The fifth Brazilian in the NBA has just been picked up (with the first pick of the second round) by the Jazz and traded to the Magic, giving me at least one reason to cheer for the sorriest team in basketball (and maybe they'll get some good out of trading T-Mac).
This is Anderson Varejao and his fantastic hair.
He played for Barca last year, in those silly purplelicious and wine-colored uniforms of theirs, I would love to see him get some action with the Magic. And he'll be in a town that has a lot of Brazilians (did that figure in the Magic equation?), which is better than Nene going to Colorado or Leandrinho to Phoenix.
There was one other Brazilian taken in the draft, Rafael Araujo, taken in the top ten, did his time at Brigham Young. That poor schmoe is headed for Toronto.
So now there are enough Brazilians in the NBA to field a starting five. It's a revolution, baby.
Little sidenote:
There's a Brazilian family that belongs to our church (the Gomes family) whose father is probably 6'4" and whose wife is over 6 feet tall. The three children are also quite tall, with a twenty-year old daughter over six feet, a sixteen-year old son well over that mark, and a thirteen-year old daughter approaching that magical mark. They're a beautiful family (tall, dark, and handsome, isn't that a magic recipe?). I am 6'9". There are many in the church who believe Brazilians to be a race of giants (I try not to confuse people by saying that half of my Brazilian half was a transplanted blue-eyed Arkansas redneck). (Hmm...Brazilian half...Brazilian genes...no.)
I wonder if one could devise an accurate yet flamboyant gauge of a nation's prosperity (like The Economist's very successful Big Mac Index) by the success and number of its athletes. The idea would be, basically, for your population, how many people is your nation able to super-feed and give the leisure time in which to master a sport?
Couldn't have done that with Eastern Bloc nations, the only big wrench I see immediately is Kenyan marathon running...but that's a unique (freaky) sport requiring unique (freaky) training.
This is Anderson Varejao and his fantastic hair.
He played for Barca last year, in those silly purplelicious and wine-colored uniforms of theirs, I would love to see him get some action with the Magic. And he'll be in a town that has a lot of Brazilians (did that figure in the Magic equation?), which is better than Nene going to Colorado or Leandrinho to Phoenix.
There was one other Brazilian taken in the draft, Rafael Araujo, taken in the top ten, did his time at Brigham Young. That poor schmoe is headed for Toronto.
So now there are enough Brazilians in the NBA to field a starting five. It's a revolution, baby.
Little sidenote:
There's a Brazilian family that belongs to our church (the Gomes family) whose father is probably 6'4" and whose wife is over 6 feet tall. The three children are also quite tall, with a twenty-year old daughter over six feet, a sixteen-year old son well over that mark, and a thirteen-year old daughter approaching that magical mark. They're a beautiful family (tall, dark, and handsome, isn't that a magic recipe?). I am 6'9". There are many in the church who believe Brazilians to be a race of giants (I try not to confuse people by saying that half of my Brazilian half was a transplanted blue-eyed Arkansas redneck). (Hmm...Brazilian half...Brazilian genes...no.)
I wonder if one could devise an accurate yet flamboyant gauge of a nation's prosperity (like The Economist's very successful Big Mac Index) by the success and number of its athletes. The idea would be, basically, for your population, how many people is your nation able to super-feed and give the leisure time in which to master a sport?
Couldn't have done that with Eastern Bloc nations, the only big wrench I see immediately is Kenyan marathon running...but that's a unique (freaky) sport requiring unique (freaky) training.
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