We're teaching kids at third grade the Euro step.
In the recent preseason, several Nets practiced the Euro step in their layup line.
The Lithuanian Sarunas Marciulionis is credited with bringing the Euro step to the N.B.A.
He began teaching the Euro step about three years ago and, like Thorpe, sees it as emblematic of a style of basketball that is more nuanced and driven by technique.
The N.B.A.'s quickest and most efficient players, American-born stars like Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo, now use the Euro step to get to the rim.
Thorpe teaches a variation of the Euro step in which he instructs players to decelerate as they start the move to get a defender more off balance.
Players in the N.B.A. now often showcase the Euro step, a move in which a player drives past a defender by stepping one way and then quickly taking a big lateral step in the other direction.
(a) Recommended physical activities include yoga, swimming, and running, but the Author will timidly settle on strolling, table tennis, and lunchtime pickup basketball, wherein the Author will arrive too late to warm up and will suffer a minor tear of the soleus while attempting an imprecise Euro step, rendering void all further plans for improved fitness.
But the Euro step is not the only import that has taken hold in the N.B.A. Argentina's Luis Scola, of the Houston Rockets, uses a whole series of pump fakes to throw off a defender before scooping the ball into the basket.
Cousins isn't a "throwback" player in any sense; as odd as it sounds, Cousins is closer to being a 7-foot Manu Ginobili than an iteration of the Tim Duncan archetype, a telling demonstration of which came when Cousins burned Hornets center Chris Kaman with a Euro step en route to the rim on Monday night.
To some observers, the Euro step helps underscore the difference between the way players develop in the United States, where the emphasis has traditionally been on athleticism, and the way they develop in Europe, where young players tend to spend hours on skill development.
