Spain won the gold medal in the Eurobasket with the two Hernangomet brothers, their coach Sergio Scariolo, their captain Rudy Fernandez, the players from the strong ACB league and one… American. Lorenzo Braun proved to be a key player, taking over the entire leadership role from Furia Rocha and was one of the central and much-discussed figures of the event even before the start of the Eurobasket.

The choice of the Spanish FA at the suggestion of Sergio Scariolo unleashed a storm of criticism even within Spain, as Roja had chosen a player who had nothing to do with the country or even the Spanish league.

The world champions appeared to emulate the smaller dynamic national sides such as Georgia, Belgium, ex-Ukraine and North Macedonia, who entrusted the crucial point guard position to a well-known American playing in Europe.

He emulated these ‘little ones’ or others, such as Russia 2007 when, led by JR Holden, he hit the bull’s eye and forced Spain to a painful defeat in the final in Madrid. The Spaniards were waiting for how and how they could finally win a gold medal in the Eurobasket, but the CSKA Moscow playmaker, to whom David Blatt had handed the reins of the Russian national team, scored just before the end of the game and left the hard-fighting team back in 2nd place (she won her first gold at a European Championship two years later in Poland).

And suddenly he opened up a conversation about… naturalization, as if we were seeing it for the first time! Neven Spahia unleashed a tirade against naturalized players, as the term translates from French, implicating Dorsey and Antetokounmpo, who weren’t exactly sure how either played for the Greece national team.

Brown’s presence was seen as a minor (or major, take that as you will) disservice to Spain’s national team, as without the American, Scariolo’s team might never have achieved the gold medal. Firstly, we don’t know and secondly, Spain thought of Brown because Ricky Rubio is recovering from surgery on his left knee, while Sergio Yule has also not been able to get over the injury problems that have plagued him all year.

For many, Spain’s move was legitimate, but it was very opportunistic and even more unfair. A player with no connection whatsoever to Iberia became one of the protagonists of the new European champions. Here is a field of glory to be unleashed, once more against the Spaniards we adore… hate.

And yet the Spaniards did no more than what the regulations stipulated, but even their own sporting culture allows the use of foreign players in their national teams.

Naturalizing à la French…

The term naturalize comes from French. Because of their colonies, the stuffy French gave away passports, whether they deserved it or not, to soccer and basketball players. More in the 70s and 80s, less in the years that followed, when the first rules for their use were defined.

Jean Tigana, who perfectly complemented Michel Platini’s French midfield, was born (in former French Sudan), Maurice Trezor was from Guadeloupe, while Christian Carrebet was born in now semi-autonomous New Caledonia.

In basketball, we briefly remember Apolo Fage, who was born in Senegal but played 80 games with the tricolors. And another center, Georges Vestris, was born on French soil in the Caribbean (Martinique).

The Spaniards, however, had started the merry-go-round of naturalizations earlier. Argentine Alfredo Di Stefano became Spanish by playing for both national teams (while in Bogotá he played in friendly matches with the Colombian national team without even having a pass). The galloping colonel of Hungary, Ferenc Puskas, also acquired a Spanish passport and when he was naturalized as a Spaniard wore the Furia Roja shirt in World Cup qualifiers.

The Spanish “moda” in basketball

Clifford Luke, “holy monster” of Real Madrid and Spanish basketball, was born in Syracuse, New York, 21 years before he was in Madrid and wore the jersey of the Merengues. From 1962 to 1978 he played basketball at Real, whose coach he later became. Very early on, not until 1968 (for the Olympic Games in Mexico) Luke had a Spanish passport and played in the Spanish national team (until 1975).

In fact, Spain have had two naturalized players in the top five since 1971, thanks to center Luke (2.03) and outstanding scorer Wayne Brabender. And he from Real, who came to Madrid in 1968, got his passport and played at the club for 11 years. At the historic 1973 silver medal, Brabender was named tournament MVP.

Later, the Spaniards gave Chico Sibillio, a year after his arrival in Barcelona from Dominica (1977), a pass to Josechu Biryukov, who had Spanish roots in two national teams (USSR, Spain, but also on the mother’s side), European champion with Badalona in the year 1994 Mike Smith.

In recent years, Sergi Ibaka (Congolese national team player) and Nikola Mirotic, who has lived permanently in Madrid since he was 14, have played in Spain’s small national teams, but outside of basketball he’s a proud Montenegrin!

Our case

Greece did not – at least – initially need naturalization of basketball players. The migration of thousands of our compatriots to America was enough to find another way to approach the homeland of basketball. The children of Greek immigrants came to play in their parents’ country in the 1970s.

Some, of course, were not even related to the resourceful agents who were willing (with compensation, of course) to find a particular municipality in New York to issue birth certificates to Greeks and non-Greeks alike.

The best of these emigrants (Giatzoglou, Kastrinakis, Diakoulas, Vidas, Mallach, Stergakos) wore the coat of arms, with one of the last of the group becoming the man who would lead us to the promised land. The son of George and Stella Galis, inductee of the Neismith Basketball Hall of Fame, now Nikos Galis…

All played as Greeks, even if they came with American passports, while at a certain point restrictions were introduced for those not born on Greek soil. So we screwed up the Korfa case in 1989 when the French found out he was born in Ohio and not Greece as the Greek FA claimed. Korfas could not compete as a native, he was considered naturalized, but the position had already been filled by David Stergako.

In the 1990s, having already exhausted the pool of US expatriates, resourceful Greeks found various ways to Greekize ordinary foreigners or gamers with a nebulous or non-existent connection to Greece (Misunov, Subotic, Pecharski, Tarlats, Tomic , Sock , Koousma, Zevrosenko, Zurpenko, Stojakovic, Jaric, Tsakalides). Only Jake Tsakalides (or Alexey Ledkov as his real name) competed in the national team.

At the turn of the century we returned to the second and third generation of expatriates from the USA. First Nick Calathes appeared, then Kostas Koufos, Mike Bramos, now we have Tyler Dorsey, then Mitrou Long (while there’s also Zach August).

What does the regulation say…

Though undeniably of Greek origin, Dorsey (and Mitrou Long) are considered naturalized. The new FIBA ​​rule stipulates that each national team has the right to field only one player who has acquired legal citizenship through naturalization or otherwise after the age of 16. This provision also applies to players who were born with the right to acquire citizenship but did not exercise it until the age of 16.

For players who have citizenship before the age of 16 but did not produce a passport, FIBA ​​will decide through their Secretary General on a case-by-case basis by examining place of birth, length of stay, participation in national competitions and anything else related to the affiliation with the Country proves whose national team he wants to serve. This is the case of Antetokounmpo, who of course compete like Greeks …

… and what is that (let’s say Giorgos Limniatis)

FIBA accepted the naturalizations we’ve seen over the past fifteen years, when wealthy Americans received passports from European countries just to play basketball. It could be argued that we’re doing the same thing by taking advantage of the Greek roots of every Dorsey who, if he wasn’t playing basketball, would hardly even consider getting a Greek passport. He won’t be entirely right, because even through the twisting basketball street, Dorsey returns to the land of his ancestors. What do the different McFaddens have to do with the different Georgias?

Giorgos Limniatis, who has been sitting on the National Agriculture bench alongside Ilias Zouros for six years, is one of the most qualified to answer the question and analyze all the parameters:

“FIBA has given this opportunity mainly to the small national teams, believing that it will improve competition in the major competitions. He wasn’t wrong. Since mainly players who have the ball in their hands are selected, teams like ours have obviously helped a lot. Others, like FYROM in 2011 with Bo McCaleb, made it all the way up to 4th place, as did Poland this year thanks to Slaughter.

I will tell you something. It also depends on each individual player how he integrates into the respective team. I’m going to talk about our own McFadden who really turned into a Georgian. He’s a great character and has become one with our team, on and off the pitch. The Mike Dixon we had before wasn’t like that without being a bad character. Thad is no different from the rest of the team like he’s a real Georgian.

I think the same goes for Slaughter in Poland, while Brown, despite being very new to the Spanish team, has embraced the whole philosophy of the team and bonded with the company. After all, he couldn’t have this achievement if he didn’t feel that way.

It’s not just his business, but without McFadden we certainly wouldn’t have made the progress that National Georgia has shown in recent years. We beat teams like Spain, Lithuania and Turkey. So, at the competitive level, using a naturalization helped Georgia get on the basketball map, organize a Eurobasket group and even qualify for the “16” despite the great misfortune we had with Sengelia’s injury.

There is also a longer-term benefit. As basketball grows in popularity through the national team, it means that some children, more than in the past, are stepping onto a court for the first time accompanied by an orange ball. If we find two or three players who eventually make the national team, we’ll owe it (in part) to McFadden too…”

The truth is that the subject isn’t exhausted that easily (hence the 2000 or so words you’ve already read). The Spaniards certainly did not commit a crime by picking Lorenzo Brown. Instead of this. I guess they played checkmate…