2011 NBA Lockout: New Jersey Nets Point Guard Deron Williams Will Play in Turkey

The NBA is in a hard way when it loses its greatest assets to the rest of the world. According to an NBC Sports report, if there is not a new CBA agreement by the beginning of the 2011-2012 season, New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams will play in Turkey.

Yes, Turkey.

The news is perplexing to the Nets contingency when they traded the kitchen sink last January to acquire the two-time all-star from Utah. Williams is the teams franchise face and a valuable chip to levy for big name free agents like Dwight Howard. 

Considering Williams is a free agent himself in the summer of 2012 and owed $18 million this season, this twist to the NBA saga is intriguing.

It also begs the question whether or not D-Will is really serious. Could he genuinely walk away from $18 million and a higher stock value next offseason just to play ball in Turkey?

The former Illini, known around the league as a bit of a gym rat, is coming off of a horrendous second half of the season in which he played just twelve games for the Nets averaging 15.0 points on 34.9 percent field goal shooting. Both career lows.

But let it be known that this is just water under the bridge. Williams is and will be for years down the line a top three point guard in the game and one of the leagues most sought after superstars.

With the brooding lockout and the owners stanch on eliminating guaranteed contracts, is this a mastered plan from the NBPA just to foster a paranoid urgency from the owners camp?

There is no Zach Galafianakis one-man Wolfpack in the NBA world, no, when one stars sees the light a dozen others follow. This worldly trend has been surging in popularity and is a valuable chip to use to sway negotiations in the players favor.

An NBA draft where four of the first seven picks were from overseas is a sure sign that things are changing in the NBA whether we want it to or not. No longer is the league the end all-be all for the pop athlete seeking popularity, comfort and a lucrative paycheck.

And though that is a beautiful ruination of cultural diversity, for Nets fans and for the rest of the country, the end to the lockout is salvation from the reality of going a year without our sports heroes. Without it, we're like floating fish food in a fishbowl devoured by the sharks of a league with no plan in sight.