Hey what’s going on? Just sitting here after hearing Barack Obama give his acceptance speech for the Presidential nomination. Good stuff.
In try to not get political here but I will say this. The Republicans are going to have to do A LOT very, very soon to have a chance in this presidential election.
This post is going to be about the possibility of NBA players going to Europe to pursue their professional careers.
My thoughts on this have been inspired by three things and I will break down my theories based on these three.
-High school star Brandon Jennings decides to forgo college basketball to play for an Italian team. This was spurred by two things. First, the NBA now has an age limit on when players may enter the draft. Second, he struggled to meet the minimum academic requirements to get admitted to Arizona.
He decided to avoid the hassle of getting qualified and is going to Europe to play basketball. Some are looking at him as an innovator; some are looking at him negatively.
-Former Atlanta Hawks player Josh Childress decided to not sign with an NBA team and joined a team in Greece. I will always remember him as the idiot that former worst general manager in the NBA Billy Knight took instead of Andre Iguodola or Luol Deng. Never, ever become a Hawks fan kids.
-With the recent success of the USA Olympic team in Beijing, some are now speculating that current NBA superstars like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant will look to offers from European teams in the future.
Here’s how I look at each situation.
1) Jennings never wanted to go to college. He intended to stay at Arizona one season and then go to the NBA. Those types of athletes are usually negative towards the college game. Noticed that I didn’t say that he was a negative person. Jennings is a man and has the right to do whatever he wants and if he feels that the college system isn’t something he wants to be a part of, I’m fine with that.
It’s done in so many other sports like tennis, golf, soccer, auto racing, baseball, hockey, etc. There are teenagers and young adults becoming professional athletes from 16-20. College basketball and college football are trying to hold on to the current system because it makes money. Jennings wants to make money too. You can’t fault him for that.
Furthermore, the aspect of him improving his game in Europe is a yea and nay. He will get to play against professionals out there, which is good for development, but the European teams tend to not play players unless they can help the team win immediately. Jennings will have a hard time getting on the floor while he would have been an immediate starter in Arizona and played a full season. He will get paid a nice sum of change because the Euro is strong, which brings me to point #2.
2) Childress is just going for the money and prestige and you can’t hate on that either. The Euro is very strong right now and is actually worth more than the US Dollar. Therefore, when you look at the salary of Childress in Europe, some will say that he’s taking a pay cut, but when the conversion is done, he’s making a nice penny.
He would have been a marginal bench player for a contending team and maybe started for a crappy team like Memphis, Minnesota or Oklahoma City. He’s not that good of a player. He knows he can go to Greece and be a star and get his international profile up, which brings me to point #3.
3) Of course Kobe and Lebron will consider playing in Europe for several reasons.
First, let’s just look at the money factor. There is a set limit on the salary that each player can make in the NBA. Those limits don’t exist in Europe. Either one can receive an offer to make 40 or 50 million dollars a season to play, not to mention part ownership and percentage points for things like TV ratings, marketing deals and sponsorships.
Americans tend to look at sports from a narrow scope. We like to talk about how big the Super Bowl is. It’s a big event, but the Olympics, Soccer World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup and other events are much, much bigger.
There are still untapped sports markets for basketball in Africa, the Middle East, South America, Asia and even Australia. Playing in Europe makes the players more accessible to these markets and that means more exposure and money.
There is so much money out there to be made and Kobe and LeBron are smart enough to realize this.
Did you see how the rest of the world reacted when the USA men’s basketball team made appearances at the Olympics? Kobe was treated like a rock star. Even in the USA vs. China opening game, Kobe got louder cheers than Yao Ming and I saw Chinese people in Kobe's Lakers jerseys. You don’t think Kobe noticed this and took note.
Furthermore, Kobe does various camps throughout the world in the off season and has a major international profile. He also grew up in Italy and is familiar with the culture. He’s fluent in Italian and speaks other non-English languages well and will adjust well there.
Lebron is developing his profile as well. He’s been focused on making the Olympics his launching pad into the international scene. Why do you think he is the American athlete in that Coke commercial with Yao Ming that was played all throughout the Olympics?
I will say that each of them wants to make their mark in the NBA because that’s the league that everyone aspires to play in. Kobe wants to win some more titles with the Lakers and Lebron still has to win his first.
BTW, if they go to Europe, they won’t be forgotten.
I’m a huge fan of Arsenal, a football team that plays in the English Premier League. Yeah, I said football and not soccer! I can watch them play every single match live if I want to, like when they lose to crappy Fulham last week!!! They will finish fifth in the EPL this year, which is pathetic!
Anyway, I can get video highlights of all the games, receive statistics, see transactions online, order clothing and be a complete fan even though I’ve never been to England and never seen Arsenal play in person.
This is for English soccer in America. Imagine Kobe playing in a league in Italy. We would know all of the information like scores, how many points he had, we would even see highlights on ESPN.
Do I think that either one of them is going to Europe? I would lean towards no because the NBA means so much to them, but don’t dismiss the idea.
What do you readers think? Would you leave your home country to go somewhere else to make more money and increase your exposure and start a new, less challenging job?
I was going to post some more Talking Heads for you because playing their music has been my soundtrack this week and I have become a bigger fan of them.
However, since this post was about Europe, I have to represent for my fellow Frenchmen, Daft Punk. I love these guys so much. Here’s their return concert at Coachella from 2006. I recommend playing this completely while you work; it makes the time go by.
Have a good day or night or whenever you read this.
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