Checking in with the Sixers: Europe Edition

By Kevin Fischer

As part of the Philadelphia 76ers draft preparation Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations / Assistant General Manager Tony DiLeo and Director of Player Personnel Courtney Witte traveled to Europe for six days (May 16-22) to scout some international prospects.

Upon his return to the States, Witte took some time to fill in sixers.com on the details of the trip.

May 17: DiLeo and Witte departed Philadelphia on the evening of May 16 and arrived in Madrid, Spain early on May 17, where they met up with Danko Cvjeticanin, the 76ers European Scouting Coordinator. The first stop on their basketball tour of Europe was to watch the start of the ACB League Quarterfinals to watch Valencia play Real Madrid.

“The ACB is the top Spanish league,” Witte explained. “Each country has different levels of leagues. ACB is the top level in Spain and regarded as probably the top level in all of Europe. That is not to be confused with the Euroleague, where you have to qualify each year by finishing in the top of the respective domestic league. The Euroleague is the top international league of all the European countries. As far as the domestic leagues go, ACB is regarded as the top [level] of all the domestic leagues.”

May 18: After catching the Valencia-Real Madrid game, Witte, DiLeo and Cvjeticanin caught some much needed rest after a long day of travel. The next day, the three would catch an early flight to Victoria, Spain for the Tau Ceramica-Unicaja game. In addition to draft prospect Tiago Splitter, Witte and company were able to see another familiar face as former 76ers guard Pepe Sanchez stars for the Uni Caja team.

“The benefit of going to watch the ACB quarterfinals is that in a short period of time we were able to watch a number of quality players and quality games. We can watch a number of draft prospects as well as possible free agents.

“Over the years basketball internationally has absolutely improved,” Witte continued. “It’s reflective by the popularity of basketball globally. Basketball has become a global game. There are so many young kids playing. Obviously, soccer is a worldwide sport that has had a lot of popularity for a long time, but basketball is really a fast-growing sport abroad on all the continents. It’s really exciting to go over and see kids all over playing basketball, on outdoor courts and in alleyways.”

May 19::Witte and company departed Victoria in the morning. Twelve hours later they arrived in Zagreb, Coratia - Cvjeticanin’s hometown - via Frankfurt, Germany. They arrived just in time to drop their bags off at the hotel and head to yet another game. This time to see KK Zagreb host Borik Puntamika.

Cvjeticanin has been with the Sixers organization for nine years as the team’s European Scouting Coordinator and is in constant communication with the Sixers basketball operations staff. A former member of two Olympic teams (1988 Yugoslavia & 1992 Croatia) - teams that included Drazen Petrovic, Dino Radja and Toni Kukoc - Cvjeticanin also played professionally in Spain.

“[Danko] was a very good player on a very good national team,” Witte explained. “What is unique about Danko is that he has a very good network of friends, former players, coaches, former and current GMs throughout Europe that can very helpful. On top of that, he knows the game very well and he speaks a number of languages. When I travel with him he is extremely helpful with the language barrier and has a great knowledge of so many different countries and leagues.

“Between Danko and Tony [DiLeo] who coached for more than 12 years in Europe, we have a pretty good network of coaches, players and general managers that all factor in to help get us a better knowledge of particular players.”

May 20: Back to square one: Witte, DiLeo and Cvjecticanin woke up at the crack of dawn to begin their trek back to Spain. The three would depart Zagreb, Croatia and head to Barcelona, Spain via Munich, Germany. Upon their arrival in Barcelona, a car service picked them up in the hopes that they would arrive in Girona (approximately 120 km) early enough to catch the Girona-F.C. Barcelona game.

“We asked the driver to get us there as fast as he could, which he definitely did,” Witte said. “We arrived at the arena right before tip-off. Fortunately, Danko was able to talk to some people he knew that allowed us to bring our luggage into the arena so we didn’t miss any of the game”

After the game, the three returned to Barcelona where they would spend the night before catching a flight the next morning to return home.

May 21: DiLeo and Witte arrived back in the states early on May 22, while Cvjecticanin returned to Zagreb. This will not be the last time that Witte and Cvjeticanin will connect in Europe this off-season. Witte will be returning on June 8, for the Euro-Camp, the European version of the NBA’s Orlando Pre-Draft Camp.

The development of basketball internationally has impacted all NBA teams draft preparation. With four picks in the upcoming Draft (three first-round / one second-round), the Sixers are making sure to do thorough evaluations of all the prospects, including international players.

“Ten years ago, most clubs made phone calls and that was it. Now in this day and age with technology as it is, we are able to get most games on video. The leagues don’t have the national TV contracts like the NBA does, but it has evolved so much in the past few years and has gone well beyond just calling coaches that you know.

“The level of play, the dedication to the game, the teaching of the game, the commitment made by the players, especially in Europe, has grown tremendously. [In Europe] It’s a different system with different rules. For example, they have unlimited time to practice unlike the United States. You can clearly see the benefits of all the time and the hard work. It’s paying off and you can see that in the results.”

Next week log on to sixers.com for daily updates from the NBA Pre-Draft Camp in Orlando.