The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Postgame Show: The World of Recruiting

Episode Date: June 28, 2023

David, Amin, Stu, and the crew discuss the international incident that occurred after Paolo Banchero snubbed Italy basketball to play for the U.S.A. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

¡Yor, ¿el que te va a hacer? ¡Tenerá un nuevo trabajo! Escuchéis lo que escuchéis, tapamos los ojos. La calle vamos todos a cieras, pero lo más aterradores no saberen que confiar. Uy de las personas que os piden que mireis, si queréis seguir convido. The world of recruiting is not just for where you go to college, not just where you work. Recruiting is now happening with players and where they're going to play in the World Cup. Basketball has a World Cup. News came out that the new San Antonio Spurs, number one guy, Victor, Wemba Yama. Wemba Yama.

Wemba Yama. Wemba Yama. It's fine. It's, it's, I don't, do you have to be fine if no one knows how to say the name? Wemba. I'm pretty sure a mean said it right. Asia prof. say, but I can't say the name. Thank you.

That's for you. That was for the group. So he said he's not gonna play the World Cup because his view is that it will interrupt his development, which I'd like to get to you about a mean where if you have him and fear the spurs I don't believe he's making that decision on his own. The spurs like we do with our youngins we're going to tell him exactly where we want him to play, how he wanted to play and including the college players we tell them what they're

allowed to do after we draft them. Most teams don't want their players playing for the national team. For a couple reasons. One is just like- That started with Mark Cuban, didn't it? No, Mark Cuban was the first to say it out loud. Okay. But most teams would rather their players not play for the national teams because beyond the miles on the denominator, a lot of times this may not be the case for Team Jose, but

certainly for many of those European nations, their practice habits and their demands are way greater than what we would be comfortable with for a guy in off season. That's like the World Baseball Classic and Baseball. We don't want our pictures ramping up that quickly in spring, at least to injuries. It's not a great thing. But there's recruiting that happens because like the World Baseball Classic where the rule is, if you want to play for Italy, you have to have eaten Fettuccine Alfredo, and then you can play for Team Italy. They don't have Alfredo and Italy.

That's like they don't have tacos in Mexico, or Kung-Pow Chicken in China. That's the most bizarre thing. Who is this general so anyway? Right, I don't understand. I can't find that food anywhere. So we had a situation. We had a general sour so.

I thought of a sour. How does it sour so tomato tomato. I have general sour chicken Oh, so mean take me through what's going on with the former number one pick and the issue that we have now between Italy and the US Yes, where there's been scorched earth which could impact a young man's life if he ever wants to go home again. It is an international incident, folks, because unlike Victor and Miyama saying, I think I'm just gonna sit it out this year. Palo Bancoiro has done an about face, whereas previously he said, I would love to play for the Italian national team

and play in the Olympics and then COVID happened, so I didn't get to do that. Now he has committed to playing for Team USA. in the Olympics and then COVID happened so I didn't get to do that. Now he has committed to playing for Team USA. The problem is unlike, you know, going out of college declaring I'm going to go to North Carolina and say maybe your effort, Ed, is then workout. I want to transfer. Once you commit to a national team for playing on the senior national team, that's your team. And so the Italian Federation President,

Yan Nipatrucci, is reasonably pissed off about this decision. I didn't find his response reasonable at all. All right, well, let me read the quote, and you guys can judge. I'm not gonna use an accent because no, I shouldn't use an accent. Betrayal is a big word.

In sports, these things happen, and personally, I'm used to it. I consider it a joke. It was a legitimate decision, but he could have made a call to communicate that to us. Instead, we learned about his decision from newspapers. In the past few days, he was in Milan and despite our agreements with his agency,

he avoided the meeting with coach Bozeko. Bozeko? Bozeko. Bozeko. Sickzeko? Bozeko. Sick. SIC. Yeah. So yeah, so like he's not happy. He's not, but I don't blame him, David, because he shouldn't be happy.

He hinged. Don't air it publicly. Why? Why? It can't. He wants the player to do it the right way. I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you. do it the right way. I'm gonna say I'm gonna be not every time Let me tell you let me tell you a story of Gorn droght right Gorn droght is born in Slovenia his dad is Serbian right

Gorn is Slovenia grew up in Slovenia. He's Slovenian through and through. He's playing for the Slovenian national team They're playing at Serbia and literally the entire crowd the entire game is just chanting trader Trader trader Adam, right? and literally the entire crowd the entire game is just chanting traitor traitor traitor Adam right? Slovenia loses the game. You know what the front page of the Slovenian newspapers was? Drogged throws game because his dad is Serbian. I say the story to tell you that they are not like even killed at all over there when it comes to sports, particularly national team play. They are unhinged, all of them. That's the way that's their culture of sport.

So this statement, while I agree with you, this were, if this were the coach or the GM of a team here in the NBA, and a guy said, I'm signing with you guys, and then he signed somewhere else, I agree with you. Just say, you know, I thought we had a deal, but you know, whatever, we wish him the best of luck. You take the high road always, just like thought we had a deal, but you know, whatever. We wish them the best of luck. You take the high road always.

Just like when you fire a coach, you take the high road. I gave the Chicago Bulls a lot of crap a couple of years ago when they fired tips and told us why in a press release. We're like, no, no, just say, hey, best of them. We're moving on. We're moving on. This is very good at those releases.

Very quick. We're going a lot of practice. Yeah, a lot of practice. But this is different. This is different. This is national team stuff. And this is, again, their culture over there is to go scorched earth every single time.

I think they were just angry at the US and Steve Kerr. Steve Kerr did a major recruiting job. This was about recruiting. I was really angry at a player who made a commitment to the country and then bailed on that commitment. So the USA had nothing to do with this. I'm certain the USA did have something to do with it and that contributes to their frustration.

You know, also, David, that's the thing that I think they don't get over there because sometimes they think, oh, this kid is very proud of his heritage. Of course he wants to play for us and they don't realize for players in this country, at some age you're like, yeah, you know, if I get to play the Olympics, I'll play for Italy or Ghana or whatever. But then you get to a point where like, oh,

shit, I'm good enough to play for Team USA. Oh, no, I want to play for that. It's not, it's not even really a recruiting pitch that's that strong other than you're in basketball. Not not not not. Other other. Other sports is different. But in basketball, these kids, like, you know, bam out of my, I could play for Nigeria, but it's like, why would I play for Nigeria when I can play for T-MUSA and have an Olympic gold medal? Because that's basically it.

You're guaranteeing yourself hardware when you play for T-MUSA. I can't picture the head of the Nigerian Basketball Association going against BAM, if BAM chose US over Nigeria. If BAM committed, if BAM committed, there is no indication, right, of verbal commitment. You commit verbally to be in every day.

What was that? Well, right, it doesn't, it doesn't, I don't make that verbal commitment. No, but you say, I'll be here, I won't be here. And we just, there's nothing we can do unless you're in violation of a contract. Right. There was no contract in this case.

No, there was no contract, but again, that's a lot of action around the decision of a young man with the World Cup. And I feel for him. I feel for the player and I'm an owner guy. I feel like. But you realize from Italy standpoint, okay, we have this great player. He's committed to play with us and now we just lose another player to the United States,

right? So you move on. You try to get it. So who do a player who's not nearly as good? He was a generational talent though. Like that's it. you move on. You try to get it all. So who, to a player who's not nearly as good? He was a generational talent though. Like you move on. It's like, all right. Another 20 years before the next.

See the difference maker? For them? Would Italy have been a contender in the world's cop? For, for, to get to like, because again. To metal. Not only to metal, but you got to understand, when you were playing in these international tournaments, there are points that you get.

And this is to Mike Beck me out. This is true with soccer and everything. It's like, Those soccer players get a one-time change. When you fit, but I'm just saying, the team finish affects where you are in the world rankings, and that affects whether you qualify for other tournaments or you have to play in pre-qualifying events. So there's more to it than just a gewin' or a digital medal. There's a pressure to perform well

because that ensures that you stay at the highest level of competition. So for world-based ball classic, we do things like that. When it started, the higher you finish, it's the more money you get to make your program even better. That too. So that's common.

But what I'm asking Italy, how much money was it stake, do you think? If you had to guess, because when I saw this answer, this visceral anger, I assumed it was money-related. One million dollars. That's where my head was. I thought they had some inkling that with them on the team, they were in line to get something. Because otherwise there would be no reason. I think I think it's probably a marketing strategy because one of the things that Betrucci said he says he fooled us. We were planning a great commercial strategy for him So like you can get you can get a lot of mileage out of a guy like that going to play in Italy and just selling his

freaking jerseys. Yeah, I mean like I mean said very eloquently, but yes, that's like merchandising. There's endorsement deals with sponsorships. There's a lot of stuff going on there when you can say, hey, we have one of the best players in the NBA playing for us. They milk it and again, all that money getting ready. Get it right. Well, of course, I mean, like, look, what is your issue that the guy to the guy's a public

man? Yes. I actually don't like the fact that he wants to call on his cell and just have a nice staring conversation with him. A hundred. The buy went down the more professional. If you handled it that way, like person to person without calling someone out publicly, well, did he call the coach from Italy to say, hey, I'm not playing.

This is what did he announce it publicly? We are hearing that he announced it publicly, not ideal. So it's possible that his reaction was to that. But when you are an owner or the head of a federation, you have to be better than the player. How do you feel about public apologies? I find them to be absolutely not effective. What?

Genuine, heartfelt-fought. Genuine hard-fought. Yeah. Public apologies. I want better connectivity. Were you a tone for being wrong, not only to the person, but for the masses, so they can all know that you are wrong. There is one day of atonement for me.

And that's it. It's called Yumkipper. I aton for everything. I thought my shirt was really being the bigger man there Thank you. Thank you one time one time you passed on a short joke that was put on a tee for you Like figuratively being the better man you said bigger not better You said bigger, not better. Yeah, but that's a better metaphorically speaking. You said a better man.

I think they beat the taller man. You said a bigger man. I'm like sure was sitting down. We don't know. You've seen, we glossed over the fact that he may have crossed a picket line. Yeah, he did it. I think he fully meant what he was saying.

I changed his world to him. Every word of it, right, Joe? So my position is this if someone proves to me that he crossed the WGA pick line is officially a scab, then I will accept the apology. Well, he wrote that apology. And it's announced that I'm sure it's going to get aggregated by awful announcing any minute now. What I can't wait for is for people to see that he did something that could be perceived as work during the writer's strike.

Then he's going to have to come on and do a real apology. That was a real. That was a real. And I don't think he wrote it. I think that was speaking from the heart. No, he's not. No, he's not. He's not.

He's not. He made that up. He was scanning the screen just to see your reaction to his honest. Exactly. Everyone. Everyone. That was from the screen just as a your reaction to his honest exactly everyone. Bullapollad. Everyone. That was from the heart. Yeah.

Well, his eyes were going back and forth. Yes, a thing. Honestly, I watched his eyes. If it were truly an honest apology, though, he would have apologized for Rutherford Falls. Yeah. That would have been a starting point for me. What I'm most excited about is to apologize to him when he's back on tomorrow,

because I'm still going to be here tomorrow. I won't.