Le Basketbawl

The Euro-Leagues have always had the reputation as a step down from the NBA. One need look no further than Trajan Langdon winning the MVP of the Euro-League Final Four in May. I covered Trajan during his time in the NBA with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Langdon is a great guy, a very intelligent young man, but had no business being in the NBA. But he has gone over to Europe like countless other young men who could not make it in the Association, and has become a star.

The way we have always perceived the Euro-Leagues in the USA is a place to play for guys who weren’t quite good enough to make it in the NBA. Guys like Kobe Bryant’s dad “JellyBean” and New York Knicks new head coach Mike D’Antoni made a good living playing in Europe. But it was not where they really aspired to be, as I wrote at the top it was looked at as a step below the NBA.

But that may be about to change. During the last week we have seen some new wrinkles in the “Old World” League. The first sign that things were starting to change took place last week, and involved Brandon Jennings, a high school player who had committed to playing for Arizona in the upcoming season. Jennings announced that he had changed his mind, and decided to play professionally instead. Since he was too young to play in the Association due to David Stern’s policies he chose to go across the ocean to play.

Because of the rule that was put into the Collective Bargaining Agreement during the last contract, that raised the age to get into the Association, most players now go through the charade of playing one year in college before they jump to the NBA. But Jennings reportedly did not do well enough scholastically to qualify for college. He truly gets the best of both worlds this way, he still plays competitively and gets paid to do it. It will be interesting to see if this is an isolated incident, or if a new precedent is set. Will we start to see an exodus of American high school grads going to Europe, and eschew the NCAA? We will find out in the next few years.

The Euro-Leagues also signed five former NBA players since free agency began on July 1. Four of them are really not surprising signings because they are all European born. Bostjan Nachbar, Juan Carlos Navarro, Carlos Delfino, Primoz Brezec, all have signed deals with Euro-League teams, just as former Golden State Warriors, and Indiana Pacers guard Sarunas Jasikevicius, did last off-season. But the fifth player who signed earlier this week is an American born player who has had success in the NBA, former Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Childress. Childress signed a multi-year deal with Greek team Olympiakos that is reported to be a three year deal that is worth $21 million after taxes. For Childress it was an offer he could not refuse!

And there may be more former NBA players on the way! Reports out of Houston on Thursday said that Houston Rockets restricted free agent Carl Landry is checking out options in Europe. Remember the euro right now is worth a lot more than the American dollar, hence the players will make more money playing overseas than they could in the good old USA.

So after years of out-sourcing all sorts of jobs to foreign countries are we now outsourcing our Basketball stars? Will the rumors start flying that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are heading to Spain in 2010? NBA Commissioner David Stern has always wanted the NBA to have a global presence, but I don’t think having former NBA stars playing for Euro-League teams is what he had in mind.