NBA Euroleague

There were various reasons to believe Josh Childress might be spending only one season in Greece. The forward, who signed with Olympiakos last summer after reaching an impasse with the rights-holding Hawks, is a quality player who belongs in the best league in the world, the NBA. He reportedly got the yips when the Greek league championship game fell victim to an assault of explosives thrown by fans. And all told, he didn't really set Europe on fire as hoped.

So that Childress is back in America talking turkey is not a big surprise. But the particular team he will first visit with -- the Milwaukee Bucks -- registers as a stunner.

Despite Marcin Gortat's best efforts, magical Hedo Turkoglu has taken the 2009 free agency period by the sensitive bits. Five teams reportedly called Hedo's agent Lon Babby on Wednesday morning, inquiring about or begging for the Turk's services. The Blazers top the list, having dispatched coach Nate McMillan for a Wednesday evening rendezvous in Orlando. But don't count out the Raptors(!), who will reportedly offer Hedo $60 million over five years.

But it ain't all rose petals and champagne amid the Hedo saga. According to ESPN's Chris Sheridan, the Portland courtship of Turkoglu has left one Mr. Rudy Fernandez feeling a bit ... hurt. Hurt to the point he is allegedly attempting to quit the Blazers.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Toby Bailey was a huge star at UCLA, scoring 26 points as a freshman and leading the Bruins to the 1995 NCAA Championship. But after playing two years with the Suns, he headed to Spain where he later faced a young Ricky Rubio. In this FanHouse exclusive hear what Toby has to say about Ricky and why he calls him "The Truth." We Also hear from former UCLA Star Billy Knight who now stars overseas.

Check out the video after the jump.

As is well known, Ricky Rubio has an unwieldy buy-out clause in his contract with DKV Joventut -- something like $5 or 6 million. Under the collective bargaining agreement, teams are only allowed to contribute $500,000 to such buy-outs, leaving the player to handle the rest.

Rubio will be picked No. 2 at best, which allots a first-year salary of about $4.5 million. If the Spaniard has to pay the full buy-out with only the cursory allowable help from the team, he basically won't net a dollar in salary his rookie year, let alone the 300,000 Euros in Joventut salary he'd be forfeiting.

But beyond negotiation Rubio is hoping a judge -- or at least the threat of litigation -- will decrease the financial burden of beginning his NBA career.

All rumors involving the Spurs are interesting, and not just because of the team's status as one of the league's best year after year (after year after year). San Antonio does things differently, and ape as other franchises might try, no one can quite replicate the funky method to the Buford/Popovich madness. Even if a rumor susses out false, the anatomy and evolution of said rumor deserves attention. Every bit of understanding helps.

As such, the burgeoning rumor placing Olympiakos center Yiannis Bouroussis in a Spurs uniform for three years, $10-12 million, as reported by 48 Minutes of Hell and backed up by Greek sources ... that makes you pay attention. S.A. is always always looking for an appropriate running mate for Tim Duncan, and anyone who follows European basketball knows Bouroussis' reputation as a bad-ass bruiser. It seems like a match made in Heaven.

As you've heard by now (if you're a fan of one of the crummy teams in the league), Spanish wunderkind Ricky Rubio's camp has put out there that he doesn't want to play in Memphis or Oklahoma City ... the two teams which happen to be selecting No. 2 and No. 3.

No one can really ascertain why, say, Sacramento would be better for Ricky than OKC. I mean, Sacramento is the worst team in the league, and it (um) has its detractors as a mecca of enjoyment among the NBA ranks. But whatever. Rarely do Kings fans have someone holding out on their behalf.

Regardless, does this threat mean anything? Can Rubio and his infamous agent Dan Fegan -- you know him for such hits as Yi Jianlian's La-Z-Boy Workouts, Anderson Varejao's Hold-out and Al Harrington's Trade Demands -- actually dictate his draft selection?

So the two preeminent Greek basketball clubs, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, got together for the opener of the best-of-five league finals in Athens. Visiting Panathinaikos took a 60-58 lead with two minutes left. The Olympiakos fans reacted, um, poorly. Here's video of the incident from Ball in Europe. (And yes, that's a lit flare thrown at the Panathinkaikos bench.)

Pete Thamel of the New York Times moved ahead with the intriguing Jeremy Tyler story, investigating the European recruitment process for the amateur star who will skip his senior year of high school to spend two years playing professionally aboard before entering the 2011 NBA draft.

Tyler advisor Sonny Vaccaro -- the man behind Brandon Jennings' Italian foray and a former high-powered sneaker exec -- is attempting to place the prospect with Olympiacos or Panathinaikos. Those squads happen to be among the best in all of Europe. And that poses a problem, according to draft expert Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com.

My keyboard doesn't have enough exclamation points for that headline, folks. The 2009 NBA Draft got more dreamy intriguing at the top, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com reports Ricky Rubio has filed paperwork to enter this season. Rubio's American agent, Dan Fegan, has insisted to Ford that Rubio will remain in, though he has the option to withdraw before June 15, 10 days before the draft takes place.

For fans thirsting for top-flight talent alongside Blake Griffin, Rubio is a welcome sight. For stateside fans of Rubio himself, it's a reason to party.

The news du jour regarding Spanish heartthrob point guard Ricky Rubio has his European agent telling reporters the kid will skip the 2009 NBA Draft in favor of at least another season in the Old World. Ryne Nelson of SLAM! ably translates the Marca piece which had obsessive stateside fans (guilty) fretting a bit Tuesday.

Basically, the argument of the agent (Germán González) centers on whether Rubio will get enough playing time in the NBA to suit his needs/desires. That's the public argument. Think about it, though. González represents Rubio (and his family, which is very involved) in European contract matters, for the player's European club career. If Rubio enters the NBA draft in '09, guess who is most negatively impacted? González. (And Joventut fans, I suppose.)

Dan Fegan is Rubio's U.S. agent. When Rubio gets drafted -- in 2009, in 2010 -- Fegan gets the commission. If Rubio's projected in the top five (more than $12 million guaranteed over four year) this season, will Fegan risk it by pushing Rubio back to the ACB? ESPN's Chad Ford knows Fegan and his style well ... and Ford said as recently as Tuesday that he believes Rubio will end up in the '09 draft.

Of course, don't take Ford's word at face: he has an interest, I assume, in making the draft class as interesting as possible. Don't take my word: my favorite team blows and needs a point guard, and I have a Rubio poster inside my locker.* Basically, don't believe anyone who talks about Rubio's draft status right now. Everyone's got motives of their own, and this kid comes with big stakes for all. Unfortunately, patience is required.

* Not true. The poster hangs over my bed.