Developing a foreign accent
Malaga, Spain - Jacinto Castillo has traveled to many points on the globe in his job as the Milwaukee Bucks' director of European scouting.
He might be found in Belgium or Bulgaria, trying to track down a hidden basketball talent. Or he could be in Athens, as he was last weekend for the Euroleague Final Four and the Euroleague Basketball Nike International Junior Tournament.
Castillo is always content to return to his picturesque hometown of Malaga, located on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain.
"Every time I go to the World or European championships, it's the same thing," he said one day before leaving for Greece. "You have all day, and maybe you're just getting a hot dog in the gym.
"Sometimes you're watching boring games that don't mean so much for you, but you need to catch them. Sometimes the poor teams have a good player."
The life of a scout is not all glamour and intrigue. Castillo estimates that he watches 200 games live each year, and he watches at least 400 more on television or videotape. He deals with bad food, angry taxi drivers and falling-down arenas, all in the search for that next foreign star who could make it big in the National Basketball Association.
The Bucks selected 7-foot Australian center Andrew Bogut with the top overall pick in the 2005 draft, and Italian Andrea Bargnani was the No. 1 pick last year, selected by the Toronto Raptors.
Either Ohio State center Greg Oden or Texas forward Kevin Durant is expected to go No. 1 this summer, but the influence of foreign players is hardly diminishing.
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