Hey, hey, Blazer fans!  How's everyone doing right now?  Hopefully great since the season is just around the corner.  Longest five months of my life and I'd bet a lot of you would say the same thing.  But, if you're like me, you're ready to bypass this whole preseason formality and head straight into the season.  And, I don't know about you guys, but I have had enough Rudy, Oden vs. Durant, and Pendergraph/Injuries/Blazer's training staff posts to last me a lifetime.

            So to switch gears a little bit, I just thought I would give everyone a taste of what pickup basketball has been like in Greece, where I am currently studying abroad.  So if you're interested, keep on reading!  And if not, then feel free to sift through the rest of those posts to try and find one that doesn't say the same thing over and over.

            I'm a junior at Boston College and this semester I have had the amazing fortune to come spend the entire semester in Athens, specifically the suburb Aghia Paraskevi, while attending The American College of Greece.  The number of cultural similarities and differences between the U.S. and Greece is extensive, so I just want to focus on the one area we all care about: basketball.

            First, the school is not that big.  I think it has about 3,000 students, but the campus does not have any dorms; the entire student body commutes to school.  Some come from as far as two hours away on public transportation for classes.  Now what does this have to do with basketball?  Well it cuts down on the number of people who hang around after class to shoot hoops or get into a game.  This means that if you are able to find a game, it likely won't be more than 3v3.  Even if there are enough guys to run 5's, full court, the Greeks don't seem too interested in it.  So while at school, if I were to walk to the gym, the courts would be full of 5v5 and teams would be waiting on the sides.  Just not the case here.

            Picking teams is the same, either shooting for teams or if a group of guys know each other, then they play as a team.  Now, here is where the big differences appear.  First, you don't check the ball.  Ever.  First time I played, I tried to check it and literally everyone stopped and their faces said, "Why the heck did he just pass the ball DIRECTLY to the other team?"  Of course they gave it back and I learned my mistake.  Once a basket is made, it is winner's outs, and the ball is always thrown back to the guy who made the shot.  But since you don't check it, and you don't have to pass it in to start, frequently the guy will just shoot a three as soon as he gets the ball.  If he makes that, the ball goes back to him, and as far as I can tell, the formality is to let him shoot till he misses.  I played in a game where a guy drilled six 3's in a row because nobody puts a hand up after a made basket like that.  So no checking, and basically a free shot after a make.

            If off a miss you grab the rebound, you can take it back, but the first move you make after that has to be a pass.  You are not allowed to take it back and then make a move to the basket to try and score.  I did this once and what followed was a flurry of Greek yelling.  My teammate quickly smoothed it over and then told me that I couldn't do that.  Needless to say, I was a little confused.  Also, if a shot is an air ball, then you don't have to take it back; you can just shoot if you grab it (I know that some places in the U.S. play this way, but I believe that that group is the minority).

            The biggest difference is just the intensity level.  As many people here can attest to, college pick-up games can become competitive and physical quickly.  When people play here, it is much more of a social activity, where games are played at about 60% effort.  It is less about getting a good workout and improving skills, and more about just hanging out with your friends.

            I had the good fortune one day when I was shooting around to have the coach of the school spot me.  He asked me to come try out for the team.  I agreed to join them at tryouts and I made the team (clearly college athletics in Greece are not equivalent to the U.S.)  At the not-so-imposing 6 feet and 170 pounds I stand at, I play significantly bigger and more physical than even the biggest guys on the team (about 6' 5" and 250 is our biggest player).  Guys are pushed around easily on box outs and I grab and abnormally high number of offensive rebounds as a result.  On screen and rolls, big guys immediately roll out to the 3 point line and look for a pass, rather than roll towards the basket.  They shy away from contact quite a bit.

            Lastly, you can tell that even the best players on the team are guys who started playing when they were probably eleven or twelve.  They just don't see the nuances of the game as well as most Americans I have played with.  Back picks are ignored, v-cuts are a rarity, and their basic off-the-ball movement generally results in jumbled offensive sets.  There are a couple guys here who could step into a competitive college pick-up game and hold their own, but those are exceptions to the rule.  The talent pool is just much smaller here.

            Well there you have it folks.  I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about what international, college-level basketball has been like in my experience.  And hopefully it took your mind off Blazer drama for just a little bit.  Go Blazers and much love to the BEdge community.

     *Note* I know that The Penguin just made a great post that is similar to this but I have been thinking about this for a while and working on it so bear with me if this seems a little redundant.  Thanks.

     All of this nonsense about Oden the past couple of days has really gotten to me.  So much to the point that I cannot even bring myself to read an article involving him without becoming immensely frustrated with the constant bickering between fellow BE members when in reality we should all be supporting our team and our players, rather than bashing on each other’s opinions and who should have been drafted over who and blah blah blah.

    America today is an instant gratification nation.  And on top of that, our expectations our sky high in basically all facets of life.  When we buy a product, we expect it to be perfect and if it is anything less than perfect, we are displeased.  We want things done fast and we want them done easily.  Life in America has become fast paced and those who are slow fall behind.  Now was I mentioned, this is the case in pretty much all facets of life and that includes sports.  This is why you see coaches last half a season before getting fired.  If you don’t produce right away, see you later, thanks for trying.  Franchises and fans want success, and they want it now.

    We as Blazers fans are especially guilty of rooting for our team like this.  We won an NBA championship in our first playoff appearance and we made the playoffs for 21 years in a row.  Very few franchises can claim such success in their history.  And when this success stopped in 2004, we were angry and we demanded that we make it back.

    The problem here is just that: we wanted an instant return to glory.  And with the promising development of Roy and Aldridge in 06-07 and holding on to the number one pick in the draft that had Greg Oden, arguably the most hyped player coming out of the draft since Lebron, we could taste the success again.  But Oden got hurt, and our already thin patience grew thinner.  We have this incredibly talented player and he cannot play for us.  And the fact that we finished .500 that season only heightened our expectations for when our big man returned.

    The kid is 21 and he has a lot of the franchise on his shoulders.  He didn’t play with his right hand in college.  He is coming off a MAJOR knee surgery.  He is still growing and adjusting to his body which is now much more filled out than it was in college.  The whole nation watching him, judging him and expecting dominance from him.  Here is the catch: rookies rarely dominate.  And how quickly we as fans forget this when there is all this hype, all these expectations and most importantly our demand for immediate success.  We are all guilty of it because we get so swept up in all the hype.  The fact that people are already calling him a bust or claiming what an enormous disappointment he is need to remember that patience is a virtue.  He’s been playing in the league for half a year.  We aren’t going to win a championship this year.  Heck, we probably won’t even win a playoff series.  So why are we so bent out of shape that our center is developing a little bit slower than we would like?  Does anyone doubt that two years from now we will be in the West elite?  What is wrong with taking it one step at a time and not expecting the world out of our players when they cannot give us the world yet?

    I for one am not outraged that Oden is maybe taking a little more time to make sure he is okay especially if it means he is 100% come playoff time.  He’s young and he’s got a lot of years ahead of him, let’s not rush him back for one where we know we can’t win.  Similarly, I am not disappointed with Oden in the least bit.  I have been greatly encouraged with his play when he has been able to get consistent minutes.  Will he be the next Moses Malone?  The next Patrick Ewing?  At this point, it doesn’t look like it, but I for one will hold off making that judgment and give him a little more time than half a season.  Even if it is hard in today’s society.

    I implore you to do the same.

Because I attend school in Boston, I had the opportunity to watch the Blazers play last night.  I'll be entirely honest when I said I was seriously worried coming into this game.  Well, we all saw what happened so there is not alot of need for me to rehash the beating.  They are a championship team today.  We are not unfortunately.  Here was a few things that I noticed about last night:

-Kevin Garnett is as cocky and as big of a punk as we all thought.  Anyone who saw him bark at Bayless and purposely run into him after Rex got called for double dribbling can attest to that.

-We always hear about how incredible the Celtics' defense is and to be honest, it is pretty solid.  However, it is remarkable how much more they push, pull, elbow and bump when you watch them in person than is clear on television.  Even something as simple as trying to establish position in the post for a rebound, one would constantly see jerseys pulled and elbows thrown.  Of course, there is no denying that they certainly get alot of leeway.

-It is remarkable how much better having The Big Three makes their role players look.  Outside of Rondo, none of their other players are anything more than decent role players at best.  However, if you pair them up with Allen, Pierce, and Garnett, they look like All Stars (well not actually All Stars but you understand what I am trying to say).

-Finally, not to beat a dead horse but games like this really demonstrate just how young we are.  They were in our heads from the opening tip and it clearly showed.  We're getting there, but we just aren't quite to that level.

After the Washington game, I read a post on here about how a man and his wife were able to enter the lockerroom after the game and what an incredible experience that truly was for him.  I thought to myself, "Wow, what an opportunity of a lifetime.  I can only dream of doing something like that."  Well low and behold, thanks to the good graces of the friend that I was attending the game with, I had that very opportunity.  The first thing that struck me was how remarkably enormous all of these players are.  While watching the game from the 300 section, you can't really appreciate their size.  You know that they are big, but it isn't entirely visible.  Standing next to the likes of Oden, Joel, Aldridge and Outlaw you begin to realize that they could pick you up and snap you if they so desired.  They aren't just big; they are BIG.  I was able to shake hands with Sergio and he was incredibly cordial despite the outcome of the game.  One note, in my opinion, the three best dressed in the lockerromm were Batum, Sergio, and Rudy (coincidence that they are all European?).  I was impressed with his sportsmanship and class.  Finally, as any boy in a candy shop would, my eyes were drawn towards our All Star Brandon Roy who was busy giving an post-game interview.  While I was staring, he looked over and we made eye contact, at which point I quickly looked away.  I glanced back and he wasn't looking again but sure enough within five seconds I was caught staring again.  I just couldn't help it and I'll admit, it was a little bit embarrassing, but oh well, I was like five feet away from him.  What fan WOULDN'T stare?  The last thing I want to say (since this is getting a little lenghty) is that the atmosphere in that lockerroom afterwards really showed that these players care, ALOT.  This is obviously not the Blazers teams of old who would were known to be laughing and joking after games like this not caring.  Even though we got blown out, nights like last night make me proud to be a Blazers fan.