Like Chauncey Billups and his GM, Joe Cronin, who made the detour via Cologne for Jusuf Nurkic, or even Jason Kidd and Nico Harrison for Luka Doncic, Mike Brown also made his little tour of Europe to meet his Kings players, Alex Len in Italy then Domantas Sabonis in Germany.
The new coach from Sacramento knows a bit about FIBA basketball, since he is the coach of Nigeria and this EuroBasket 2022, reputed to be the toughest in history, in any case meets his expectations.
“I’m having fun”he said for EuroHoops. “It’s a very enjoyable game to watch. The coaches are very creative and the systems are really good. It’s an extremely physical game and it’s pretty amazing how physical it is and how everyone keeps playing [malgré les contacts]. “
Cautious, even downright reluctant to let their international players go during the summer, the NBA franchises now seem to have taken the part of letting them do it. Coach Brown understands this well and gladly accepts this new situation.
“There’s nothing better to prepare for the NBA season than playing and training at this level. We always worry about injuries, but the guys are so passionate and want to play for their country that it’s hard not to support them. We want them to do what they are passionate about. “
With seven international players in his current expanded roster, Mike Brown knows the NBA talent pool is no longer limited to the United States alone. On the contrary, Uncle Sam no longer has the prerogative of the best players when we see that the last four MVPs come from the Old Continent… Which is not without bringing back memories to the former boss of the Cavs!
“There are a lot of talented players in Europe. I think of a guy like Sasha Pavlovic that I coached in Cleveland. I think he could have played longer and he could have had a bigger role [en NBA]. But it didn’t happen like that, he was homesick and he wanted to go home. I really liked coaching him. “
