{"id":77083,"date":"2024-05-12T02:42:18","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T06:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=77083"},"modified":"2024-05-12T02:42:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T06:42:18","slug":"paris-olympics-award-winning-guards-making-national-team-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/12\/paris-olympics-award-winning-guards-making-national-team-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics: Award-Winning Guards Making National Team Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Qualifying Tournaments for the 2024 Summer Olympics around the corner, multiple countries are looking to outsource talent<\/a>. Two, Poland and Puerto Rico, are making a serious push for an Olympic berth.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Brogdon<\/h3>\n

Malcolm Brogdon<\/a> has \u201capplied for Polish citizenship<\/a>, potentially being called up by Poland\u2019s national team in the near future,\u201d per Onet\u2019s Jakub Wojczy\u0144ski (h\/t EuroHoops). He\u2019s \u201calready sent papers to one of Poland\u2019s consulates in the United States, waiting for President Andrzej Duda\u2019s signature to confirm the procedures,\u201d Wojczy\u0144ski adds. In order for Poland to earn an Olympic berth, they\u2019ll have to gain entry through the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.<\/p>\n

Brogdon is African-American, not a Polish descendant. However, his wife \u201chas Polish roots, and [he] visited the country back in 2021 to train in different cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second-round pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, Brogdon won Rookie of the Year in 2017 while with the Milwaukee Bucks. He was named Sixth Man of the Year in 2023 in his sole season with the Boston Celtics. Because he isn\u2019t flashy, he isn\u2019t a household name. However, he\u2019s one of the more successful players in NBA history.<\/p>\n

Last season, he averaged 15.7 points, 5.5 assists, and 0.7 steals per game while shooting 39.1 percent from 3. If selected, Brogdon\u2019s basketball IQ, two-way playmaking, and outside efficiency will all benefit the Polish national team.<\/p>\n

Markus Howard<\/h3>\n

Markus Howard<\/a> is of Puerto Rican descent. His brother, Jordan, represented Puerto Rico in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.<\/p>\n

A former college standout, Howard went undrafted in 2020. He then signed a pair of two-way contracts with the Denver Nuggets that kept him in the NBA for two seasons. Unable to get much playing time because of his diminutive stature at 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, he moved on to the EuroLeague. Signing with Baskonia in 2022, Howard\u2019s quickly become one of Europe\u2019s best scorers.<\/p>\n

In 2023-24, Howard won the Alphonso Ford EuroLeague Top Scorer Trophy after averaging 19.5 points per game. He also set the EuroLeague\u2019s single-season scoring record with 759 points.<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico Basketball Federation president Yum Ramos spoke about FIBA approving Howard\u2019s sports citizenship change, saying: “After a long process, this is definitely great news and a significant contribution to our national team. We are talking about one of the best scorers in Europe” (per Basketnews).<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico national team Carlos Arroyo general manager also addressed Howard being granted citizenship.<\/p>\n

“We are very happy to welcome Markus to our national team,” Arroyo says. “Markus has become one of the best players in Europe.. It is a luxury to have him. His offensive level will raise the expectations of our team.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Qualifying Tournaments for the 2024 Summer Olympics around the corner, multiple countries are looking to outsource talent. Two, Poland and Puerto Rico, are making a serious push for an Olympic berth. Malcolm Brogdon Malcolm Brogdon has \u201capplied for Polish citizenship, potentially being called up by Poland\u2019s national team in the near future,\u201d per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":77119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1608,62,3],"tags":[1721,609,1486,1052],"class_list":["post-77083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olympics","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-euroleague","tag-malcolm-brogdon","tag-markus-howard","tag-olympics"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}