the understanding of the game overall,” Arenas said on The Dan Patrick Show. “So when you have them in the game and they’re pushing the limits that means everything goes up, popularity goes up, money goes up right, if the game didn’t expand to like a Euro style, there wouldn’t be $350 million contracts, no that’s that’s the Euro style. So if you don’t like where the game is then let’s blame them, that’s was the more sarcastic way of saying if you don’t like the way the game is, then blame the Euros and let’s go back to 1985 basketball and see how you like that one.”
The European influence in the game certainly isn’t going anywhere.
Players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic have asserted their dominance in the league and are all putting up MVP-caliber numbers this season.
Giannis and Luka are also among some of the most popular NBA players in the world, especially among young kids.
As it stands, Jokic sits atop of the NBA’s most current MVP ladder, as he averages 25.9 points, 12.2 rebounds and 9.2 assists on 58.1 percent shooting from the field.