National Teams in america

[JGX]

Of all the teams in the Americas though, I think Mexico is the weirdest. Given their population and the strength of their domestic league, they should have a very competitive national team. They should be up there with Brazil and Puerto Rico, but they never do well at the Tournament of the Americas. It's weird. They should be much better than they are.

Mexico's sort of a disappointing sporting nation...even in soccer, when you consider that it's the most popular sport in a highly populous nation and has a well-established and wealthy domestic league, they don't produce as much talent as they should, and always seem to be lacking in speed and size, which are of course very important in basketball.

There really aren't many standout Mexican-American athletes either.

[alermac]

Maybe there is a bit too much American influence in those countries to help them at FIBA basketball. Maerica may provide the talented players, but with them it also provides the same problems that kept Team USA from the gold all these years.

[mvblair]

DR and PR have already benefitted a lot, no?

Certainly PR has because the Puerto Rican community in the US is very close. They seem to "maintain their Puerto Ricaness." And it looks like DR will benefit from Charlie Villanueva, whom I think was born in DR, actually. I'm not sure.

After those two, the English-speaking Caribbean and Haiti could find a lot of good eligible players. But none of those countries have the organization to convert that into sustained success right now.

Absolutely Haiti could benefit! Unfortunately, the whole country is a wreck, so there is no hope for any kind of athletic success.

If the immigration process and the embargo were lifted, another country that would clearly benefit is Cuba. Of course, they've got their own problems because they won't even talk to their baseball players who play in Latin American winter leagues.

Lastly, the big country that could benefit the most from populations who have immigrated to the US is Mexico. There are something like 25 million Americans with "Mexican heritage" in the US. I'm sure there are plenty of professional players, NBA players like Earl Watson, who could legitimately play for Team Mexico. I think right now they've got Adam Parada, a guard/forward from California on the NT now.

Of all the teams in the Americas though, I think Mexico is the weirdest. Given their population and the strength of their domestic league, they should have a very competitive national team. They should be up there with Brazil and Puerto Rico, but they never do well at the Tournament of the Americas. It's weird. They should be much better than they are.

[JGX]

DR and PR have already benefitted a lot, no?

After those two, the English-speaking Caribbean and Haiti could find a lot of good eligible players. But none of those countries have the organization to convert that into sustained success right now.

[J-Mart]

What Americas NTs are (or could be) benefitted the most by the decades of migration to the US?

It seems to me that many Latin American NTs will soon be full of naturalized Americans with Latin ancestors. That could really change this current rankings we post.

Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico even more now that FIBA allowed us to use puertorrican grandsons.

[alermac]

What Americas NTs are (or could be) benefitted the most by the decades of migration to the US?

It seems to me that many Latin American NTs will soon be full of naturalized Americans with Latin ancestors. That could really change this current rankings we post.

[PRSURF]

Brazil =
Nene: 15 ppg and 10 rpg
leandro barbosa : How many games did the suns lose when he was away??
Anderson varejao: has a cool Afro
Tiago splinttler: how many ricans have turn down an NBA offer actually!!! How many ricans have had an NBA offer

PR =
a '' 5'9 '' dude who can get off the bench in Dallas.

Only names bro, only names, Puerto Rico is a team, remember that!

[mvblair]

I think Puerto Rico will remain a force in American basketball for a long time to come for two reasons: 1) they've got a good domestic league that encourages youngsters, and 2) they put lots of kids in the NCAA divisions in the US. Of course they have lots of good professionals now, too.

Brazil, unfortunately, has very poor organization in their basketball ranks. Perhaps because of fighting in their federation and the country's inability to organize one top league (until this year), they haven't put good NTs on the court. Their teams could be much, much better.

[alermac]

U forgot Argentina, Jamaica, Costa rica, El Salvador and Honduras which BY FAR !!! ares all way ahead of the dominicans

Hey, Argentina did beat the US at the 1995 Pan American Games

[Lewis]

a cool hairdo?

U know nothing 'bout hair, man; NOTHING !!!!!!!

[J-Mart]

Brazil will keep losing as long as Barbosa plays the point and Nene doesn't mind to play for them

Arroyo turned down a couple of NBA offers to play in Israel...
and that's ur best argument?
Some names, a couple of stats and a cool hairdo?

[Lewis]

Big difference in not having all your players and not having any of the good ones.

Anyway, maybe we can agree on the rankings of baseball national teams in the Americas:

1. USA, Puerto Rico, Cuba
2. Canada, Mexico, Venezuela
3. Netherlands, Italy (since most of their players are from the Americas anyway)
4. Panama, Nicaragua
5. Brazil
6. Colombia, Guatemala

16. US Virgin Islands

29. Haiti

49. Turks & Caicos Islands
50. Dominican Republic

U forgot Argentina, Jamaica, Costa rica, El Salvador and Honduras which BY FAR !!! ares all way ahead of the dominicans

[Lewis]

Brazil =
Nene: 15 ppg and 10 rpg
leandro barbosa : How many games did the suns lose when he was away??
Anderson varejao: has a cool Afro
Tiago splinttler: how many ricans have turn down an NBA offer actually!!! How many ricans have had an NBA offer

PR =
a '' 5'9 '' dude who can get off the bench in Dallas.

[JGX]

never seen a brazil squad with all their players since '03 (and we beated them)

Big difference in not having all your players and not having any of the good ones.

Anyway, maybe we can agree on the rankings of baseball national teams in the Americas:

1. USA, Puerto Rico, Cuba
2. Canada, Mexico, Venezuela
3. Netherlands, Italy (since most of their players are from the Americas anyway)
4. Panama, Nicaragua
5. Brazil
6. Colombia, Guatemala

16. US Virgin Islands

29. Haiti

49. Turks & Caicos Islands
50. Dominican Republic

[J-Mart]

And what does that say about PR's performance in the rest of the tournament?

our performance on that tournament was awful, we lost to mxico, had chemistry problems, the only thing we had going was the bad coaching from Manolo

You could but that would be stupid because they didn't use anything close to their full team.

that's their problem
never seen a brazil squad with all their players since '03 (and we beated them)