Fantasy Basketball Daily

Josh Childress has decided to make the jump overseas to play for Greek club Olympiakos.   Childress accepted a deal that will pay him a guaranteed $20 million over three years - after taxes.  It’s the largest current deal for any player in the Euroleague.  The Atlanta Hawks have no right to match the offer even though Childress is a restricted free agent.  The Hawks now have a huge hole to fill since Childress was their best bench player and sixth man and if Josh Smith somehow escapes, you can pretty much write off the Hawks this season.

Childress isn’t the first NBA player to leave the NBA for a big contract overseas.  Carlos Delfino, Juan Carlos Navarro, Bostjan Nachbar and Primoz Brezec have also taken big money to play Euroleague.  Brandon Jennings signed a contract to play overseas to get around the NBA’s rule prohibiting players from jumping to the league straight out of high school.  Has the league made things worse for itself with some of these limiting rules?  Too many rules can never be a good thing, especially when those rules aim at the heart of a free market. 

The real questions I have surrounding this precedent setting move by Childress are these:  What is this going to do to the prices of NBA players?  Are we getting into a bidding war with the rest of the basketball playing world?  Are players going to use this as a bargaining tool in all of their future contract dealings?  Is the weak dollar hurting the NBA?  It should be interesting to see how this develops and what rules the NBA adopts to deal with this situation.