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Hahn on Gallinari

by TKB Staff on July 23rd, 2008 at 3:42 pm

It appears that some were speculating the worst after Danilo Gallinari was unable to play more then one game last week in Vegas. Alan Hahn had this to report at his blog with respect to Gallinari:

Talked to a few people — scouts, an agent who has several European players and knows Gallinari well (but doesn’t represent him), a well-informed European reporter, a current Knick who is working out with Gallinari and a person deep within the Knick braintrust — and this is what I’ve come up with:

- Braintrust guy on the suggestion that the Knicks already know they won’t be able to count on Gallinari this season: “That is as far from the truth as you can get.”

- Agent (who usually have agendas because it’s not their player): “This kid’s got a chance to be special . . . What people don’t get with Danilo is he’s a good-looking kid and people think he’s a pretty boy. He’s a tough kid. He won’t back down.”

- Scout: “He’s 19 years old. What we’ve got to understand is this: if Derrick Rose was in Milan, he would have played half a game. These are men that they’re playing against. Danilo Gallinari was a leading scorer and he was doing that at 18 years old.”

- Reporter: “The assumption that Gallinari is injury prone is absurd, at least at this stage of his career.”

- Current Knick: “Great kid. Really works hard and can shoot the s–t out of it. Definitely a 3.”

This is the most polarizing Knick in quite some time. He has barely been on the team a month and you hear tons of speculation, criticism, and rumors. I really think we need to relax and give him a chance to develop. Sometimes New York fans can really bring out the worst in a player. I hope this is not the beginning of the constant harping on Gallinari. My advice is manage your expectations and enjoy watching this team grow and develop from the mess it has been.

Tommy Dee writes- The sentence in bold above gives us some validation, as our European scout shared the same thing, something those of us who’ve had friends enjoy long careers in Europe already knew:

Not too many people give the Eilte League in Europe enough respect.