Posted by tonywonder in 2010 | 0 Comments
Ersan Ilyasova de-greases Greece
Chris Rock/Barry White – Basketball Jones
For a basketball fan, the late summer months can be trying – the NBA’s big-name offseason acquisitions are yesterday’s news, which means basketball has few newsworthy items to offer even the most obsessive of fans (most of whom are probably more invested in either baseball’s playoff validation or football’s commencement anyways). However, bright spots do exist, such as Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova’s 26-point, 6 three-pointer (on 100% shooting) outburst against rival Greece in the FIBA tournament. And so, a couple words on Ilyasova:
Though the last thing I want is to perpetuate Eastern European stereotypes, Ersan Ilyasova is tall and rail-thin and sallow and has huge jutting malnourished cheekbones, physically resembling nothing so much as the Eastern Bloc’s version of Gordon Hayward (a similarly sinewy, baby-faced rookie from Indiana). There are two things whiter than his skin, and both of them are socks, which are pulled up to his knees.
That being said, Ilyasova plays in a manner that belies a typical European import – the impressive shooting percentages and more graceful, fluid (or, less aggressive and physical) play of standard issue Euros have been amputated, replaced by a confusing barrage of rickety, clattering robot movements, Russian black market rebounding instincts (that’s good…I think), and a rainbow jump shot that is successful fairly often – always to the surprise and delight of onlookers who can’t believe that such a strange, lazy-looking shot would ever actually go in. Ilyasova is only three months older than me (and, at 22, I guess I am somewhat of a spring chicken on the Colonel Sanders Chicken Age Scale), meaning that there is plenty of time for him to turn into Dirk Nowitzki, Toni Kukoc, or at the very least a less villanous and mustachioed incarnation of countryman Hedo Turkoglu.
It’s tough to handicap a player’s exploits in this FIBA Championship for the NBA. The tourney resides somewhere in between “meaningless” and “The World Cup” – probably closer to the latter – and is poorly-publicized (at least owing partially to terrible seasonal timing – let’s not even confront the autumn custom that all local newspaper and television headlines for the next six months are to be devoted to news about the health of Aaron Rodgers’ elbows, wrists and truck). There’s also the ongoing, partially-true sentiment that Americans don’t really care about basketball if it’s not being played inside America – apologies to fans of the Toronto Raptors, who won’t catch a break in this regard until we annex them in World War 4.
That being said, downing six of six three-pointers and propelling Turkey past a rival in a tournament context can’t really be construed as a bad thing. For those of us consistently looking for new and interesting ways to Fear the Deer, it’s actually pretty decent news.
FEAR THEM
