By Bob Kravitz, The Indianapolis Star

TREVISO, Italy — They say Nickoloz Tskitishvili is Europe's next great player.

They say he is the next Pau Gasol, the next foreign basketball prodigy to set NBA scouts to salivating. His potential is so limitless, his skills so alluring, there is talk he could be a top 10 NBA pick next month despite the fact he almost never gets off the bench for his Italian League team, Benetton Treviso.

As he waited to take the court for a recent practice, though, Tskitishvili wasn't concerned with his draft prospects or the brave new world that could await the precocious 19-year-old, 7-footer from the tiny Republic of Georgia.

He wanted to know about America, a place he has only seen on television in his parents' home in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

Tskitishvili (pronounced Skits-iss-villee) has a limited English vocabulary, but his unquenchable curiosity translated readily.

"Tell me, what is America like?" he asked.

A visitor started to answer, and then there was another question. This was an interview, all right. Except the athlete was asking the reporter the questions.

"What do they eat there?"

He was told Americans eat Italian food, and Greek, and Mexican, that America is a melting pot of people and tastes.

Tskitishvili looked confused. "And what about hamburgers?" he wondered. "Lots of hamburgers, yes?"

Lots of hamburgers, he was told.

He smiled. "I cook a little," he said proudly. "Potatoes. Eggs. And I make very good hinkali (a Georgian dish of ground beef or pork and onions inside a shell of dough). You should try. Very good."

Come to America, he was told, and there will be an international exchange. He will eat a hamburger. An American will eat hinkali.

"Maybe I'll come soon to America," Tskitishvili said with a smile.

Maybe very soon.

Earlier this week, he was among a long list of underage college, high school and foreign players who made themselves eligible for this year's NBA draft. Like so many others, though, Tskitishvili is keeping his options open. If he gets some guarantee he will be a top 10 pick this year, he will come out. If he isn't sure, he will withdraw his name by the June 19 deadline and try again next summer when he is almost sure to be a top 10 pick.

For a raw, young talent viewed as Europe's next great import, it's just a matter of time.

Here, though, is the most remarkable part of the Tskitishvili story:

He almost never plays.

He is one of the hottest and most exciting young talents in the world, a kid with so much potential, there is talk the Phoenix Suns covet him with the ninth choice in this summer's draft. And yet he sits near the end of the Benetton Treviso bench.

Think that says something about the state of NBA drafting? Think that says something about the ascent of international players?

"He doesn't play because he came to us late (because of problems acquiring his rights) and our (Benetton) team was set up before he got here," said his coach Mike D'Antoni, a former NBA coach. "If he comes back, we'll build around him and he'll get 20-25 minutes a game."

Then D'Antoni smiled.

"I've got a clip of him at home I show people," he said. "He can do some things. He's a Gasol type with better outside shooting."

International scouting

So how do NBA people know about this kid with the Sidd Finch-ian aura? They watch him practice. For all the excitement that attended the recent Final Four in Bologna, Italy, one of the most important events for NBA people — and we're talking about general managers, not just European scouts — came during Benetton Treviso's practices.

What they saw was talent: raw, but tantalizing talent. He's 7 feet and still growing, but he's viewed as a forward, a player who can handle the ball on the perimeter, run the floor and shoot from the outside.

"I look up in the stands (during practice) and see (Houston head coach) Rudy Tomjanovich," Tskitishvili said excitedly. "I only see Tomjanovich on TV, but now I see him and meet him in life. It's so amazing."

Recent history tells NBA people they shouldn't get too caught up in playing time and the quality of competition. Dirk Nowitzki played in a midlevel European league before he was drafted by Dallas. Gasol was a middling, 12-point-per-game scorer in Europe before he took the NBA by storm.

"That's how the draft is now," said Indiana Pacers president Donnie Walsh. "It's a leap of faith. A lot of people think (Tskitishvili) has a great all-around game, but nobody has really seen him play against top competition for an extended period of time."

Walsh quickly added, though, that Jonathan Bender was the same kind of risk. Very young, very raw, very talented.

So, Walsh was asked, would he consider Tskitishvili at No. 14?

The Pacers president said he would, but quickly added it's unlikely the team will have that option. If Tskitishvili doesn't have an assurance he's going top 10, he's withdrawing his name from draft consideration.

That's not an easy call for a young man from his background — just as it's a tough call for so many young American players who come from poor circumstances.

Economic concerns

The Republic of Georgia, which is located on the Black Sea north of Turkey and south of Russia, once was a semi-prosperous part of the Soviet Union. It was a vacation spot and an area famed for its wine making. Independence, though, has not been kind. The economy is a shambles, unemployment is high, the infrastructure is crumbling and expatriates complain that power outages are the rule rather than the exception.

Tskitishvili knows the money he will make as a mid-first-round pick could change both his and his family's life immediately. But there are other considerations that make the top-10-or-bust approach more sensible.

He has a sizable buyout in his Italian League contract, and an NBA team can only pay $350,000 toward that buyout. The rest would come out of the player's first-year paycheck. If Tskitishvili went lower than 10th, he wouldn't have a whole lot of money left over.

A top 10 deal, though, gives him buyout money and plenty left over for hinkali and life's other pleasures.

In theory, he could take the money that comes with going at, say, No. 15, return to Treviso and change a lot of lives. The risk, though, comes if he develops into a star next season and sets himself up as a top 5-caliber player. Then he would be a top-5 talent making No. 15 money. That's a lot of cash in any country.

"I know God doesn't give you many chances," Tskitishvili said. "In my country, people have no money, only the Mafia has money. It is a risk if I wait because maybe I get injured or my play goes down, but I have to be smart."

But enough about basketball.

The next Pau Gasol asked a few more questions about America, then began practicing. At that moment, he seemed a million miles away from an NBA court. But a month from now, an NBA team might call his name out near the top of the draft list. And then he will be a very tall, very unlikely millionaire.

Buys a lot of hamburgers, doesn't it?