Nike Basketball News

Hoop Summit: Game Day

nikebasketball_emea — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:41:26 GMT

After losing his first four Nike Hoop Summits, World Select Team head coach ROB BEVERIDGE recorded his first victory in Portland Saturday ...

I really felt earlier in the week that this group was coming together. They enjoyed each other's company and we spent a lot of time on team bonding exercises.

We went ten-pin bowling and were laughing at each other for the gutter balls and because the bowling alley were struggling to find size 17 shoes for some of the guys. We had competitive drills and the guys had to do push-ups or have piggy-back races when they lost. All that really brought this group together and you saw what this team is about.

This is the biggest challenge I could ever have in my coaching career. I have spent year after year listening to the USA guys talk about the problems they have of bringing their team together but unless a coach has been in the situation we're in, you really have no idea of the difficulties we face.

It's like a game of chess and trying to teach all the players which piece they are in the game and obviously the biggest challenge we have is doing that with the language barrier to overcome.

So, while the win is fantastic, I'm more concerned that the players appreciate what they have actually done - they have done something very very special and I feel privileged to call myself their coach.

I'll always think how lucky I am. I'm a professional coach, I get to travel the world, develop friendships with people and have long-term relationships with many of the players and I know I will keep in touch and follow the careers of many of these kids.

At the end, our celebrations were pretty wild and that was relief more than anything. I'm a competitive guy and to beat the USA on their own court with so many things against us ... that was pretty special.

DONATAS MOTIEJUNAS, from Lithuania, scored 21 points in the World Select Team's 97-89 victory in the Nike Hoop Summit game in Portland Saturday.

This is history!

The last time the World Team beat the USA in this game was 1998 so beating them here in Portland is awesome for us and, especially, for the coaches.

From 10 different players, selfish players including me, the coach built a TEAM. Not every coach could do that and you have to honor our coach, Rob Beveridge, for doing it.

Of course, the USA thought they were better than us but we proved we were the better team and, again, that is thanks to the coaches and I thank them with all my heart.

Rob has been coaching this team for five years and he has so much experience which he passed on to us and that is why we won the game.

It seemed like the week started slowly but it finished like an explosion! For me, the second half of the game was really enjoyable, the first half not so much, but I think I finished the game strong.

There was quite a big crowd at the game but when you have played in some of the gyms I have played in in Lithuania, then the noise and the crowd tonight is nothing!

The NBA is a dream for me - of course it is, who wouldn't want to play there? And watching the game between the Blazers and the Lakers on Friday showed me what the NBA is like. Did tonight show me I'm ready for the NBA? I don't know. I am waiting to hear from somebody! I have said before, when the people around me tell me I am ready for the NBA, then I am ready. Not until then.

So the week is over and I have so many memories, it is impossible to pick just one. There will not be one memory I take home, there will be lots - both on the court and off it where this was my first ever time in America.

But if I had to choose one memory, it would probably be the final buzzer when our celebrations started. The World Team has waited 11 long years for a victory. Now, thanks to the coaches, and teamwork, we have made history.

MILAN MACVAN led the World Select Team to a 97-89 victory at Nike Hoop Summit in Portland Saturday, scoring 23 points and adding 14 rebounds and 6 assists.

I have won against a US team before, at the World Championships in Novi Sad, and any time you beat Americans is special. America is the biggest country in the world for basketball so to beat them in their own country ... it is hard to describe.

This was an enjoyable week for me - my first time in the USA - and I am glad I was selected because I learned so much and had so many experiences.

Even though there were some language problems at first, we made friendships that will last for a long time and, even though many of us knew each other from playing in Europe, we had not played together before.

We obviously spent a lot of time in practice but we did many different things as well - like designing Nike iD shoes for a team mate.

There was fun but, of course, the week was about the game and, while the game was tough, we played a lot of zone and that helped us win. Zone is how we beat the USA in Novi Sad and we did the same here. Maybe that's the way to beat the USA all the time.

After the game, there were many journalists asking us questions. One said I reminded him of Kevin Love. He's a great player, I love Kevin Love, but I don't want to be Kevin Love! I want to be Milan!

When I was young I liked a European player, Vlade Divac, and, in the NBA, Charles Barkley, so maybe I am more like them.

The NBA is my dream, of course. We saw Portland play the Lakers on Friday and that was fantastic, my first NBA game. But maybe I have more chance in Europe because I'm not a great athlete. Maybe that's a problem for me, I don't know.

Now I must go home and play in the National Championships in Serbia which end in May and, after that, I'll talk to my agent about the NBA and the future. Right now, I have no plans.

But, like every kid in Europe, the NBA has always been my dream. I started playing basketball in the first place because I wanted to be Shaq O'Neal. That was my first basketball jersey and I still have it at home, though I can't fit in it any more!

Maybe one day I will be back here and playing again. Who knows?!

TOMISLAV ZUBCIC from Croatia hit 17 points in the World Team's 97-89 upset of the USA at the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland Saturday.

I have learned so many things, about basketball and life, this week and I am so glad I was here and part of the win.

We feel we have been part of history and I am going back to Europe thinking maybe I can play now. After all, I have beaten the USA! How many Europeans my age can say that?

From the start, the Americans were saying that they would beat us and had the attitude that they would beat us easily. I didn't like that attitude and we showed them how to play. We showed them that they were not the best. We were!

The first thing you have to say is our coach, Rob Beveridge, did a very good job and the second is we played like a team - playing good defense. We stopped them because they like to run and we stopped them running thanks to our rebounding and our smart players.

When we play like that, this team could beat anybody.

I am very happy personally with my performance and the way I played tonight because other people were watching. I scored what I scored but I think I did other things to help us win and that was important.

Like every young guy, I dream of playing in the NBA but it is not in my mind right now because I do not think this one game will make such a difference.

To play in the NBA, you must play well for a few years and you must have experience for the NBA. I'm not yet ready to play in the NBA.

But I do think that I am a better player and I have had so much fun this week. It is something I will always remember.

Photo Credit: USA BASKETBALL

Hoop Summit: 1 day to go until tip-off...

nikebasketball_emea — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:35:37 GMT

Watch behind the scenes footage from the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Oregon. This annual basketball game event features the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Select Team, comprised of the top high school boy senior players, playing against a World Select Team, comprised of top players 19-years-old or younger from around the world. Get to know these young, up and coming prospects before they become stars.

Photo Credit: USA BASKETBALL

Hoop Summit: 4 days to go until tip-off...

nikebasketball_emea — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:37:47 GMT

Hoop Summit: Tomislav Zubcic

nikebasketball_emea — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:24:21 GMT

Few of the players on show in the Nike Hoop Summit on Saturday will have had a tougher journey to get there than TOMISLAV ZUBCIC. Here, the Croatian forward tells his fascinating story:

I started playing basketball at 10, which is pretty late compared to some kids in Europe. My dad used to play basketball and I would go with him to games but it was not until my cousin - who now plays in the Ukraine - said, 'Go and try it,' that I went to a team.

I was born in Zadar, that was my first team, and the first time I went to practice, I loved basketball. It was my first love, love at first sight!

Why? Because it is a team game. I like being part of a team, I don't want to be selfish, I don't want to be an individual, I don't want to be a tennis player or a golfer. I want to be part of a team, doing my best for other people, trying to bring something - a trophy, glory - to a club.

So, I was with Zadar with three or four years then I went to Union Olimpija in Slovenia for five or six months and Fortitudo Bologna in Italy for the same, five or six months, then, at the under-16 European Championships in 2006 I did ok and Cibona called me to see if I wanted to go home to play.

I went to Slovenia when I was 14 and that was tough. I was without my parents, without anybody. I got an apartment from the club and had two room mates and it was good ... but tough, being in another country so young. I went to school but basketball was my life and I didn't have anyone with me. I was a 14-year-old alone in a different country.

It was the same in Italy but not so tough because Italy is a very good place to live and play basketball and the people are nice there and want to help.

But when I got the chance to go home to Cibona I said ok, it was better to be in my own country and get the chance to play near my parents and home. Looking back, I never knew how tough it was going to be living in a new country and I think it helped me, toughened me up ... but it was hard.

Being here in Portland this week reminds me of home! I look at the nature, the woods, the rivers, the green and I like that. I'm from a small village in Croatia and this is like home. But I am here to play the game, to meet people, to learn things and do my best.

I played in a tournament in Dallas last summer and played two games against American teams. Americans play hard but as individuals. Everything is one-on-one, who is stronger. Basketball is a team game but here, in America, it is an individual game.

In Europe, you need to use your brain. That's what we must show the Americans on Saturday - how we play the game in Europe, which is the style everybody should play - pass the ball, shoot, defend, as a team. In Europe, basketball is all about teamwork, that's how it is supposed to be.

Last year in Dallas, I won one game and lost one game by two points and I enjoyed beating the Americans. I want to do it again. We must think like a team and do everything to beat them.

Photo Credit: USA BASKETBALL

Hoop Summit: Milan Macvan

nikebasketball_emea — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:38:15 GMT

Day three of the World Select Team's preparations and the players gathered from all over the basketball world are still coming together as a team.

Here, Serbia's MILAN MACVAN reveals the behind the scenes secrets of shoe design and bowling that the World Team hope can help them beat the USA in Saturday's big showdown:

We have been in Portland for three days now and there is a great atmosphere on the team, making new friends with everybody, it's good. Obviously, it is different at home on our club teams or national teams, where you have known people for years, but this is still a good atmosphere.

I'm in a room with (Tomislav) Zubcic because we speak the same language - I am Serbian, he is from Croatia - but we spend most of the time sleeping and resting. We practise twice a day so it is tiring.

But Zubcic and me play in the same league in Europe, the Adriatic League, so we have been talking about players we know, teams we know, games we have played in. The rest of the team don't speak Serbo-Croat but we all speak English with few problems.

The guy from China (Zhang Dayu) and Kevin (Seraphin) from France don't speak English but that's okay. We can still communicate a little bit and basketball is the same language wherever you are from.

And it does not stop Kevin from being the funniest guy on the team! In fact, because he doesn't speak English is what makes him the funniest guy on the team! He is always dancing, making us laugh, making jokes.

We will need that atmosphere on our team to win against the USA on Saturday and the people at Nike have helped us in team building exercises.

For example, we had to design a (Nike iD) shoe for one of our team mates. Half of the team did it earlier in the week and my half are doing it tomorrow.

I am doing a shoe for Mateo (Gaynor) from Argentina and he is doing mine. He has not shown me a picture of the shoe he has designed for me but he says it is orange and black. We spoke to each other about what sort of shoe we would like and my team in Serbia, Hemofarm, wear orange so that is why he did it.

He has told me he wants his shoe to be sky blue and white for Argentina ... so I will probably make it red and black and put flashing lights on the bottom so that every time he jumps up and down, the shoe flashes!

After practice tonight, we went to play ten-pin bowling, it was my first time I had ever played. We have bowling in Serbia, I just have never done it and it was good. They even had shoes in my size - 14!

Our team manager Mike Hackman won the game and Zubcic was second and it was another new experience for me. This is my first time in America so everything is new to me but if Hoop Summit is the number one experience of the week, then bowling is number two.

Things like this are helping us become a team but that is not all we need if we are to win. We must play a little more slowly than the USA, we can't run with those guys because they are so athletic.

We must cut out the turnovers, play at our own pace and play smarter than them, Coach has said this to us at every practice, every day, and I think we are learning. I think we are getting better every day.

Photo Credit: USA BASKETBALL

Hoop Summit: Donatas Motiejunas

nikebasketball_emea — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:00:15 GMT

Donatas Motiejunas, from Lithuania, is one of the World Select Team players in Portland this week for the Nike Hoop Summit game against the USA on Saturday.

It is Donatas' first visit to the United States and here he shares his first impressions:

It is Monday and I'm still tired from the long, 11-hour trip over here. It's my first time in the USA and the first time I have flown for that long - the plane took off in the middle of the day, we flew for 11 hours and we landed in the middle of the day as well. Like my father said, it was like the sun was chasing us!

As for the first impressions, my first impression is that America is very different than it looks on television ... and that American people eat a lot! In Lithuania, three guys would eat what one person eats here.

Monday night the whole team and staff went to the house of our team manager Mike Hackman to watch the NCAA Championship game and have a barbeque. I guess it is like I said to my father, you are only young until you experience something for the first time and, yes, this was my first ever barbeque.

It sounds small but this is such an unbelievable experience. Everything is new, strange and, of course, exciting.

Like practice today. We trained at the Portland Trail Blazers' facility and even the biggest and best teams in Lithuania cannot match anything like these facilities. This is the sort of place you need to be to move forward as a player.

For me, this week I just want to try and learn everything the coaches show me and to learn from my team mates, as well. I want to try to show I am the best but this team has the best people from around the world so I'm trying to learn from every one. Every player is different, every player has different moves and I want to learn from them all.

I know most of the European guys on our team, in fact the player from China and one of the guys from Argentina are the only ones I don't know from playing for national teams or in friendly games, but it is nice to be on the same team this time.

Luckily, most of the guys speak English, apart from the Chinese player and one of the French players but, already, we are all mixing. Four of us sat together for one meal then, the next meal, I sat with a different group of four guys.

Like me, all the guys are trying to show what they can do here at Nike Hoop Summit and that is going to be difficult. The coach has already said if we want to beat the US team, we have to play together but, of course, all the players have been chosen because of their individual talent. I'm the same.

The other thing is if you play for your national team or your club and don't play well in one game, it's not too big a problem because you will have other chances soon. Here, we will not.

So, there is a lot of hard work to come but that's what I want. This week is about working with the coaches, learning from them, and enjoying the experience.

Photo Credit: USA BASKETBALL

Hoop Summit: Edwin Jackson

nikebasketball_emea — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:54:34 GMT

Edwin Jackson is a French guard with an English name, an American dad and a background just like another famous Hoop Summit alumnus, Tony Parker.

Here, he talks about the fascinating journey that has brought him to Portland and Nike Hoop Summit ....

I first started playing basketball at four years old, almost before I could walk I had a ball in my hands.

My dad Skeeter played at Oklahoma State and came to France to play pro with Paris, Pau and Villeurbanne, the team that Tony Parker has recently invested in, and when I was young I would love to go to the arena and watch him play.

Pau, where I was raised, was not a big city but the team there was big and the people would say, 'Wow, that's your dad?' That made me proud and I soon wanted to be like dad.

As I grew older, he would tell me about his college career and some of the better decisions he could have made and that's when I thought, I don't want to be like dad, I want to be BETTER than dad! That's what I'm trying to do because I'm a competitor so I want to do better than him, to make him proud of me.

Unfortunately, he can't be here to watch me play Saturday because he is an assistant coach with Villeurbanne and we're in the middle of the season in France, but it's certainly special for me to be able to be here and try to make my way to the NBA.

And if I should ever make it to the NBA, it will have been easier for me than it was for Tony because he was the first Frenchman to really make it in the NBA. Now, thanks to Tony, people realise French players are great, that they work hard, that you can count on them.

For him to play as a point guard in the NBA, for a great coach like Gregg Popovich at the San Antonio Spurs, was amazing. But then Tony gets to the NBA Finals, he becomes an All Star, he becomes MVP of the Finals! I'm amazed by what he has done.

Now, the funny thing is he has invested in Villeurbanne, the team in France which owns my rights, so I guess that make him my boss!

I have learned a lot from Tony's example and, if I had to give any advice to youngsters reading this, I would say that it's all about working hard and never giving up.

I know everybody says that but I'm a positive person and I really think everything is possible. You've got to have your dreams and I don't want to be 30 years old, looking back and regretting that maybe I didn't try hard enough , maybe I could have done this, done that.

If I don't make it to the NBA, or to a big European team, it will be because I was not good enough or the opportunity did not open up. It will not be because I did not try hard enough or work hard enough or because I went out with the guys when I should have been in the gym.

That's what we've learned from Tony Parker. You've got to dream then go out there and try and make those dreams come true.

Photo Credit: USA BASKETBALL

Hoop Summit: Coach Beveridge

nikebasketball_emea — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:33:14 GMT

Respected Australian national teams coach ROB BEVERIDGE is the man in charge of trying to mould a roster of ten players from eight countries into a team ready to take on the best the USA has to offer at Nike Hoop Summit.

Here Coach Beveridge talks about the unique problems that challenge poses ...

This is my fifth year coaching the World Select Team and the biggest thing we have to cope with is the cultural differences between the players, the different languages they speak, although another factor which we had to deal with on our first day, Monday, was fatigue.

We had our second session of the day in the afternoon and the players looked sluggish. Then you have to remember that, for the Euros, it was 2.30am so they will need a couple of days to get used to it.

Of course, language issues are never far away and what I have to do is play a game of charades! I have to demonstrate a lot of things myself because, while basketball is undoubtedly an international language, a lot of terminology I use is different, even with the guys who speak perfect English.

I might talk about an 'on ball screen' but to somebody else that is a 'pick and roll' so it's a question of me adjusting to their language, as much as they have to adjust to mine.

"But the single biggest challenge we face is that if we are to beat the USA we have to develop togetherness and team chemistry as quickly as possible.

"Our guys don't know each other, might not even be able to speak the same language, whereas some of the American players will have known each other and played together for ten years. That's the sort of atmosphere we have to try and build in one week.

One of the issues here is that at every single training session we have NBA scouts and general managers watching. For us to beat the USA we have to have everybody on the same page and that could be difficult with such influential people looking at these players as individuals.

You can't forget that some of these guys are playing for their dreams. I look at Saer Sene, from Senegal, who played on this team two years ago and was drafted purely because of his performance in this one game. He realised that if he performed well on the world stage, it could change his life and he managed to do that within our team plan. Sometimes, there is a risk of a player playing for himself and that being detrimental to the team.

So we are organising plenty of team building exercises for the week to try and help in this area and we are stressing to the players that this is a chance for them to make lifelong friendships.

From personal experience, I know that Hoop Summit has introduced me to people who will be friends for life and that is something we are trying to get across to our players this year. Hoop Summit is a very special game for these players and it presents them with opportunities not readily available in the outside world."

Photo Credit: USA BASKETBALL