Italian League More Than Just Pasta

ROME —  Brian Shaw took an outlet pass on the run from Danny Ferry, beat Mike D’Antoni with a stutter-step move and sailed past Bob McAdoo for a slam dunk.

The sellout crowd of 13,000 at the Palaeur arena erupted, breaking into a chant of “Forza Roma!”--Go Rome!--and setting off smoke bombs in the red and white colors of the team.

From Rome to Tel Aviv, NBA-style basketball has arrived overseas with a bang.

As a growing number of sought-after American stars opt to play abroad, basketball is even beginning to challenge the supremacy of soccer.

“The world of basketball has grown much closer,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said during the McDonald’s Open international tournament in Rome last weekend.

The center of the new basketball fever is Italy, where teams are laying out millions of dollars in a bidding war with the NBA. Once derisively known as the “Spaghetti League,” the Italian divisions now include a crop of Americans who could make up a decent NBA team.

Former NBA players have been coming here for years, but the arrival this fall of Ferry and Shaw really put Italy on the basketball map.

Ferry, the Duke All-America and the second player chosen in last June’s NBA draft, and Shaw, a starting guard for the Boston Celtics as a rookie last season, were the first big-name Americans to choose Italy in the prime of their careers.

It wasn’t the pasta or the monuments that convinced them to join Il Messaggero Roma. It was the $1 million to $2 million a year offered by Raul Gardini, whose giant agribusiness conglomerate, Gruppo Ferruzzi, owns the club.

Those figures have not gone unnoticed by other players in the United States, who see Italy as a lucrative option and a bargaining chip with the NBA.

Center Benoit Benjamin flew to Italy last week ostensibly to sign with Philips Milan only to return to Los Angeles three days later in what was widely regarded as a ploy to get more money from the Clippers. Then Rick Mahorn, in a contract dispute with the Minnesota Timberwolves, traveled to Italy to negotiate with Glaxo Verona.

Veteran NBA stars Alex English and Walter Davis of the Denver Nuggets, who beat Jugoplastika Split for the championship of the McDonald’s Open, said they would seriously consider playing in Italy.

“I want to come over here and play a couple of years,” said the 35-year-old English. “I could really enjoy it.”

Under Italian rules, a team can carry two foreigners on its roster. There are currently 28 Americans playing in Italy’s premier 16-team A-1 division and another 26 in A-2.

Aside from Ferry and Shaw, the top U.S. stars in A-1 include McAdoo, the 38-year-old former three-time NBA scoring champion who averages nearly 30 points per game for defending league champion Philips Milan; guard Micheal Ray Richardson, who was suspended from the NBA for drug use but has blossomed as an all-around player for Knorr Bologna; high-scoring forward Dan Caldwell of Viola Reggio Calabria; and Darwin Cook and Darren Daye of Scavolini Pesaro, the league’s best backcourt tandem.

Former NBA players Darryl Dawkins, Mike Mitchell, Rafael Addison, Terry Tyler and Jeff Lamp are among the American stars in A-2.

The U.S. invasion is not limited to Italy. Americans are playing in Spain, Israel, France, Portugal and Greece, although both the pay and the quality of play are inferior.

The 24-team Spanish league, which also has a limit of two foreigners per club, is generally considered the second best in Europe behind Italy. Its ranks include former NBA players Audie Norris and Paul Thompson of Barcelona, Rickey Brown of Caja de Ronda and Larry Micheaux of Taugres of Vitoria. Former NBA coach George Karl is coaching Real Madrid.

Basketball has threatened to bump soccer as the No. 1 sport in Israel, where Maccabi-Tel Aviv has been the leading team for two decades, winning two European championships. The heavy reliance on U.S. imports has led to scandals involving Americans getting quickie marriages or hasty conversions to Judaism.

In Rome, Ferry and Shaw became instant celebrities but they have not been able to turn Messaggero into the instant winner that many fans envisioned. After an opening game victory, the team lost four straight regular season contests.

While no one is yet questioning their talent, there have been rumblings in Italy that the 6-foot-10 Ferry is not getting enough rebounds and that Shaw doesn’t fit the playmaker role designed for him.

Both say they are still trying to adapt to the different style of play.

“We have to adjust to the rule changes, the different style of players,” Ferry said. “There’s not as much one-on-one play over here. The emphasis is more on passing. The Italians don’t have Michael Jordan types. But they’re very fundamentally sound. They’re very good shooters.”

Off the court, Ferry and Shaw are trying to learn Italian and cope with the death-defying Rome traffic.

“Language has been the biggest barrier,” Ferry said. “But I’m learning how to order dinner pretty quickly. I love pasta. I have it every meal. I had to slow down after the first two weeks. The people here eat so much, but they stay so thin. I can’t figure it out.”

How long Ferry and Shaw will remain in Italy is anybody’s guess. Ferry has a one-year contract with an option to extend, while Shaw has a two-year deal. Some expect Ferry to return to the NBA if he can get to the Washington Bullets, whose general manager is Danny’s father, Bob Ferry.

But the impact of their move to Italy could be long lasting.

“I think in the future with teams owned by big companies like Ferruzzi and making attractive offers, it will be acceptable for top players to come to Italy,” Ferry said. “We might have opened the door a little bit. It will take some more players to push it open completely.”

Not all Italian clubs, however, have the money that Messaggero has to spend.

“In one sense, the NBA can rest easy,” said Dan Peterson, an American who coached in Italy for 14 years and is now a popular sports broadcaster. “Not a lot of teams are going to compete for players like Ferry and Shaw. In the end, the NBA can’t lose. It’s still the best league with the most money.”

While Italy has raided the United States for talent, the NBA has lured top players from Europe, including two Soviets and three Yugoslavs who joined the league this year.

“I think we will see an increase of players going to different countries as the world of basketball gets smaller,” Stern said. “I don’t see it as a drain on one particular country. It will be good for international basketball. It reflects what is happening in all sports and all avenues of life.”

While Stern said the NBA has no current plans to put teams in Europe, the idea is gaining increasing support among people inside and outside the league.

“I think it would be terrific,” Nuggets’ coach Doug Moe said. “I think it’s probably inevitable.”

Coach John Thompson of Georgetown, who came to watch Messaggero’s first home game, is convinced.

“With Danny and Brian coming over here, the distance between the two continents is becoming closer,” he said. “I can see it (expansion) happening. All the signs are there. From college to the pro level, it’s something you can’t hold back. It’s inevitable, it’s going to happen. And anybody who’s anybody in this business owes it to themselves to come over here to find out what’s going on.”