What do you think? Part 1
July 27, 2008 by Tobias
What do YOU think?
Since BallinEurope, just as any blog out there, is for you, the reader, we want to know what YOU think. This series will run a poll each week with one question covering a current development, news or rumors, where you get a chance to let us know what you think.
Post your answer within the poll AND let us know more about your answer within the comments. Should be a fun way to interact.
Here is our very first poll:
Playing in Europe - the new trend?
- Sure, but we will never see a super star. (34%, 33 Votes)
- Just until the Dollar is back up! (32%, 31 Votes)
- Yes, definitely! (24%, 23 Votes)
- No, not at all. (9%, 9 Votes)
- No Comment. (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 96
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You asked for my opinion and you’ll get it. It’s too late to complain now^^
I think the whole trend or no-trend matter is not fully covered by the answers you give or it’s rather a mixture of two or three of them.
We’ve seen FAs coming (back) to Europe for some years now (Planinic, Spanoulis, Welsch, Saras etc.) while other european stars turning down NBA offers (Papaloukas, Diamantidis, Smodis). What’s new? Probably the quality of the returning players as Nachbar, Navarro and Delfino had at least slightly more success in the NBA then the guys mentioned before. Also the money russian teams and OLY are offering. And of course the Jennings and Childress issues.
The latter was a restricted FA who chose the Greece bucks over the the less lucrative midlevel-extension NBA teams could offer him as most of them haven’t any cap space left or are hesitant to spend due to their owners now wanting to pay the luxary tax.
Jennings joined an european team because high scholl players cannot jump right into the NBA anymore and Roma can pay him, which is something colleges can’t do. You might want to add his troubles with the SAT-test in the mix, too.
With the money and the strong Euro left beside the main background of the two most discussed signing this summer are closely related to NBA’s structural problems, the salary cap and the market situation connected to it, and the age limit. I think Stern is very aware of this and we might whitness changes concerning the first problem, namely the two or three best player’s contracts of each teams eating up most of the cap space so there is not much left for solid to good players who leave for Europe then.
Therefore I’d say it’s a short-term trend that might very well vanish if the dollar increases its value and the NBA handling their structural issues. Also keep in mind that the very few european based teams who pay these enourmous amounts don’t generate the money itself, but are dependant from the billionaires who own these teams and will collapse if their rich owners lose interest (will probably not happen in Athens, but I’m not sure about the russian clubs in 3 or 4 years)
In my opinion, it’s mainly about money. So I think that if the dollar/€uro ratio goes up, playing in “overseas” will have less and less flavor.
As uhg said, it’s also a NBA related-problem : restricted free-agent have this status that make them attached to their team. They can’t really have a negociation, all they can do to break their link is sign for just one year, and then become unrestricted free-agent (just like Pietrus did).
And by the way, how many clubs can pay that much money in Europe : a maximum 10 ? … there are 30 franchises in the NBA, so the market is there. But instead of thinking at 30 possibilities, players can now think at 40 destinations.
But I am eager to see Childress : he is second-tier NBA-player, he doesn’t have any European background but he seems to go without any culturel prejudice. It would be nice to have him interviewed at the end of the season and read his opinion.
He would be a perfect blogger for the B.I.E crowd !!!!