Jul 24 2008
A European Exodus
The United States stole International Soccer Superstar David Beckham close to 2 years ago. Now Europe is striking back with one of our nations top sport, Basketball. For some of the European Countries around the Mediterranean, Basketball has become the second favorite sport. Instead of just developing talent and watching it shipped off to NBA, European teams are now holding on to their talent and adding some of the United States top talent.
This new exodus, if you would like to call it that, started a little over a week ago when top High School Basketball prospect Brandon Jennings skipped the possibility of playing the mandatory one year of College Basketball and signed a deal with a European team. This was a very bold move, and a very profitable one for Jennings, he will have the chance to earn money and play professionally with Europes best players.
Jennings will actually make more money since the Euro is worth more then our sinking dollar, but with all economics apart, he has opened another option for the door that the NBA closed on prep stars in the U.S. for another option instead of attending College for one year. The question now is how does the NBA keep its players here in the country that invented the sport?
When being given the opportunity to continue a career as an Atlanta Hawk or playing for Olympiakos of Greece, Hawks G/F Josh Childress chose Greece. Some are not familiar with Childress’ name will be now that he has gone to play basketball in Europe. If Jennings started a trend for High School Stars who do not want to play one season of College Ball, then Childress started a trend for good players who do not want to play for terribly mis-managed organization.
True, playing in the NBA means that you are among the top Players in the world and are playing against the top talent. However think of some of the top talent in the NBA and some are not homegrown talent. This gives players an option to further their game as well as players in Europe to understand the International game more and will expand the game of basketball. Childress has given a lot of credibility to European Basketball as a real option for any player in the NBA.
European Basketball has given us Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol and even Kobe Bryant as a young kid had a small stint in Euro-Hoops. So now it seems that it is our turn to give back, lets hope that the NBA can earn some kind of Euro/NBA league and really have a complete “World Champion”.
J.M.Saucedo
