San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich praised Minnesota Timberwolves’ rookie guard Rick Rubio’s rapid adjustment to NBA and American culture while criticising American arrogance and illiberalness.

Nba News / NationalTurk – Ricky Rubio’s fourth-quarter poise gets noticed, his strong fourth quarters already are becoming a hot topic as the Spaniard rookie raises his level particularly late in recent games.

Still people keep talking about whether Ricky Rubio should be starting games for the Timberwolves. But there isn’t much disagreement as to how he is finishing them.

Gregg Popovich on international players in Nba and American Culture

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich talked at some length about his impressions of Ricky Rubio and touched upon a topic far from the Spaniard’s achievements on the court. Popovich is well-known for his trust in European players or any players who learned the fundamentals of the game while playing in Europe at a different level than NBA.

Asked about Ricky Rubio, and particularly how difficult it would be for him to adjust to American culture, Gregg Popovich’s response was classic:

“These guys, they travel around the world,” Popovich said of international players such as Rick Rubio and manu Ginobili. “They’re more cultured than we are. Everyone acts like Americans are the ones … we have sort of an arrogance about us. Like we’re the cultured ones? Are you serious?

”Have you watched TV lately? Have you seen what Americans do? How many languages do you speak? And you wonder how they’re going to adjust to our culture? I hope they avoid it and keep their own!”

Popovich is spot on. Collectively Americans are regarded [by many nations] as the most arrogant and ignorant bunch on the planet but ironically these nations are exposed to 100% of the American pop culture.

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