Before last Friday’s game against the Miami Heat, Lucas Nogueira held court with some reporters (and me) to discuss international basketball. Bebe was certain that Brazil had the third most players in the NBA — after America and Canada — but some among us were certain it was France. There was a debate, one in which Nogueira rhymed off a bunch of names identifying who was in and out of the league right now, but I’m not quite sure we got to a definitive answer.
Bebe was obviously proud of Brazil for having made such an impact on the NBA — he cited Anderson Varejao as the country’s most popular player — but he also provided some insight into the machinations of basketball politics in his home country.