Brazilian B-Boys

[by Gustavo CARDOSO] - Thaide , DJ Hum, and Nelson Triunfo are great names of São Paulo’s hip hop history, and idealists of the 80’s movement that took place on São Bento’s metro station, the growing ground of so many Brazillian b-boys.

I always thought of basketball as an element of hip hop culture, and with LUB , and LIBBRA, this has become stronger over the past few years, and hopefully will be able to deliver more talent to our courts.

I am ressurecting the b-boys term as B squads have been so in vogue for basketball National Teams worldwide. While in Europe many nations have used their A and B squads in different competitions, the story was not different in the Southern hemisphere. Argentina, and Brazil, gave priority to their Olympic missions (Argentineans focusing on Beijing, with the Brazilians a step behind, thinking about Athens), and went to Chile with their b-boys.

Besides a loss to Uruguay in the first round, Argentina had no major problems along the way, and finished, once again, as the top team in the continent, qualifying for the next edition of FIBA Américas.

Brazil also qualified, but left Chile with a bitter after taste. A tough game against Colômbia, a one point win over Chile, a team that seldom gets anyone in the hoops world in trouble, and a 34 point blow out by the Argentineans punctuated Brazil’s path throughout competition.

Our b-boys (NT B squad) got their ticket to FIBA Americas (the first step in trying to make it the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey), but played inconsistently, riding a rollercoaster.

William Drudi , a former Dimayor MVP and current asset of Franca Basquete, seemed to be comfortable in Chilean land, and was by far the best player on the team, averaging 16.8 points, and 7.8 rebounds. Caio Torres, a 21 year old prospect, is still a few steps away from becoming a good player, but among our b-boys was also a highlight, averaging 12.8 points, and 9.2 rebounds.

Arthur (10.8), Hélio (12.1), and Guilherme Teichman (3.5), the other “usual” members of Sampaio’s starting five, combined for a total of 26.2 points per game. Diego, Manteguinha, Fernando Coloneze, and Dedé Stefanelli were the ones that took the best advantage out of their opportunities, coming off the bench, and averaging over 5 points per game each.

NCAA experienced Hatila Passos, and Lucas Cipolini, were benched most of the time, and whenever in court, could not show much. Passos had 4 points, and 1 rebound per game, while Cipolini averaged 0.5 rebounds. The same happened with Spain experienced Luiz Gruber, who played in only 3 games for a combined total of 16 minutes.

Head coach Paulo Sampaio, and the famous Antônio Barbosa, a coach that at one point had a Fire George Karl type of blog (now Denver Stiffs) dedicated to his persona, got us all confused on who was who in leading the b-boys. Is he back?

Anyway, that is another story, and fourth place in South America is now what we, former FIBA champions, can call mission accomplished.

Go figure...