Unnecessary Earl Barron Update
An interesting item caught my attention as I was perusing hoopshype and it involves none other than former Miami Heat player Earl Barron being courted by the Philippines national team to come play for their country.
The Philippine Star think nothing of it to helpfully point out that Barron was a member of the 2006 championship team, although as the 4th center behind Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Michael Doleac he scored a total of 13 points during 45 garbage time minutes in 8 games that season with zero appearances in the playoffs.
Although he did play in the Philippine basketball league before joining the Heat in 2005, I must say it rubs me the wrong way when countries try to get foreigners to play for their national team.
Even if it is Earl Barron.
To be honest with you, I wasn’t crazy about Tim Duncan playing for the USA when he really should have been playing for his native Virgin Islands. If Earl Barron is putting on a Philippine team jersey and sticking out like a sore thumb among his teammates then it starts to feel less like a competition between two nations and more like an exhibition featuring D-League players.
5 comments
actually sir, you should also look at the Lebanese NT and Japanese NT. They have naturalized players.
FIBA allows one naturalized player to play for the National team. Some NTs are taking advantage of this, so why can’t the Philippines?
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I know and it happens in soccer too. I mean, if the Philippines are going to get one player then they can aim a bit higher than Barron.
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there’s always the “limited funds factor” sir. Anyway, Barron played well in the PBA. His stats in the NBA, and NBDL might be bad, but if he played in Asia(where the level is much lower) he’d be a dominant force in the paint.
The Philippine BAsketball federation has tried out Jamal Sampson and CJ Giles. Both have been kicked out though. (Sampson, injuries and contractual issues, Giles bad behavior). We’ve tried out Darian Townes will try out Courtney Simms. May I ask kind sir, if there is a good big man we can BE ABLE to get? Can you give us some names?
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Surya Fernandez Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 9:28 am
I suppose you’re right. Maybe I was a bit harsh on the whole issue and I was unaware that there was a limit of only one nationalized player. I was under the impression it was three players for some reason.
Forget getting a player, you should convince coach Spoelstra to coach your national team! His mother would be proud.
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kaiziken Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Sir, the developmental national team already has a coach and a system in place. The team is still a rough diamond but with a naturalized big man manning the pain, we’d be in contention for a spot in the Olympics.
We’ve got the best guards in Asia, we only lack size and toughness in the paint.
Coach Spoelstra is busy with the heat, but during the offseason last year, he went here and exchanged notes with our Serbian National Coach Rajko Toroman. We’re employing the Euro style in our NT now.
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