Zurab Talakvadze

Giorgi Tsintsadze is having a good season for TSU.

Superleague, the Georgian Basketball league is long under way this season and some things just never change. Mostly, our league slowly is becoming the league of foreigners, which is not good. In wake of Giorgi Shermadini’s retirement, less perspective comes from the domestic championships, while the help for National Team still comes mostly from the players that are salaried in other championships along the way.

For example, lets take a look at ten best scorers from this year’s Superleague. Only one Georgian in there. This privilege belongs to a member of Rustavi Guga Patashuri. A very good, respectable, 27 year-old forward, who averages 18.0 points per game. He even scored 30 points in his last outing and Guga is giving his team maximum profit. But the problem is, that the Top 10 mostly belongs to foreigners. We might never have heard about some prolific scorers in this list, but the fact is, that they are here, they score here, they earn (not the best salaries) here and they will happy to come back for one productive season in the Superleague.

And the truth is, we need more local talent to be among leaders, and thus, to lead by example. Some old stars like Akaki Dvalishvili (Batumi, 16.0 points, 8.8 rebounds) are still on a high note, but mostly, the league belongs to foreigners. Let’s say, you need a classic point guard. Most teams pay attention to Americans, who are more than happy to get those friendly contracts here and put another stellar statistical season in their perspective CVs to get another contract for the next season. Easy. Georgians are second tier players, who hardly get paid in a big way.

Same Dvalishvili is lone representative among Georgians in the MVP race. Dvalishvili occupies 9th place, while the rest of Top 10 is again filled with non-Georgians.

The most Georgian oriented team, with a successive play under the belt? TSU, where one of the best Georgian coaches of the past decade Lekso Lafanashvili is doing a great job again, is filled with all Georgian talent. An all time NT great, a local legend Giorgi Tsintsadze is still balling and doing a good job at point guard position, while current and former NT members Giorgi Turdziladze, Aleksandre Phevadze, Mikheil Berishvili and Beka Bekauri are filling in nicely.

But league belongs to foreigners.

A bad sign for the perspective of NT.

Somethings need to be changed.