Doug Gottlieb: âWhatâs it called when youâre afraid of foreign things? A âxenophobeâ? Foreign basketball is awesome. Itâs different, uniqueâ Iâve actually played in 12 different countries professionally for three different organizations. Last month I spent a month living and coaching in Israel. This is not me being a xenophobe, but we kind of are as a country. Itâs going to be a hard sale on the American public that a team in the time zone we care the least about, that has done very little, and has the best player who we didnât see play in high school, in college, and many of us havenât seen play at all this year. Heâs kind of awkward, heâs fun, heâs talentedâŚby no means is this me taking away from who he isâ heâs awesome⌠This is one of those deals where you get âwe think this is an American sportâ. Many of the things that we dismiss as ânot importantâ, like playing in college basketball, it builds up a following. Why is Steph Curry so incredibly popular? Heâs as good a dude as thereâs ever been as a superstar and I think that helps, but we saw him play for Davidson. Then thereâs the videos of him with his dad when his dad was a player. Weâve known LeBron since he was 17 years old and he jumped off the screen playing in a high school game at UCLA. Thereâs a relationship there, heâs one of âus.â We know about his mom Gloria, and how he was raised without a dad, and then he brought his friendsâ we know them. We donât know who Jokic is. We donât know anything about him. He literally just arrived. He won the last two MVPs but nobody in the street knows that. They have zero clue. Wait for the reaction when he dominates Game 1 with a triple-double, people will be like âMAN, IâVE NEVER SEEN STUFF LIKE THAT!â Thatâs what he does every game⌠âWELL, HE SHOOTS THESE ONE-FOOT SHOTS!â⌠I know. I donât think weâre ready to turn over the American game to the foreign-born player even though we lost it awhile back. Embiid, Joker, Giannis, Lukaâ not born here, not raised here. Embiid at least played in college for a year but didnât play in the NCAA Tournament. Letâs see how the world reacts to Mountain Time Zone, Denver Nuggets, nobody watches them in the regular season, no real history of success, taking on an eight-seed in the Finals.â (Full Segment Above)
Watch Doug Gottlieb explain why he thinks the 2023 NBA Finals will be a âhard sellâ for the American public, as Doug believes the average basketball fan will have a hard time identifying with a foreign-born star, Nikola Jokic, facing off with a no. 8 seed.
Check out the segment above as Gottlieb details why he doesnât think American NBA fans will truly embrace the Denver Nuggets as the next potential dynasty. Â
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