When Europe Calls

Okay, first things first, been going through a few things these past two weeks so sorry this hasn’t been updated for a while. Thank you to all of those people out there who are still checking the site out. I promise that the updates will start coming more frequently (I’m shooting for at least 3 times a week) despite the fact that the NBA is in its offseason.

On to some news. First with the Clips. The Clips lost out on Kelenna Azubuike when the Warriors matched their 3 year $3 million offer. That stings a bit, but there are other options out there (Maurice Evans). Okay, so none of the other options are super tantalizing, but the positive note is that the Clippers were willing to spend their cap space and that they had actually zeroed in on a kid with talent and upside.

A Clips move that did work out is their trading of oft-injured/assist to turnover extraordinaire Brevin Knight, for one time Clipper, Jason Hart. The two are pretty similar. They aren’t going to hurt your offense by forcing anything. They both post solid Assist/To ratios (Knight finished second in the league in that category last year). The difference is that Hart doesn’t have the history of IR stints. He’s a good backup, solid and at one time posted a career best 9 points and 5 assists for Charlotte a few years back.

With Baron now at the point, it’s imperative that the Clips got a backup that wasn’t just as injury prone. Decent if not good lateral pickup.

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Thanks to Josh Childress for jumping ship to Europe to join Olympiacos Piraeus. Thanks also to guys like Carlos Delfino, Juan Carlos Navarro (what a shame he didn’t get a real shot), Bostjan Nachbar, Loren Woods, Primoz Brezec and a big shout out to Tiago Splitter for screwing up the San Antonio Spurs plans.

A new trend has suddenly emerged. And, why not? With all the restrictions on players in the NBA, why not jump ship to a European team and get paid more money…and, for some of these guys, actually get a good deal of playing time?

I went to a small college in Santa Clarita Valley called the Master’s College. The biggest start to come out of that school was Mike Penberthy. He had a silky smooth shooting stroke and made it to the NBA for a little more than 1 season. In that time, he won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.

He went from being the man at his college and in that league, to being a 10-minutes-if-he’s-lucky type in the NBA getting paid a bump over $300,000 and averaging a paltry 5 points per contest. When he moved his game to Europe, he became a literal stud playing for Eldo Napoli, an Italian team. In three seasons with that team, he averaged 13, 21 and 19 points in three consecutive years while helping his team compile a record of 55-41. The next season he bounded over to Germany averaged 16 points in 29 minutes of play, and helped that team to a 25-3 record. He’s back in the Italian league and incidentally replaced Larry O’Bannon on Snaidero Cucine Udine.  

So, the upside is there. Less games. More money. Bigger roles. And, it’s Europe. Having to play in Italy or Germany? It’d be like a vacation.

On the Lakers front, Sasha Vujacic threatened to pull a Childress, but came to terms with the Lakers late Friday afternoon on 3-year $15 million deal. Come on Sash, you’d be good in Europe, but the Lakers are stacked and ready for a few more championship runs, you’re going to get PT and you get to be the Machine in Los Angeles. Even with all the perks of Europe, you can’t get much better than that.

So, let’s all let out a collective sigh of relief that Sash decided to stay.

But, there’s always the interesting side note, the thought of, in a few years, big time NBA players jumping overseas.

Take a one Mr. Kobe Bryant.

Now, I’m not talking about right now or even next season, but it sure seems, before this year, that the league had been pushing guys like Dwayne Wade and especially Lebron James in the spotlight. A guy like Wade, who won a championship but has been injury-prone and not really proven anything else, gets all of these commercials, while the best player in the planet has been ignored. He didn’t get a couple MVPs he deserved (though he got one that he didn’t) and fans everywhere in the NBA passionately hate him.
I mean, despite all that, he’s a very cultured dude. He speaks Italian fluently. Lived there and played ball there. Wore the #8 in honor of his then favorite player, Mike D’Antoni. He wears all kinds of interesting Italian suits. And he’s just the kind of guy who might crave the idea of conquering something new. MJ went to baseball, Kobe could conquer Europe. He’d be an instant draw, could make lots of money, play a lot less games and win.

Who knows? All I’m saying is it’s a possibility that makes a lot of sense.

All kinds of crazy things have been happening in the Association recently. This crossing over the pond to play in Europe could be the first step for bigger stars. I mean, Childress did it, and another Hawks great did the same thing, though, he was no longer with the Hawks at that point.

The Human Highlight Film went to Italy…