Friday,
June 30, 2006
Andrea Bargnani
IS #1 NBA Draft Pick by Raptors, First from
The
ANNOTICO Report
OK,
I warned you on June 25th that Andrea Bargnani might
be the #1 NBA Draft Pick, and low and behold, so he IS!!!!
There
were clues. Bryan Colangelo is the Toronto
Raptors GM, and just last week he hired Maurizio Gherardini,
as the Raptor's vice president and
Since
Bargnani is the FIRST Ever European picked in the Draft.
Not Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas
Mavericks, from
Regarded
as the best young player on the Continent, Bargnani
won the Euroleague's Rising Star Trophy for the
just-completed 2005-06 season in which he played a key role as Benetton won an
Italian championship.
NO
TRANSLATION NECESSARY
No
need for Andrea Bargnani to work on his English; the
Raptors No. 1 pick will do his talking on the floor.
Sports
Paul
Jones
June
30, 2006
The
poker hand is over and the Raptors can't say they didn't win at least part of
the pot as they got their man. Andrea Bargnani was
selected with the top pick and made history as the first
European player ever chosen first overall.
Some questions have been answered but there are still plenty of questions that
will be asked. No, Bryan Colangelo was not bluffing
with his interest in the 7'0 Italian big man. But some still wonder if the
There were trade talks with other teams as
As for Bargnani, this is the perfect situation for an
international player entering the NBA.
A top draft choice always has a target on his back but Bargnani's
will be even bigger as a European. People have stereotypes about international
players and Bargnani has to prove himself. Raptor
fans will start to watch Bargnani's progress right
away in summer league action that starts in early July and may get a chance to
get another look at him if he decides to play for the Italian National Team.
There was also a hint that he may not play with the Italian National team --
thanks in part to the long season he played in Europe -- so he! can be ready for the rigors of an NBA campaign.
The biggest question is just how good is this guy? There has been plenty of
talk about his skills and now he will have his chance to prove it. Bargnani regularly apologizes for his English which is
really not that bad. I just remind myself that a guy with an accent speaks one
more language than me.
But as Gherardini put it, "Andrea will answer on
the floor."
Raptor fans hope his game will speak volumes about his skill.
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