Is the future of the NBA in Europe?

By James Anderson Sports Central Columnist

It used to be that NBA clubs would look at the college ranks to find help for their clubs and usually could wait a couple of years for them to develop.

Now teams want instant help from players and the high school crop are coming in fundamentally weak so scouts are scouring the world to find the next Hakeem Olajuwon, Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stojakovic, or Pau Gasol.

The landscape of the NBA has changed -- and it's looking very foreign.

Houston is first up on the draft board and the fact they are looking at Yao Ming as the first pick just goes to show how basketball has changed.

Ming really should be a late first round pick at best, but NBA executives have always been afraid to pass on height because of the affect a great big man can have on the game.

Sam Bowie was picked ahead of Michael Jordan because of height.

The career results of the two players clearly say what a mistake that decision was for Portland.

Everyone is looking for an answer to Shaquille O'Neal, which no one can ever assume Ming will be.

Unless he gains 100 pounds, Shaq will never start quivering in his boots.

There's a big difference in playing against guys 10 inches shorter than yourself and a player 7'1", 350 pounds.

High school players are applying for the draft so fundamentally deficient that few are ever really ready to provide an immediate contribution when they enter the league.

Kwame Brown is the perfect example of why players from around the world are more prepared to make an impact like Pau Gasol did this season when no one thought he would be this good.

Brown was dominating basketball in Georgia against players that may have only played at the Division III level, at best.

Playing against and dominating YMCA level talent is no reason to assume he could do the same at the professional even if they were hoping the talent might shine in the future.

Jermaine O'Neal rode the bench for Portland and has finally proven himself a legitimate NBA all-star and only time will tell if Brown can do the same.

People forget that Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant did not come into the league lighting everyone up from the start.

Both players were brought along slowly so as not to put too much of a burden on them.

It was expected that both had tremendous talent and may be dominating, but no one wanted to hurt their confidence being fed to the wolves too early.

Moses Malone signed out of high school with the old ABA league and was on the All-Rookie team scoring 18.8 points and 14.6 rebounds a game as a skinny 19-year-old rookie.

Malone now is a member of the Hall of Fame.

That's a 20-year gap from Malone to Garnett, which goes to show how hard it is to come into the league straight out of high school and make an impact on the game and remember that Garnett didn't have a huge impact his first year, but a solid beginning.

He, too, is headed toward a Hall of Fame career now.

Fans raved about Tony Parker and Pau Gasol this season because both young players came in to the NBA at 19- and 21-years-old putting up very impressive numbers and were clearly mentally prepared to compete in the NBA.

Actually, it shouldn't have been such a surprise that the two players or any other foreign player are so prepared to contribute at such young ages.

European and other countries around the world have a far superior system to the NBA, which just shows that we need to make strides if the United States intends to remain the best country in terms of basketball talent.

Players in Europe and other countries have professional leagues just like the United States, but they have teams that take in these young players like Parker and Gasol and play them in world competitions representing their countries against the rest of the world when guys are only 16-years-old.

It doesn't mean they are the stars, but they are receiving serious training and experience all year round as opposed to our 16-18-year-olds that are dominating inferior talent that provides no realistic competition that compares to what they will see at the next level or the top level if they try and go pro.

It never impresses me when I hear about a high school player scoring 100 points in a game and the team won by 70-80 points.

He or she probably should have never been in the game long enough to score 50 points, let alone 100.

The United States is going to need to get a system where these high school players start competing against college players at the top level and maybe some pro players that aren't receiving a lot of time -- kind of like NFL Europe does in football.

My brother was telling me he realized how good NBA players were when he played Gilbert Arenas in one of these summer leagues.

Arenas totally dominated these players that think they're so good and could play in the NBA if given a chance. Our national pride would need to take a back seat first for us to make these gains, though.

We hate to think anyone is better and the confidence of these young guys may take a beating if the more fundamentally sound European players consistently outplay them.

Players in the United States need to understand that there's more to the game than just making the nightly highlights of ESPN's SportsCenter.

A Brazilian player that 99.99 percent of American fans never heard of is getting a serious look as a power forward by NBA scouts.

Nene Hilario is a star in Brazil and Nikoloz Tskitishvilli from Georgia, Soviet Union is a beanpole in the mold of Pau Gasol that's 19-years-old.

He has NBA scouts wringing their hands because they're tempted to pick a young kid close to seven-feet tall that can shoot.

Tskitishvilli has so much to learn and improve his game.

It's amazing, though, that NBA officials would rather take European and world projects rather than the flashy slam-dunking, no free throw shooting, and no defense playing American basketball players that just want to be on ESPN every night.

Ming, Tskitishvilli, Hilario, over anyone the United States has to offer.

Who would have ever figured the American pride and joy the NBA would become so foreign in it's makeup?

But fear not, Americans, LeBron James is the next savior that will save basketball as a whole and he's not even out of high school yet.

I shouted out, now you shout back and give a take on the state of basketball in America.

I want to see good basketball, but why are the foreign players from around the world getting so much better and really challenging the American players for supremacy in the game?

I've given my explanation, but of course, I want to hear yours.

Sports bind so many of us together and make us all an expert, so let's hear it!

Article courtesy of Sports Central.