Word has come down today that the wealthy owner of the Greek basketball team Olympiacos, the same one who inked Josh Childress this summer and started a fire storm of controversy, wants to bring more of the premier round ballers to the Mediterranean.
The guy's name is Panayiotis Angelopoulos (and yes I did the old copy and paste with that name, no way was I gonna spell that sucker), and he plans to open an office in the NYC next year to more easily communicate with free agents.
The Childress signing, for those of you who don't remember, was for 20 million dollars over 3 years, which is a total amount that Childress likely could have approached in the NBA. The difference though, is that Childress will net 20 million in Greece, where as with a 20 million dollar contract in the NBA, after taxes, agent fees, and housing expenses, he would've been lucky to net 10 million. Plus, he will be a stud in Greece as one of the top players in the league, and for some players, that just may be enough.
It remains to be seen if this situation can repeat itself this coming summer with a more top level free agent. Angelopoulos claimed to have negotiated with several other players in the past few seasons, but the closest any of these players came to being a superstar was a somewhat washed up Chris Webber and Michael Finley, a nice enough player, but a role player at this stage of his career.
I do expect that we will see a few NBA-ers head abroad this coming summer, but I'd actually be surprised if any of them were even on Childress' level. I think we may see some guys who would be 8 or 9 players in the typical NBA squad's rotation head abroad for a 1 or 2 year deal where they can get playing time and more cash now that Childress has bridged the gap. Don't discount the fact, though, that Childress is a pretty unique player. He went to college at Stanford, meaning he certainly is no dummy, and as a more intelligent figure than most of the players in the NBA, he likely is better suited to functioning and adapting well over in Europe, especially in a country as different from the U.S. as Greece.
Of course, if Bron Bron really does come through on the statement he made this past summer about willing to play abroad a season or two for an absurd sum, then the whole balance of power in the NBA/ European Basketball dynamic will shift, and who knows what the end result of that could be.![]()
The guy's name is Panayiotis Angelopoulos (and yes I did the old copy and paste with that name, no way was I gonna spell that sucker), and he plans to open an office in the NYC next year to more easily communicate with free agents.
The Childress signing, for those of you who don't remember, was for 20 million dollars over 3 years, which is a total amount that Childress likely could have approached in the NBA. The difference though, is that Childress will net 20 million in Greece, where as with a 20 million dollar contract in the NBA, after taxes, agent fees, and housing expenses, he would've been lucky to net 10 million. Plus, he will be a stud in Greece as one of the top players in the league, and for some players, that just may be enough.
It remains to be seen if this situation can repeat itself this coming summer with a more top level free agent. Angelopoulos claimed to have negotiated with several other players in the past few seasons, but the closest any of these players came to being a superstar was a somewhat washed up Chris Webber and Michael Finley, a nice enough player, but a role player at this stage of his career.
I do expect that we will see a few NBA-ers head abroad this coming summer, but I'd actually be surprised if any of them were even on Childress' level. I think we may see some guys who would be 8 or 9 players in the typical NBA squad's rotation head abroad for a 1 or 2 year deal where they can get playing time and more cash now that Childress has bridged the gap. Don't discount the fact, though, that Childress is a pretty unique player. He went to college at Stanford, meaning he certainly is no dummy, and as a more intelligent figure than most of the players in the NBA, he likely is better suited to functioning and adapting well over in Europe, especially in a country as different from the U.S. as Greece.
Of course, if Bron Bron really does come through on the statement he made this past summer about willing to play abroad a season or two for an absurd sum, then the whole balance of power in the NBA/ European Basketball dynamic will shift, and who knows what the end result of that could be.
