Thanks for the great post! Keep up the good work….

While the recent piece on salaries for top-notch rookies in Europe and America (www.ballineurope.com/us-basketball/nba/is-it-still-worth-being-drafted/) was fascinating and educational, with the sentiments echoed here for Marc Gasol, there’s still one thing i don’t understand: What about the prestige?

No, i’m not talking about living and working in Memphis, Tennessee, as opposed to, say, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, etc. etc., but rather about playing at the top level of the sport.

Sure, it’s probably nice being the biggest fish in a small pond like the top Israeli league, but wasn’t Marc paying attention to the fact that maybe one billion people were checking out the Boston-LA finals? That the Pau Gasol Lakers jersey surely outsells all ACB jerseys combined by a massive ratio in Europe alone? That a Euroleague player who simply orbits a superstar like Kobe or Tim Duncan gets adulation well beyond the two weeks of glory in which Asians can maybe catch the European finals by (paid) internet broadcast?

While losing a million or two (most likely at a way-lower tax rate with a clever American accountant) dollars in the short-term, wouldn’t a player’s CV look a heck of a lot more impressive with a little NBA experience on it? Wouldn’t a player like the experience of playing in a foreign country of great wealth like America?

Or is it just all about money, money, money? If so, perhaps the Obama Administration can get the dollar back to a strong exchange rate and fewer money-grubbers will ignore the NBA…