These days, even NBA Commissioner David Stern is dressing down.
Low and behold, the NBA's cancelled training camp and the NBA preseason indefinitely.
Calling all countries, make offers to Kobe Bryant in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Virtus Bologna's $6.7 M offer's on the table, and it's hot, hot, hot!
Should NBA players really consider playing overseas during the lockout? Well, maybe the likes of Chris Douglas Roberts, or, Kenyon Martin. But stars like Durant, Bryant, LBJ? Maybe not, because, why would you risk incurring a career threatening injury for a short stint on the court in a faraway land? $6.7 million is by no means a small amount, but then, there are, as the saying goes, bigger fish to fry for the heavenly bodies of the NBA.
The NBA lockout has brought to the fore just how much the global basketball divide has shrunken in the last decade or so. Before, players like Detlef Schrempf and Arvydas Sabonis were considered leopards amongst lions. Now, for every white lion, there lies a Euro Jaguar that's out to prove that he's got what it takes to dominate.
Still think Euros are soft? Look no further than recent NBA Champion Dirk Nowitzki to have your claims dispelled.
While American-born players have gone to other countries for hoops in the past, the demand for Stateside players in robust basketball markets such as China (the Chinese Basketball Association, which has bred the likes of Sun Yue, Wang ZhiZhi, Yi Jianlian, and the venerable Yao Ming), and Europe (the Euroleague, which has featured the Gasol brothers, Tony Parker, Ricky Rubio, and others) has increased in light of the NBA being on hiatus. Somehow, American are still regarded as the benchmark for hoops excellence, ergo, to have Americans in your league invariably gives off the impression that the level of competition is going nowhere else but up.
With the season in jeopardy, and an offer of 46% of all basketball related income still unappealing to the Players' Association (the purported "median" amount of 57% was way to high for Stern and co. to swallow), the real losers in this situation are the fans of the NBA.
Unlike the NBA players that have been in the news lately because of their international exploits, we can't really "migrate" to other sports and still expect to feel the same thrill we experience when in the thick of watching basketball.
No man lives on golf, hockey, soccer, or UFC/WWE, alone.
We need our dose of basketball, else, we wither and die.
Believe it.
MC
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