Josh Childress Heads for Europe: What's Greek for 'Tweener'?

Now the dollar is in a freefall, and other options seem just as good. Athletes have returned to Europe (Juan Carlos Navarro, Carlos Delfino), others decided to never come to America in the first place (Tiago Splitter, Fran Vazquez), and players who couldn’t make it in the NBA have opted to play in Europe (Trajan Langdon). What is entirely new is that now even American players in their primes who are valuable players in the States are being lured by the Almighty Euro.

I’m not trying to give a doom and gloom speech here based strictly on the loss of Josh Childress. There are plenty of Josh Childresses available for NBA teams right now, and the NBA isn’t going to collapse because a few players decide not to grace it with their presence.

But the Childress signing is symbolic of a shift in the international attitude toward the NBA. Where once going to Europe was a threat that was made by free agents for leverage, but never actually taken, now it is a real possibility.

WNBA players have been supplementing their income by playing in Europe for years. Childress and prep hoopster Brandon Jennings are simply the first male American basketball players to follow the money.

In the future, there is the very real possibility that the NBA will not automatically get access to all the best players in every league—it’s rejoining the pond of basketball leagues.

For the past 20 years since Sabonis and Petrovic, we have assumed that any player of any ability would try coming to the United States, whether from Europe, South America, or even China. Everywhere else was for those who weren’t good enough. There was the NBA, and there was everybody else.

That is no longer true.

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