Interbasket

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has reported that Josh Childress, a promising young player with the Atlanta Hawks, has a couple offers on the table; one from the Hawks and one from Olympiakos from the Greek league.

And here’s the shocker, the 25-year old Childress is seriously, seriously considering bolting to Europe, so serious that he flew to Greece to meet with officials from Olympiakos to talk about the terms of the three-year, $20 million offer sheet.

In the article, Wojnarowski says the 6-8, 210lb forward from Stanford is miffed that the Hawks won’t oblige him in a sign-and-trade, and that all the focus is on signing another promising Hawks player, the high-flying Josh Smith.

I really believe that Childress would excel in Europe, he isn’t typically an NBA player who needs the ball to be successful.  I watched him play at Stanford and he definitely has the skills to dominate, yet watching him as the fourth option behind fellow swingmen Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, and point guard Mike Bibby, Childress came off the bench and was still able to contribute 11.8 points and 4.9 rebounds last season all within the flow of the offense.

On the surface, as far as NBA news goes, this isn’t much to write home about - another young player looking for his best options.

However, I see it as another sign that the globalization of basketball continues on, slowly but surely, to the chagrin of David Stern and the NBA.  Talented players from all corners, ages, and backgrounds are now choosing to leave the USA for tempting European offers- from international players that have NBA contracts on the table (Juan Carlos Navarro, Primoz Brezec, Carlos Delfino) high school phenoms (Brandon Jennings), and now up-and-coming American-born players (Josh Childress).

And the era in which star players dropped everything to come to the NBA is coming to a close.  The gap is narrowing in both talent and money.  Take the story of Tiago Splitter, the Brazilian and Euroleague superstar that was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 2007.  Splitter spured San Antonio this year to continue playing comfortably in Spain.

Well, what would you do?  Continue being a superstar in a the world’s second best league (ACB) and earn more money or come into a league (NBA) where minutes are uncertain, much less respect, all the while earning less money?

As mentioned during last year’s offseason, the globalization will continue to gain steam as American players use offers from across the Atlantic to leverage NBA contract talks and with the Euro outpacing the American dollar.

The internationalization of basketball is palpable.

Links and Resources: Atlanta Hawk’s Josh Childress considering Olympiakos (Interbasket), Basketball Globalization will break up NBA’s Monopoly (Interbasket), Brandon Jenning’s European decision has far-reaching consequences for the NBA (Interbasket), Josh Childress is considering leaving Hawks for offer in Greece (Yahoo)