Zyme wrote:SA37 wrote:Lakers_4_Life wrote:Well Panathinaikos gave Dominique what is equal to a $17 million contract today for 1 year back in 1996. It was always said they wanted him to sign for a lot of years (5 years) but he would only sign for one. So it's not without precedence at least for Panathinaikos that they might offer some huge contract to the right NBA player.
I can't think of any other Euro teams that gave out such enormous contracts in the past as you are talking about to attract the types of NBA players you mention. But the thing is, we have obviously entered into a new era of salaries in European basketball. Just a couple years ago if someone would have said that what has happened this off season was actually going to happen, they would have even been laughed out of a European basketball forum.
It's like I've said in other threads teams like Panathinaikos and Olympiacos has 2-3 million euro budgets just 4 years or so ago. Now they are spending that on single players.
Well, that is why I was kind of "thinking out loud" at what the possibilities might be down the road.
I know these clubs are incredibly rich, which is why you can see silly articles like Real Madrid reportedly being willing to throw 100€ million for Ronaldo and then pay him stupid amounts of money (reportedly Madrid were willing to offer Ronaldo a 5-year, 75€ million deal).
The thing is, since basketball doesn't have the popularity or generate the revenue that football does, you have to wonder if it makes sense to drop the kind of money it would take to get one of those guys over here, particularly in their prime.
I am still convinced Europe's chances of pulling a Wade or LeBron or Amare over here in their prime is very, very slim. These guys don't see the European League as being anywhere near as prestigious as the NBA title. But, money talks, and if a team offered LeBron or Wade or whatever star name you want to throw out there an obscene contract, it would be hard to say no, especially with all the perks that come with playing there.
Given the current exchange rate, how hard would it be to walk away from a 5-year, 55€ million deal (5-year, $133 million) while having a house and car provided for you?
That's tough to say no to.
When rudy fernandez was considering coming over last off season, he had an equlivant of a 63million/3-4 years offered to him by CSKA Moscow. He will be playing at the rookie scale for around 1.2 million.
One point I have made before is what I have found in both rudy and Peteri Koponen (both portland overseas prospects). They use the word of "drea". It is a dream for them to be in the NBA. I know that many of these clubs may now offer 2+ million Euro net salaries, but unless you are able to change the perceptions of the NBA as
the league to be in and it is a dream for many of these players to be there. Where all the little kiddies dream to play, you will only attract those looking for the big bucks or the marginal players. These perceptions would have to entirely change before you would really have a mass exidus to Europe. I really feel that this is why, unless an entire generation of NBA dreamers are turned, that the NBA is safe and will probably stay the dominant league for a least a generation.
Well European players base their view of the NBA largely on what country they are from. A guy from Finland doesn't have much basketball in his country or even anywhere near his country. And just to go to a big Euroleague club is as big a change as going to the NBA.
A big player from Spain views the NBA differently than a lot of players from other countries in Europe because several Spanish players have gotten good minutes in the NBA recently.
However, if you were to go Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Greece, Lithuania, etc. etc, the view that a European basketball star has of the NBA is not nearly the same thing. I think they days of Lithuanians, Russians, Serbs, Croats, Greeks, etc. "dreaming" of the NBA are long, long over.
Slovenian players if they think thy can make it will want too also come to the NBA but if they see some other ones get deals like Nachbar that will be a long forgotten "dream" as well. And really in the case of Rudy Fernandez I think he is trying to make a big splash like Gasol did in the NBA.
If he doesn't I would be 100% he would grab that offer CSKA gave him as soon as his 2 mandatory years in the NBA are up.