Guy would rather play in Greece than the NBA

[Lugnuts]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/hawks/stories/2008/07/23/childress_hawks_greece.html

What does this say about the NBA?

 

[JC]

That someone in Greece was willing to pay more money.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

That someone in Greece was willing to pay more money.

More money, more playing time, all the Ouzo he can drink, proximity to the Greek Isles...

If players can get over being homesick, playing in Europe is a tremendous option. They usually pay for their housing, get them cars, you name it... They have virtually no expenses if they play over there...

 

[Dickens Cider]

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/58927/

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

That someone in Greece was willing to pay more money.

More money, more playing time, all the Ouzo he can drink, proximity to the Greek Isles...

If players can get over being homesick, playing in Europe is a tremendous option. They usually pay for their housing, get them cars, you name it... They have virtually no expenses if they play over there...

The season is somewhat less rigorous in terms of games per season, as well. Two dozen or so games in Euroleague (which is like soccer's Champions League), something like 30 in the Greek League's regular season, no more than 13 in the Greek playoffs and a handful in Greek Cup.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I covered a player who played a couple seasons in Europe who is in the NBA now and he told me stories about how the team flew his family over from the US a couple times a year and treated him like a king.

This was a guy who wasn't even taken in the draft and they were paying him $400K a year, they got him an apartment, a car, a full-time translator, flew him wherever he wanted to go, brought his family over when he wanted, you name it...

It doesn't sound like a bad life...

 

[poindexter]

Maybe the officiating in Greece is more on the up-and-up.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Maybe the officiating in Greece is more on the up-and-up.

I think the officiating in the WWE is more on the up-and-up. :D

 

[Captain_Kirk]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/hawks/stories/2008/07/23/childress_hawks_greece.html

What does this say about the NBA?

Says more about the buffoons and clowns who own the Hawks than it does about the NBA.

 

[Dyno]

At one point, the team also paid the agent fees, too. Not sure if that's still the case.

 

[Lugnuts]

Whoops - my bad! D_B

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Plus Greece is also home to the Blowjob Olympics (*see cross thread).

Can you blame him?

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Says salary caps don't work. No team was able to offer Childress as much as the Greek team because of the salary cap.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

There is one country where they would pay the taxes or did something strange that made them foreign players exempt from paying as much taxes as the others. It was explained to me once, but I'd be lying if I said I was paying close attention...

It might have been Turkey or Israel.

 

[JC]

Says salary caps don't work. No team was able to offer Childress as much as the Greek team because of the salary cap.

The Hawks could have. The Hawks could have also done a sign and trade.

 

[Lugnuts]

But they do still have to sign their other star, JC.

Hey look folks, the Hawks are getting better. They took the Celtics to 7, yes?

They drafted Childress supposedly in part because he was a "good citizen."

Well he's now a good citizen of Greece. Exactly the way it's not supposed to work.

 

[Pancamo]

Even if he is "good citizen" he is a role player who turned down $33 million. How is that an indicator of a bad system?

 

[mustangj17]

That someone in Greece was willing to pay more money.

More money, more playing time, all the Ouzo he can drink, proximity to the Greek Isles...

If players can get over being homesick, playing in Europe is a tremendous option. They usually pay for their housing, get them cars, you name it... They have virtually no expenses if they play over there...

There is no being homesick if you are making a lot of money, doing what you live and living in one of the coolest countries in the world. Also, in Greece you can a bottle of Heineken for $1 u.s. virtually anywhere.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Even if he is "good citizen" he is a role player who turned down $33 million. How is that an indicator of a bad system?

Never said it was a bad system.

Only one other team was even able to bid more than the midlevel exception on Childress. The market was restricted by the salary cap.

 

[Pancamo]

Even if he is "good citizen" he is a role player who turned down $33 million. How is that an indicator of a bad system?

Never said it was a bad system.

Only one other team was even able to bid more than the midlevel exception on Childress. The market was restricted by the salary cap.

Which is a good thing. Prevents teams from paying absurd salaries to non-starters. $33 million for 5 years for a guy who didn't start a game last year is a pretty good market.