"Oh, wow, Josh Childress jumped to Greece. That's wild. What a kooky thing to see. Man, what if this were to become a trend in a couple of years? How weird would that be? I mean, clearly it won't happen for a whi ... "Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
For those of you playing our home game, that brings the list of players to have signed or be considering a jump overseas to: Josh Childress, Primoz Brezec, Carlos Delfino, Jorge Garbajosa, Carl Landry, Delonte West, and Sasha Vujacic. That's in the last week. Now clearly, it's not like there's going to be a mass exodus, this is still the NBA. Plus, as Al Horford asked Team USA about today, none of the megastars are going anywhere. But whereas after the Childress signing we asked, "could this be a trend over the next few years?", we now have to ask, "Is this a trend that's taking place now?"
It's clear that free agents, especially restricted free agents, are evaluating their options, and coming to the conclusion that Europe offers them a lot more opportunities than the NBA under the current CBA. The question now becomes how does the NBA respond? Increased agreements with international leagues for great fluidity back and forth? Higher reliance on the pitifully resourced D-League? Or the customary Stern brand of ignoring the problem until it's on fire in your yard? Is this a problem? This is a situation that's evolving faster than we can understand it, at least from where we're at right now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-25-2008 @ 5:21AM
vince said...
add biedrins to the list. 10 mil a year for 3 years in russia!
Reply
7-26-2008 @ 6:49AM
Dr Know said...
Basketball is a world game. Eventually, there should be a tournment that includes all of the international champions from South America, Europe, Asia,and the NBA Champion(North American) . A True World Champion should be crowned. This could grow to be big like soccer. Money and interest would be unbelieviable
7-25-2008 @ 5:42AM
dave said...
This is good news. Foreign players can play in their own countries and the NBA can become all American again.
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7-29-2008 @ 5:21AM
hootie_69 said...
Xenophobia is awesome.
7-25-2008 @ 6:18AM
joe said...
US dollar is going down down down
Reply
7-25-2008 @ 11:11AM
Ryne Nelson said...
I don't think the NBA needs to respond at all. If players want to play overseas, let them! It's very difficult to change a collective bargaining agreement.
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7-25-2008 @ 12:17PM
Jams said...
There is only so much money in Europe, and it take awhile for buyer remorse to set in. This is a fad, nothing more, much like drafting mysterious Euro was a fad in the NBA a few years ago.
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7-25-2008 @ 2:22PM
Unknown said...
Sasha Kaun signed with CSKA Moscow prior to the draft.
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7-25-2008 @ 8:00PM
Kirk Kelley said...
KLAC radio just announced that Sasha has agreed to 3 year $15,000,000 deal.....good news ...Sasha's just gonna get better...
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7-26-2008 @ 7:22PM
KOBRFL said...
If they can't make in the NBA go for it, they will be wishing they were back in the States soon enough. I am sure playing a few years in another country would be a very good experience for most young men. However there will be only one NBA where the best athletes in the world compete. I will agree the NBA game has gone down along with the college game because the good player were skipping college or now only play one year. If they committed to 3 or 4 years they would get an education, life experience and develop into better ball players. The best player in the game played 3 years at NC and I am sure he would not have been as good a player if he played less there, he learned discipline and basic fundamentals. Oh I am speaking of MJ Michael Jordan of course.
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7-27-2008 @ 12:27PM
JR said...
Ah this is great. Europe is taking away players from here like America took away players from there over the years.
NBA players will see how competitive the Euro League really is. Especially punks from NCAA that are blowing up here, signing there and than fading away.
This can be good in a way. Maybe the NBA will start to find some hidden stars and basketball can be an exciting game again like it was in the 1980's early 90's.
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7-28-2008 @ 11:29AM
Michael gifford said...
this is great because:
A. will anyone really miss Sasha Vujacic?
B. eventually there will be no open slots in europe,so we don't have to worry about running out of NBA players
C. what might happen is that the league becomes a world league and then we might really have a "world champion" instead of arrogantly proclaiming the NBA winner is the "world champion"....play the world, and THEN claim the world...until then, we're the North American champion...
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8-03-2008 @ 11:56AM
TalkAboutSport said...
This would be devastating for the NBA. David Stern would go ballistic (which I would love). I'm assuming the NBA gets most of their revenue from the US as opposed to Europe. As long as no pivotal superstar goes to Europe to play, we should be fine. However, if there is one player i want to see gone its Sasha... most annoying player in the World.
VISIT MY BLOG AT: talkaboutsport.blogspot.com
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