Full Court Press 2

This is another article I wrote for the online publication....




I remember my first practice in Greece fairly well considering it was over a year ago. I remember being both extremely tired and thinking, “This is really easy.” After flying twenty four hours and a time difference of nearly half of a day, any practice would have had me tired. But I distinctly remember being on the baseline waiting to go into a drill and thinking, “This is professional basketball?” One might have the crazy notion that “professional” is a step up from “collegiate” but it isn’t, at least in Greece.

That being said, just like everywhere, there are different levels. Some teams in Greece practice twice a day and some barely practice at all. Some travel all over Europe competing in the Euro League, arguably the second best league in the world, and some teams have never left the country. From what I have heard, the level of basketball in Europe varies greatly from country to country and even within countries. It is difficult to generalize about the level of play in all of Europe so I’ll stick to my experiences. Greek basketball I know.

The Greek league has some decent players but most are average at best. A lot of the players are older though so they have experience and obviously know how to play in the Greek league which takes some getting used to. They aren’t as skilled as American women or as strong and quick but it is fairly competitive, if only because the Greek girls foul constantly. And since they don’t call fouls much, especially in practice, it provides a challenge in a different sense.

Practices are nothing compared to college or WNBA practices. This year we practice for an hour and a half and half of that is warming up, stretching, and passing drills. It is more like a high school practice where there are a bunch of girls that like basketball, they might even think they love it, but would stop in a hurry if it ever got too hard. Its hard to be too tough on them because they aren’t true professionals. They get a small stipend so most work or go to school and live at home with their parents. Playing basketball is more like a fun past time to them.

Its not that they don’t care, or don’t want to win, its that they have no concept of working hard. Its unbelievable. I look back on teammates I’ve had in the past that I thought were lazy and they have nothing on the Greek girls. Individual improvement isn’t something they understand. I really think they look at me and the other Americans like we were just born this way. I could never really explain to them that my abilities came from hours and hours in the gym, not from good luck. I don’t think they could comprehend going to the gym alone, without anyone forcing them, and working on their game by themselves. I’m not sure it even crosses their mind that they are responsible for their own improvement.

We have morning practices twice a week that consist of me and my American teammate, a coach, and either one or two of the Greek players. No one else comes. They have school or work I guess or they just don’t think it is that important. Its nice because we get up a lot of shots and the gym is empty except for us. One of my Greek teammates shoots with me during these practices. Her shot is really messed up and when it isn’t going in she kind of, sort of, wants to change it. So I showed her how we learn to shoot and tell her that you have to shoot about a billion shots from two feet away and just work on your form. Yes, yes, a billion she says. After about ten shots she moves out to the three point line! I was frustrated for about a second and then reminded myself that cultural differences run deep and that I could tell her a billion times that she needs to shoot a billion repetitions and all it would do is tire me out.

One notices the Greek work ethic in the weight room as well. Weight room workouts consist of a handful of people working on broken weight machines while most of my teammates sit around and talk. Some are menstruating, some are nursing an ankle sprain that apparently renders them unable to lift anything in their upper body, and others have “chronic” injuries that flare up at convenient times. It is basically a large social hour where even the coach comes into chat. They love doing crunches, back extensions, and stretching because one can always talk while doing these exercises. Any exercise where one has to concentrate and doesn’t have breath to socialize, doesn’t interest the Greeks. I know I could literally not lift one weight and talk for the whole 30 minutes we are there and no one would think it out of the ordinary. No coach would come up and ask me what the heck I was doing. In fact she would come up and ask me how my day was going.


I swear all the coaches in Greece got a hold of a basketball clinic video tape circa 1980. Their drills, plays, and general understanding of the game is so archaic. They like cone drills and two footed jump stops, reverse pivots and things that just don’t apply to the modern game. I’m all for fundamentals, don’t get me wrong, but things are changing, and I can’t remember the last time I jump stopped and reversed pivoted. Nor can I remember the last time I stood on the sideline facing the stands and waited for a hand clap to turn around and outlet the ball. The have drills that make no sense to any one with any kind of basketball intuition.

But mostly it isn’t the drills, it’s the lack of intensity. People never come close to doing a drill specific and detail oriented. They don’t touch the lines on running drills for instance. They don’t even come close. It drove me absolutely bonkers for a long time when I first got here mostly because I was sick of running the hardest and finishing middle of the pack. But you kind of got to go with the flow because once again, if I attempted to make the argument that one should just do the drill right, touch the dang line, they would look at me crazy. I might as well say it in Chinese.

So while I was adjusting to Greek culture off the court, I was also adjusting to Greek basketball. My ethnocentric viewpoints extended to all aspects of my life and slowly I had to let go of my expectations for many things. I still get annoyed when my teammates, after two months of practice, still can’t remember the plays and some drills and plays counter every basketball intuition I have. When I find out a teammate went to the club until 5 in the morning the night before a game I still have to fight the urge to sit her down and talk to her about commitment and loyalty. But overall, I really try to avoid comparing everything to the American way. I can’t hold my teammates to the same level of expectations because they haven’t had the same experiences as American players and my coach means well and tries her best with the basketball knowledge she has been exposed to. So I had to learn to let go. Like I said, cultural differences run deep and whether I am here or not, Greek people will still be Greek people. And (most of the time) I love them for it.