Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest has always been the kind of player who unabashedly voices his opinion. But this time Artest should have kept his mouth shut.
While training for the Lakers exhibition game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, to be played in London as part of an NBA showcase, Artest commented about the shortage of American players in European basketball leagues.
"They need to let more Americans play in the European leagues," Artest said. "It's not fair that a lot of American players can't come to China or can't come to Europe to play with as many players as they want, so there's no balance ... They should just make it more even."
What Artest is referring to is that in some foreign leagues, Spain and Greece in particular, have a cap on how many American players are allowed on the roster (usually only two or three). Other countries have no limits, but there is often a favoritism shown towards native players.
Artest is right that it's unfair that there are no restrictions on foreign players coming to the NBA (there were 79 from 35 different countries last season), while there are restrictions the other way around. But ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Dmitriy Ioselevich
Ron Artest Wants European Leagues To Be More Accessible to American Players
October 2nd, 2010 by Dmitriy Ioselevich Leave a reply »
Advertisement