Josh Childress to Greece? Has offer for 3 years, $20 million

[Chicago76]

This isn't new. My Pacers have had two different players leave the league for Europe in recent years: Zan Tabak and Saras. If you're a marginal/decent NBA player, you can make more money in Europe because you're projected to be a star there. Guys who come over here from the euroleague often take pay cuts. What they're hoping for Pau Gasol type of cotnract after their rookie/first one expires. Either that or they simply want to test themselves against the best competition possible.

Of course, this is top-40 player compensation for Europe, so how many guys can actually leave and get this kind of cash?

The strength of the euro certainly helps these clubs pay for guys right now as well. I'd be interested in knowing the full details of his contract. In Europe, it's generally announced net of taxes, so a guy announced at $4 million per year is really getting the equivalent of $7 million to $8 million. I have a feeling his terms have been grossed up to the pre-tax amount.

[SilentObserver]

Sooner or later a star player will take a deal overseas and change the whole climate of professional basetballs.

Stephon Marbury

[dab0yech0]

lol, tampering charges? whats the NBA gonna do, take away greece's draft picks?

the nba can only regulate on its own teams. they cant tell foreign teams what they can and cant do

Imagine David Stern trying to hold a press conference trying to charge Greece's team

[loot]

It might be time for the NBA to raise the salary cap drastically to prevent these guys from going overseas.

It's ridiculous how top Euro clubs are offering huge deals to NBA role players.

JC Navarro with a $20 mil/4 year deal
Delfino with a $11 mil/3 year
Parker offered $24 mil/3 year
Scola offered some huge deal and now Childress.

thanks to the euro maybe too. and some roleplayers tend to play much better in europe.

[Rameek]

Unfortunately for the American players they are still subject to the US tax laws. If change nationalities though they can earn some serious bank over there!

A little competition never hurt anyone. Let some team in Spain or Italy offer me that kind of bread plus housing, food, entertainment allowance and whip on top of my salary. The woman are fine, food is great, and most times I get treated like a celebrity. Where do I sign up!

[psyentist]

Power to him.

Having a strong European league will help grow the game.

One wonders how the Stern views this.

Could this push forward any timeline for any NBA-Euro-Asia competition?

The economics seem to indicate that the financial incentive will stay at least in short-term, if not med-term as well. ie. the declining US dollar, US economy doldrums

[SilentObserver]

Childress + huge euro deal = overpaid
Come on! Who the hell thinks that he can be a superstar there?

[DCL]

what's the bank roll for some of these greek teams? how'd they get so rich to afford throwing these types of contracts?

[BrianScalabrine]

That's a good idea, he will be challenged more there.

Greek >>>>>>>>>>> USA.

[Heretik32]

what's the bank roll for some of these greek teams? how'd they get so rich to afford throwing these types of contracts?

Olympiakos isn't just any team, it's an old franchise with a great soccer team as well. And combined with the fact that the dollar is dirt cheap nowadays, I can see them making a move for active NBA players.

[bigkingsfan]

I wanna see some Euro team offer Lebron 30 million a year.

[Mateo]

This isn't new. My Pacers have had two different players leave the league for Europe in recent years: Zan Tabak and Saras. If you're a marginal/decent NBA player, you can make more money in Europe because you're projected to be a star there. Guys who come over here from the euroleague often take pay cuts. What they're hoping for Pau Gasol type of cotnract after their rookie/first one expires. Either that or they simply want to test themselves against the best competition possible.

This isn't like that. Childress isn't a marginal player. This is an solid starter quality player skipping out of the country. Childress isn't as popular because of the team he played for but imagine Shane Battier or DeShawn Stevenson deciding to leave the NBA. It's definitely unexpected.

I guess with few teams having cap space, he wasn't getting offers for more than the MLE and this deal seems to be slightly higher.

[adamcz]

Childress is a great player. Not Larry Bird great, but the guy plays good defense, shoots extremely efficiently, and moves the ball around well. Every team would want him in some capacity.

Still, this contract is high enough that NBA teams probably aren't going to want to match. $7 million isn't completely horrible, but you need to have money left over to sign about three players better than Childress, so it adds up.

Charlie Bell get an offer from this team too before he ended up signing with the Bucks.

[hawkfan]

The Hawks will give him a better deal, and he will stay.

[2LeTTeRS]

The Hawks will give him a better deal, and he will stay.

Nah I'm almost 100% sure the Hawks won't give him a better deal money wise. The question is, what does Childress value more, the money or playing in the NBA at home in America. I guess we're waiting for his answer.