SportsNation Blog ArchivesSN Blog Archives Dario Franchitti

Coldplay, Nutella and Rubio?

July 23, 2009
Jul
23
Top Comments

Ricky Rubio is just one of many. No, not potential point guards for the Timberwolves, although that's also true, come to think of it. Rubio, whenever he gets to the United States on a full-time basis, will be just one of many European athletes starring in North American professional sports leagues.

Everywhere you look, there's a guy with good taste in food, a certain worldly "je ne sais quoi" and jeans that are just a little too tight. Heck, Kobe Bryant makes more sense in Italian these days than Delonte West does in English most of the time.

Where once there was the occasional Swede on skates, there are now Europeans everywhere you look (not applicable to residents of Arkansas). Well, almost everywhere. Scotland's Lawrence Tynes isn't exactly leading an EU assault on the NFL.

torrerox
“

This was such an incredibly stupid draft pick by Minnesota, just horrific. Did they not do their homework at all? This kid is locked into Europe for two more years, because of that buyout. Moreover, the adjustment period of going from Spanish ball to the NBA will probably take another three years. So this horrible team that cannot sell tickets, drafts a guy that will not really pay off at all (if he even does) for five years. Stupid organization!

” -- TorreroX
karltkoch
“

Rubio should take a lesson from American athletes. He should go play for Joventut, complain about a nagging injury, put out an embarrassing Youtube video, become a locker-room cancer, and generally become a pain in the ####. Next thing you know they be paying him to leave!

” -- karltkoch

Comment »

Tags:

Dirk Nowitzki, Luol Deng, Pau Gasol, Hedo Turkoglu, Mehmet Okur, Miikka Kiprusoff, Marian Hossa, Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Lundqvist, Evgeni Malkin, Evgeni Nabokov, Alex Ovechkin, Tony Parker, Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon

SportsNation Feeds:
Subscribe to SportsNation's RSS

"SportsNation" on ESPN2!

Watch "SportsNation" Monday-Friday at 4 p.m. and midnight ET on ESPN2 with Colin and Michelle!

WE'RE OFF UNTIL MONDAY, NOV. 30! BUT KEEP SENDING US WEIRD WEB CLIPS!

SPORTSNATION GRIDIRON CENTRAL

Send us weird Web clips, vote on the best of the month and visit the archive.

FEATURED FAN

THIS WEEK'S CHATS

Monday, November 23 Tuesday, November 24Wednesday, November 25
Monday, November 30

CHAT IN PROGRESS

Football guru Mel Kiper
  • Mel KiperI think they could. I don't think they will. I think Alabama has their eyes on the prize. They're tremendously well coached. They play defense and run the football. If you can do that, you can win a lot of games in college football. They have some big time players on both sides of the ball. McClain, Cody, Dareus, Jones, Ingram, Barron. They have a lot of stars on this team. I respect this rivalry. Auburn has some athletes. Several players who will play in the NFL. Auburn doesn't usually separate much from their opponent. They had close games against LSU, Tennessee. If it gets into a 13-10 type of games, anything can happen. It needs to be 27-3, 27-9, 24-10. If it's 10-6 in the fourth quarter, you could be in trouble. It's great that it's on Friday. I love that. We don't need Colorado and Nebraska on Friday. You have to have that big rivalry game on Friday.
  • Mel KiperIt should be a phenomenal atmosphere. Should be a fun environment. A lot is at stake. If Alabama or Florida did lose, both teams are locked into the SEC title game. So if the team with a loss wins the SEC title game, there are a lot of other undefeated teams out there. I would love to see other teams shut out. I hate this system, so I want to see the SEC winner and Texas playing. I would like to see it and see the system come to a screeching halt. We need a major controversy to happen to destroy this system. The college football system is the worst.
  • Steve Dallas (Murray, Ky.)Toby Gearhart, is he a NFL Starter? Where does he go in the draft??
  • Mel KiperHe has another year, if he wants it. He could go back for the 2010 season. You don't want to have too much tread on your tires. You could get an injury. Is he going to be able to duplicate what he did this year? The argument to stay would be he has Luck coming back. The FB Owen Marecic is coming back. Both WRs. The majority of the OL. If he comes back, Stanford's offense would be prolific. If he leaves, he's probably a 2-3 round pick. Powerful back. Not real elusive. But he can change direction just enough. Very determined, very powerful. You wonder how much resistance he gets in the NFL. They have a young RB in Taylor who looks like he's going to be a star.

Join our live chat »

FEATURED GROUPS

FEATURED PHOTOS

GREATEST HITS ALBUM