Nicolas Batum bridges the gaps between eras, countries

The City of Lisieux, in the Normandy region of northwestern France, is an area adrift in time, paying tribute to the past while providing hope for the future. Decades removed from the horrors of war, Lisieux has been rebuilt to recapture, if not surpass, some of its former glory. Out of the countless piles of rubble and ash, picturesque shops adorned like cottages flourish along city streets. Pilgrims come here to visit the Basilica of Sainte-Thérèse, its tall spires extending into the darkened horizon far above Lisieux’s lush, rolling hills.

It’s particularly quiet during the hours just before dawn, where a boy worships at an altar unlike any other. Not quite a church, the scene on television instead demonstrates the true spirit of the word, a community of thousands gathering to cheer for the miraculous.

The boy watches the sport he knows best, the one his own father played professionally. Richard Batum, a man seemingly in perfect health, collapsed at the free throw line from a ruptured aneurysm. His son, Nicolas, was in the stands when it happened. He was only two years old.

Nicolas is older as he watches on television, awestruck, as these players, these American gods, perform at unfathomable levels before the United Center crowd. Stained glass has been replaced by clear backboards, wooden pews exchanged for crammed, plastic seats, but something special is happening on the court and Nicolas knows it. With each impossibly acrobatic shot, he connects with the father he barely had time to know. With each soaring, tongue-wagging leap, he’s brought one step closer to the divine.

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There’s been an evolution among European-born NBA players, even if that has gone largely unnoticed. The first of these were known best for their offensive skills, gifted scorers who were brilliant in that one regard but considered lacking in others. Moreover, there was the widespread opinion that they were somehow soft, unwilling or unable to match the level of physicality more commonly associated with American-born players.

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That limited perspective has expanded in recent years and Nicolas Batum is a perfect representative of that. The Charlotte Hornets wing, now 28, is best known for his versatility, a skill in its own right that is perhaps the most valuable commodity in today’s league. “His strength is that he does everything,” said Hornets head coach Steve Clifford before a game in late December. Speaking to The Step Back, Clifford effusively praised Batum, saying, “He’s a very, very unique player. He rebounds, he moves the ball, he’s a terrific passer, and you can play through him because he can score and create opportunities for his teammates. He really has taken it to another level.”

Batum, now in his second season in Charlotte, has become an essential part of the team’s current and future success. The Hornets are an inconsistent group, showing brilliant potential one night and seeming very flawed the next. An 8-3 start had many believing this team might be a legitimate challenge to Cleveland’s stranglehold on the East; they then went on a four-game losing streak that has dashed many of those, perhaps hasty, notions.

There have been positives, however. Guard Kemba Walker continues to grow as a scorer. Clifford shapes an identity that seems to be constantly adapting. The team’s reserves have been more productive than expected and the team has managed, for now, to cling to a fourth-place standing in the Eastern Conference. All the while, Batum just continues to do whatever is needed.

At 6-foot-8, Batum somehow leads the team in rebounding. He’s second in scoring and steals (Walker leads both these categories) but he’s Charlotte’s best passer, averaging nearly six assists per game. This is the kind of production the Hornets’ front office hoped for when they re-signed Batum this past summer to a five-year deal worth $120 million. But it was hardly expected of Batum in 2008, when he was drafted 25th overall by Houston and immediately included as a small part of a three-team trade later that day.

In the two decades prior to Batum’s selection, European players had run the gamut from limited shooters to future hall-of-famers. But there had been more than the occasional risk taken on players that were at best one dimensional and, at worst, considered charming oddities, exposing prejudices that were far more appalling than a woeful stat line. Even the best of them — players like league-MVP Dirk Nowitzki and multiple title-winner Pau Gasol — were viewed through a myopic lens. Any accomplishments were accepted with the ultimate caveat of having been born outside the continental United States.

Early projections of Batum were that he’d be a strong defender, maybe even the “3-and-D” wing player that fills a valuable-yet-complementary role. In sharp contrast to the most well-known European players of other eras, Batum had all the physical tools…the height, length and athleticism that seemed on par with the best the US had to offer. But he was also considered a spotty shooter, lacking aggressiveness and an unwillingness to establish himself as a dominant scoring option. The term “soft” was predictably thrown in for good measure.

As Clifford pointed out during his recognition of Batum’s incredible efforts, he had scored 20 or more points in a recent stretch of six-out-of-seven games.

When asked why he stood out among other European players, Batum deflected the question and instead pointed out out how, as a group, they had achieved steady growth over the years. The reason, according to Batum, seems obvious. “Our goal is more to get to the NBA. 20 years ago it was different. I don’t think that 20, 30 years ago — I mean, we had some amazing players back then — but I don’t think our goals were to get to the NBA because the league wasn’t open at that moment. The league’s changed. It’s more open to the world so when you start basketball right now, you know you got a chance to make it to the league.”

You need not look further than Batum’s teammates on the French National Team who, as he points out, is composed mostly of NBA players. Playing for France is very much a source of pride for Batum and his teammates but it undoubtedly helps raise the bar for other Europeans who have hopes of someday joining the league.

Players like Nowitzki, Gasol (both Pau and younger brother Marc) and others have inspired a whole new generation of players, just as they were inspired by the NBA players of an older era. Perhaps Batum’s versatility can be traced back to a player he long admired as a youth, Scottie Pippen, who was enshrined in the Basketball Hall-of-Fame in 2010.

Pippen’s success in the league has been scrutinized over the years with some dismissing it completely as a byproduct of playing alongside Michael Jordan, whose legend seems more untouchable with each passing day and angry loyalist tweet. The debate is an interesting one, although it can quickly devolve given time: Did Jordan carry Pippen or did the former need the latter in order to win the six titles they shared? Pippen’s numbers were far less gaudy than Jordan’s (who coincidentally owns the team Batum plays for), but his do-it-all impact was significant in its own way.

When asked if his own versatile style if molded as an homage to Pippen, Batum’s eyes widened, for an instant reduced to child-like admiration, “I try! But he’s an all-time great.”

The exchange of skills was decidedly one-way years ago but the has become far more reciprocal in recent seasons. While American greats like Jordan, Pippen and others were once an inspiration, those lessons have been imparted, assimilated and are now on display with a decidedly European flair. That versatility is found in players like Batum and countryman Boris Diaw, Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia), New York’s Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia) and countless others.

Batum believes the stereotyping of European players as soft is a way of the past. “I think it’s changed,” he said. “A guy like Dirk named MVP, Finals MVP…Tony [Parker] named Finals MVP. Pau Gasol going to be a hall-of-famer…all those guys, I mean…guys really make a statement for non-American players.”

There’s an earnest delivery of these responses and one gets the sense that Batum is acutely aware of the impact he and other European-born players have and will continue to make. In describing Pippen, however, there’s a descriptor that particularly stands out. “M.J. [Jordan] was everyone’s favorite player,” he said wistfully, “but I loved the way Scottie was playing. He moved and was more human.”

In emulating Pippen over Jordan, Batum has put a premium on utility over production. Those early draft projections never had him leading the league in scoring but they likely never expected him to become the indispensable, all-around contributor that he is. Batum has managed to shed the archaic labels of the past and become a role model, maybe even an inspiration.

Most certainly he is a bridge, one that connects countries, styles, even his own past and present. Whether in a crowded arena, on a cracked blacktop or among the verdant pastures of Lisieux, the game is what matters most, bringing us closer to the divine, perhaps, but reminding us, always, that we all share what makes us, simply and wonderfully, more human.