Wednesday, June 25, 2008

"Their contracts are based on baskets."


Maybe you're a son of Brazil who can speak fluent Portugese. As a non-Brazilian, I have to make due with a Google translation of the linked article.

This is what comes out:

On the same day they released a list with 16 players to work towards the Beijing Olympics, the technician's selection of women's basketball, Paulo Bassul, commented about the cutting of Iziane wing, which had refused to come into court after have been replaced in the game against Belarus, valid by the Pre-Olympic World, in Spain.
"Iziane not have a title in its curriculum. Last year, I spoke with her and did a question: even when you vai remain basket of all the competitions that dispute, but without winning a title? The order of priority it is reversed, but Iziane verbaliza that. She says that their contracts are based on baskets, that clubs will look at who is the basket and does not want to know, because it is so, "says Bassul.


My translation:

"On the same day they released the list of 16 players going to the Beijing Olympics, Coach Paul Bassul commented on Iziane Castro Marques's refusal to come on to the court against Belarus in a pre-Olympic qualifying game against Belrus. "Iziane's never won a title. Last year, I asked her a question: "what good is it to score points if you don't have a title?" Her priorities are reversed, but Iziane told me so. She said that contracts are based on baskets, that clubs will look at points scored before titles earned," said Bassul.

Izi's stats?

6.9 PPG
1.5 RPG
1.0 APG
3.88 Efficiency (a linear weights type stat).

All I can say is that with points like that, I hope that Izi likes playing in the Cambodian Women's Basketball Association.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm a Brazilian reader and what I can tell about Iziane is that she is a cancer, a head case. Plain and simple.

Since her early pro days, she refuses to play team basketball, pass the ball, defend and run plays. As she stated in interviews following this embarrassing debacle, she thinks of herself as a "star". One that's too good to sit on the bench and only cares about scoring statistics. Her basketball beliefs are outdated and, as a pro, she behaves as a mercenary.

Paulo Bassul, the Brazilian National Team coach, is a very ethical man and a good coach. He's handled the situation very well and I think he's had enough of Iziane. Down here in Brazil, everyone is ashamed of her behavior. We don't want this kind of player representing our country.

Anonymous said...

kauhl, thanks for replying. I hope I got the translation of the article right.

My understanding is that Izi refused to play on the 21-and-under team in Brazil because she was playing for the WNBA. The more I read about Izi, the more I suspect that she's a "mercenary" kind of player -- "how much money can I make?"

Anonymous said...

You're welcome, pt.

You've got the translation right. This particular article is only a tiny sample of what Iziane's been saying and doing during her career. Her personal beliefs about basketball are truly distorted and egocentric. Shame on her. She could have been the next Janeth Arcain for us here.

But here's hoping the she somehow changes her mindset and doesn't disappoint the Atlanta Dream fan base.

Anonymous said...

If this is true, this is really good, if not really sad, information for us Dream fans. :(

I know I read somewhere a while back that Coach Meadors was concentrating on players with good personal reputations. Maybe she missed this one.

Can you tell us anything more about Erika DeSouza?

Anonymous said...

I can't say much about Erika's personality (she left Brazil to play abroad early, when she was 19). But she seems to be very focused and attached to her family.

I once read about her plans of building a sports training center for poor kids. Overall, she seems like a good character.

And I like her game. She's strong, she tries hard and really has rebounding skills. She's definitely the best Brazilian center right now.

Q McCall said...

Nice find.

That's unbelievable. She actually seemed like a valuable player for the Storm last year.

Were there any reports of this kind of behavior there?

Anonymous said...

Pet, can you post up on Rebkell and find out what Izi's rep was like for the Storm? (I'm not a member).

Anonymous said...

I´m another Brazilian reader.
Maybe her stats are no good currently, but she used to be a scoring machine in european leagues, playing for strong teams.
Even scoring a lot, she was not necessarily good for the teams. Like Bassul said, she always put herself ahead of the team, damaging other aspects of the game.
Like Kauhl said, she could a great Brazilian player, but she will never be because her personality is incompatible with basketball.
Érika is awesome. She´s strong, agile and, unline Iziane, do everything for her team.
Sorry about my bad english, but posting here is a great chance to practice, hehe.

Anonymous said...

It's very funny. I saw Erika DeSousa at the last Atlanta Dream game sitting on the bench. She was dressed in street clothes and she had a cast (a "moon boot") on her injured leg.

(I suspect the correct spelling of Erika's last name is "De Sousa", but I'm using the WNBA spelling.)

Trust us, we can't wait until she's ready to play again.

Don't worry about your English. Your English is a lot better than my Portugese. The only word I know is "Obrigado" and I don't think I'm spelling it right, either.

Rodrigo Afonso said...

The very correct spelling of her name is Érika de Souza.