From Russia to Israel: Meet the Nets' new international draft class

Winnipeg Free Press

5 days ago

NEW YORK (AP) — The wall across from the elevator leading to the Brooklyn Nets' practice court features a map of the world, where the home countries of their players and executives are noted.
Whoever has to update it had plenty of work after the NBA draft.
The Nets had five first-round picks and they scoured the globe to find the players for them. There's a Russian who played professionally in Spain before heading to college in Utah. Guards from France and Israel. Two players who represented Israeli national teams.
'To be honest, it's fantastic the way it just worked out,' said Sean Marks, the team's general manager, who is from New Zealand.
'I mean, if you think about it, the game of basketball is such a worldly game, played all over the globe. You've heard about how the rest of the world is catching up to one of America's games. I won't comment on that. What I will say is there's talent everywhere and that's our job, is to bring in the best talent regardless of race, ethnicity and so forth.'
The new players were introduced Tuesday at the Nets' practice facility. The class includes No. 8 pick Egor Demin, a Russian guard who spent a season at BYU; No. 19 Nolan Traore of France; No. 26 Ben Saraf from Israel; No. 27 Danny Wolf from Michigan and No. 22 Drake Powell from North Carolina, whose rights Brooklyn acquired from Atlanta in a trade that still must be completed.
Some of them knew each other long before they sat at the same long podium along with Marks and coach Jordi Fernandez — who is from Spain and coached Canada's Olympic team.
Saraf and Wolf had practiced together before playing for Israeli teams. Demin, who spent time with Real Madrid's second team before college, knew all about Traore after he poured in 45 points against Barcelona in the semifinals of an under-18 tournament before Demin led his squad to victory in the championship game.
'That was really scary for us to get to this game knowing who he is,' Demin said.
Now the Nets will see what they can all do together, though it might not look pretty with so many young players coming to a team that went 26-56 last season. Marks said the only expectation will be that the players go out and compete.
'There is a learning curve for sure, there's no question in that,' Marks said. 'You're looking at four 19-year-olds up here, so I have two boys myself older than them. So that just puts it in perspective, like just how young this group is and to me that's exciting. When you see the continuity we can have with this group and how they can build and how they can flourish over the next three, four, five years, it's going to be exciting.'
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York's five boroughs and by itself would be one of the five biggest cities in the U.S. It features large Jewish and Russian communities, so Saraf, Wolf and Demin quickly could become fan favorites.
'It was amazing. Got a lot of messages and a lot of love from the Jewish community here,' Saraf said. 'So it's going to be really exciting and I appreciate all the love I'm getting like in the streets and from the fans.'
Wolf felt some of the same love with one of the loudest cheers of draft night in Barclays Center, the Nets' home arena, when his selection was announced.
He credits his time playing for Israel in the under-20 European championships for a big jump in his game that made him a viable NBA prospect. The big man spent his first two seasons at Yale, not playing much the first one, then finished strong at Michigan after transferring.
'I think my basketball journey's definitely been up and down,' Wolf said. 'It took definitely a few different steps to get where I am today.'
He, Powell and eventually Demin, while playing on NCAA Tournament teams, were somewhat easy to find. It took a little more work for Traore and Saraf, so Marks credited the Nets' scouting staff for identifying them.
'Basically they tell me where to go and that's where I go,' Marks said.
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