Pistons want Burstein at NBA summer league

NBA champion Detroit Pistons is planning to invite Maccabi Tel Aviv guard Tal Burstein to the summer league.

"I have known Tal for several years and I was very impressed by him at the European Championship in Serbia," Detroit's chief international scout, Tony Ronzone, said after Sunday's Euroleague Final Four championship game.

Ronzone also summoned Yaniv Green to Detroit's summer league two years ago, but said that Burstein's chances of landing a contract were much higher.

"The invitation to Green was more of a gesture of good will, but our interest in Burstein is much more serious," Ronzone said. "I really like his game. He is a versatile player and he makes the right decisions. I think he will be making the right move if he comes to show his talents in the summer league."

Ronzone believes Burstein, 26, can find his place in the NBA as a role player. "It's about time there was an Israeli in the league, and I would like to be the one to find him," Ronzone said after last summer's championship in Serbia.

Burstein has been with Maccabi for the past six years, but is reportedly the subject of interest among several European clubs, and is weighing the possibility of moving on when his contract expires at the end of the season.

*Article Link*
By Yoav Borowitz @ Haaretz.com
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I saw this article in the sports section of an Israeli newspaper site that I read. Maccabi Tel Aviv is the team that Sarunas starred for, leading them to back-to-back Euroleague titles, before joining the Pacers. They made it back the final again this season before losing to CSKA Moscow.

Great Work D4! I swear, we have the best internationally aware mix of fans outside maybe the Spurs.

nm, found the article. Roscoe to update the link.

So this is a marketing thing right? Appeal to the jewish community?

If you read that statement on it's own, it sounds like there should be an Israeli because there should be Israelis in the NBA, not because Burstein deserves to play in the NBA. I'm not familiar with him, but NBATV Canada is showing a lot of Euroleague playoffs, now I am inclined to check his game out.

Not too sure how to read that statement, but I guess he's talking about a combo marketing/we-wuz-the-first niche sort of thing. Maybe to sell themselves as friendly to international players (well, certain 17-year-old Serbian 7 footers might disagree...).

There was an Israeli player named Oded Kattash who was planning on signing with the Knicks, but that was in the summer of '98, so when the lockout hit that fall, he stayed in Israel and never came to the NBA.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I love the ideas of Int'ls in the NBA so long as it isn't gratuititous. They should be good enough to play at that level, and no discrimination based on nationality should be applied.

I moved your post around a bit. I want to post it on the front page of PF.

Another factor is that Ronzone was giving this interview to an Israeli newspaper, so he might have just been buttering them up a little bit.

One other possible line of thinking is that given the now consistent success of Maccabi TA in the Euroleague--including this season after the departure of Sarunas--they're probably good enough not to have to depend entirely on foreign stars, i.e. that they must be getting enough contribution from their homegrown players to warrant the belief that the best of those guys are capable of contributing in the NBA. Three straight Euroleague finals for the same team, from a small country that's never sent anyone to the NBA, might be an indication that the country's best native players could be good enough to contribute to an NBA team.

I wouldn't get hung up on the remark. Ronzone probably has a missionary zeal for scoring international "firsts" and bringing more of the world to the NBA.

There's another, bigger question. Here's an old NBADraft.net profile:

That sounds a lot like Carlos Delfino to me, and Carlos can't get playing time as is. Maybe this is just an innocuous "please the locals" article, but it invites speculation about Carlos' future with the team.

I don't want to turn this thread into something it's not. But Carlos is not making much money, by NBA standards, and with us going into the red this summer, Carlos will be here for a little while, at least while he's still under contract.

Heck! If the guy can dribble the ball in traffic, it invites speculation about Mo Evans' future.

But back to the subject. I don't care where anyone comes from. If they deserve to be in the NBA, then they deserve to be in the NBA. If they can play, then they can play.

__________________

All except the 50 percent from 3-ball land.

What do the following players have in common?

John Allen
Rodney Billups
Andreas Glyniadakis
Junior Harrington
Jerry Holman
Ricky Paulding
Bryant Matthews
Thomas Mobley

They each got a handsome parting gift at the end of Summer League.

Boy, Chauncey's brother really sucked.