The European transfer market is going crazy. Panathinaikos is signing Dimitris Verginis for €1.7 million, Khimky signs Jerome Moiso for €2 million. Additionally, former European glories come back from the NBA where they cannot earn as much as they can in the Euroleague: think Juan Carlos Navarro, Jorge Garbajosa and most likely Primoz Brezec in the near future, too. But what about this deal?
Everybody knows that Zalgiris Kaunas is looking for a big man. After a season in which the team signed somebody who was fired after few weeks in Germany and some other mediocre guys, why not bring home the kid from Kaunas, Zydrunas Ilgauskas? Ok, he may still be under contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers until 2009/2010 and he earns $10 million, but I had the following idea how to bring him over to form twin towers in the paint with Eurelijus Zukauskas.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas would really like to play for the Lithuanian national team in Beijing this summer, but the Cavs have reportedly already refused him permission to play because of his injury-prone foot. Negotiations are continuing, but the chances of seeing the Big Z with Lie-tu-va this summer are pretty slim.
So if I were the Zalgiris Kaunas GM, I’d simply call Zydrunas and tell him to play with the Lithuanians in Beijing despite the interdiction of the Cavs.
What would they do? What could they do? Well, the only thing they could do is cut him afterward as they cannot build a wall around Ilgauskas’ house or supervise him with security guards in order to detain him from traveling to China.
So now the situation is pretty easy: Ilgauskas gets cut, Kaunas needs a big man. Find a rich sponsor to pay Ilgauskas’ salary and the Zalgiris fans can dream of invading Berlin for the Final Four in May. I don’t know how likely to happen this is, and I don’t have any source that indicates that the Lithuanian team is trying to go this way, but at least it’s a nice dream that would increase the playing level of the Euroleague even more.
If I were going with the BallinEurope.com rumor stars, this would be a solid 0 out of 5, but you never know…
