Garcia Versus Garcia

Alex Garcia has never been the man in the spotlight, especially after his buddies Anderson Varejão, Nenê, and Leandrinho Barbosa went to the NBA, signed multi-million dollar deals, and became world stars. His short stints with the Spurs and the Hornets, consequences of an NBA career filled with injuries didn’t help much, but one can’t disagree that the power guard is one of the most passionate players in the Brazilian national team.

Pirituba: Home of Talent

Arturo Barbosa, Leandro Barbosa’s older brother, told me that if I wanted to find basketball in Pirituba, where he and his brother spent most of their childhood, I should look no further than Professor Carlão’s basketball practices. That’s where he, as a youngster, started playing and collecting information on the sport’s basics and fundamentals. Knowledge [...]

Reminiscing: Brazil 120, USA 115

Exactly 20 years ago in Indianapolis the Brazilian National team beat the USA squad by the score of 120 to 115 in the finals of the Pan American Games. As normal as this might sound today, the fact that an American squad was beaten by a foreign team in 1987 was by no means an [...]

FIBA U19 WC: A Quick Look At The Preliminary Round

The FIBA U19 WC preliminary round ended last Saturday, and as everyone expected, teams like France, Spain, and the United States dominated the field winning all of its games. The Eighth Finals round starts today with 12 teams battling for 8 spots in the quarter finals and upcoming stars such as Andrew Ogilvy, Michael Beasley, [...]

FIBA U19 WC: The last chance to joke around

This past Thursday night I headed towards Club Athletic Paulistano’s gym to watch the Brazilian U19 squad scrimmage against the Brazilian Pan American Games team in what was their last chance to have a friendly atmosphere on court. After a strong first quarter by the U19 squad (17-15), the more intense and calculated rhythm of [...]

From Venezuela to Colorado Springs

The Brazilian U17 boys didn’t do well on the U17 South American Championships at Guanara Portuguesa, Venezuela, last week. After one month of practice in Londrina and São Paulo, the squad coached by Saviani and assisted by Cadum, a former Nat’l Team forward, succumbed in the semis to the Argentineans.
So far so good. It [...]

Frequent Flyer Miles and the U17

Too bad my frequent flyer miles don’t count towards trips to Venezuela. That’s because the major airlines in Brazil either don’t fly over there, or have abolished a system that in general benefited only ‘airport’ businessmen, people who wouldn’t care a bit about what will happen this week at Guanare Portuguesa, a city in central [...]

New Expeditions, New Opportunities

The Spaniards and the Portuguese were without a doubt the most adventurous sea explorers back in the XVI century, sailing on their vessels across the Atlantic to the unknown lands of America with little or no information on what laid ahead of them. Unfortunately (or fortunately some might say), at that time, shipwrecks were very [...]

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