As we mentioned earlier this week, Hawk’s forward Josh Childress was mulling a 3-year contract with Greece instead of re-signing with the Atlanta Hawks  Well, today it became official, Josh Childress, one of the NBA’s best sixth men last season, has signed with Greek club Olympiakos.  Childress, along with his mom and brother, reportedly brought 20 suitcases with him to Greece because he was that serious about signing the contract.

Check out the smiles on the Olympiakos officials below:

I am working on getting images of the frowns that must have been on the faces of the Atlanta Hawks and NBA executives as they were left with absolutely no options for matching an offer from a team from the Euroleague.  They must have been completely dumbfounded.  I mean, they have the right to be, this kind of thing just doesn’t happen to the NBA.

I won’t bore you anymore with my talk of this type of situation becoming a slippery slope that I saw coming last year because we’re not quite at that point.  Most NBA players’ aren’t quite as open as Childress’s to come to Europe, most players would take millions in paycut to remain in the United States.

“I’ve talked with a few guys and it could become a trend,” said Childress, “I’m not so sure it won’t. It’s certainly different. We thought outside the box on this one. If players can see a fellow NBA athlete come overseas and live a normal life and adjust to the culture [they may] think, why not me? I’m also interested to see how these next weeks turn out for some of the other restricted free agents in my draft class.”

However, as the seasons pass with Europe as a viable option for players like Josh Childress and Brandon Jennings – players destined for the NBA but are either disheartend by contract talks or age minimums,  this kind of move will happen more often.  Perhaps it will happen once or twice or three times an offseason for the next couple years and before you know it, this will no longer be consider big news.

It’ll be common for NBA executives and general managers to have to deal with counteroffers from the European league bigwig.  And Josh Childress and Brandon Jennings will be referenced as the trailblazers of the NBA-to-Europe movement.

Discuss the move, jump with excitement with the Greek members, and contribute your thoughts in our international basketball forum.  Check out some of the comments being made in our forum about the signing:

“I don’t know how well he’ll translate in Europe, but he’s underrated as an NBA player. For one, everyone quotes his 12 and 5, but last year, he already had 13 and 6. He just played fewer minutes off the bench, but he actually became more effective. If you look at his PER, he performs as one of the top 10 SF in the league” – DarkoMVP

“Report from Atlanta indicates that the contract is for ‘ far more than the $20 million initially reported.’ ” – JGX

“Congratulations to OLY for the super signing. This player will be a shining star for the greek league and Euroleague. Of course he has the potencial (sic) to become the best SF in the league by far but its not so easy to adapt to Europe style.But with a good PG next to him he probably make wonders.  Again every year Greek championship is more and more interesting.” – Crazy Green

“Ben Gordon and/or Luol Deng could be next. They’re in the exact same situation as Childress…no one has the cap space to make them big offers, and they’re not getting what they want from Chicago. I’d say Gordon is the more likely of the 2 to leave…Chicago still thinks Deng is their future.”  – mavs128

Links and Resources: Josh Childress may leave NBA for Europe (Interbasket), Atlanta Hawk’s Josh Childress considering Olympiakos discussion (Interbasket), Basketball Globalization will break up NBA’s Monopoly (Interbasket), Brandon Jenning’s European decision has far-reaching consequences for the NBA (Interbasket)