Monday, June 23, 2008

Going abroad

Europe becomes a developmental option for young players, but not in the sport one might assume.

4 comments:

CACuzcatlan said...

Interesting. My first thought was hockey. One thing I'd really like to see in both hockey and basketball is a type of Intercontinental Cup between the NBA champions and the Euroleague champions.

CACuzcatlan said...

One more thing, I know there's no Euroleague for hockey, but the new Continental Hockey League has the potential and ambition of becoming a pan-European hockey league.

Anonymous said...

this story can't be too shocking if you really think about it. Basketball is exploding in popularity around the world and the Euroleague has some good fan turn outs and loud assed fans. (kinda reminds me of the NBA before they started charging $500 for nosebleed seats)
One thing Jennings should worry about though is the Euro teams aren't going to sign him for only a year and whatever club wants him in the NBA will have to fork over a transfer fee.

NCAA soccer is already irrelevant because the best players leave early to go overseas or play in MLS. The NBA needs to quit pandering to the NCAA and realize that college really isn't for everyone.

Anonymous said...

The NBA wasn't pandering to the NCAA by instituting their age limit rule. They were trying to solve the problem of teenaged draftees being completely useless for their first year after being drafted.

By imposing an age limitation, the NBA is passing on the cost of a professional education (which amounts to the guaranteed first round draft pick salary plus the opportunity cost of a roster spot that could go to someone who's actually useful) to some other institution. In this case, it was the NCAA.

It has absolutely nothing to do with some altruistic mission to protect young basketball players from themselves. And when teenaged stars begin to play overseas, the NBA will be perfectly fine with it because the developmental costs will be provided for by someone else, which was the whole point anyway.