{"id":47605,"date":"2025-08-06T10:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T10:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47605\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T10:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T10:34:07","slug":"derek-fisher-well-see-younger-players-from-the-nba-to-come-play-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47605\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Fisher: \u201cWe\u2019ll see younger players from the NBA to come play in Europe\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eurohoops team\/\u00a0info@eurohoops.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Former NBA champion as a player and current coach, Derek Fisher, met Eurohoops in Athens during the Trenchworks camp and talked about the European game, himself, the Lakers<\/a>, and of course, Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n

Having spent nearly two decades at the highest level, Fisher offered perspective on what separates the greats, how the basketball world is changing, and why Europe is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for NBA talent.<\/p>\n

What separates the great basketball players, according to Fisher, is their ability to fight through discomfort and adversity.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat players have been through so many hard things and they continue to find a way to just keep showing up every single day,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cPeople in the media or on social media might say negative things, people may question them or tell them they aren\u2019t good at certain things. But the great ones find a way to just keep showing up and doing the work. It sounds simple and kind of boring, but the great ones are able to master the boring stuff\u2014and that\u2019s why they\u2019re so great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his special relationship with Kobe Bryant, Fisher emphasized their shared mentality when it came to winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it was a secret as much as just\u2026 I think we shared a similar mentality around winning. And whatever it took\u2014time, effort, energy, work ethic, discipline\u2014I was willing to give. And I think Kobe was wired the same way,\u201d he explained. \u201cObviously, he was a much better basketball player than I was, but we had a similar mentality around what it took to win. That\u2019s why we fit together so well, and I\u2019m eternally grateful that I had the opportunity to be close to and be teammates with somebody so special.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The discussion then turned toward the growing trend of NBA players choosing to continue their careers overseas\u2014and why that trend might accelerate in the coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good question. I do think we\u2019ll see that happening more often in the future,\u201d Fisher noted. \u201cObviously, the NBA is considered the top basketball in the world. But as the game continues to grow globally, with world-class competition, investment from owners and sponsors, and great facilities, I think you\u2019re going to see more players at younger ages deciding to play in Europe or elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was surprised to learn that Kendrick Nunn had decided to continue his career in Europe, but ultimately wasn\u2019t shocked by the decision itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, I didn\u2019t know that he was continuing his career in Europe, so that\u2019s news to me. So I guess I\u2019m surprised\u2014but not surprised in the sense that if you love basketball, you\u2019re going to show up wherever they ask you to show up. If you can still provide for yourself and your family and enjoy a good life, why not? If you\u2019re a younger guy and not yet settled with kids in school and all that, I think you\u2019re going to see more and more guys start to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Fisher addressed the growing impatience in professional sports\u2014particularly when it comes to coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think teams have less patience. Players have less patience. Fans have less patience. It\u2019s the world we live in right now,\u201d he said. \u201cSocial media and digital media drive so much conversation and energy, which is great for basketball, but it can also be negative because it creates this feeling that something new has to happen right now\u2014we need to change coaches, we need to change players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he remains grateful for every opportunity the game gives.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, as a coach, you hope to get as much time as possible to create that championship culture. But coaching in professional sports is one of the rarest jobs in the world. Even if you only get to do it for 18 months, it\u2019s a blessing either way, and you have to still be thankful for it,\u201d Derek Fisher concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Eurohoops team\/\u00a0info@eurohoops.net Former NBA champion as a player and current coach, Derek Fisher, met Eurohoops in Athens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-47605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}