BEIJING — At the Olympics, the buzz is Olympiacos.
That’s the Greek basketball team that signed American Josh Childress to a three-year, $20 million contract, much more than Childress would have made in the NBA.
Overseas teams, many with free-spending owners, don’t have a salary cap hanging above their heads. reported that LeBron James, who can opt out of his contract in two years, would strongly consider a contract if it was near $50 million.
And here in Beijing, where Team USA is preparing for the Olympics, Nuggets all-star Carmelo Anthony said: “If anybody, in any situation, gets offered $50 million, you got to look into it. If somebody offered me $50 million, I got to look into it.”
Childress is arguably the most talented American-born NBA player to leave the league for a team overseas.
At the NBA Finals, commissioner David Stern was asked about European players choosing to stay home instead of joining the NBA:
“We’re not concerned about that. If players actually stay in Europe because they can earn more, that’s fine. We think that European basketball, which we try to support, might be the better for it, and thats good.”
But now with Childress gone, the NBA has a new type of problem to potentially deal with it.
“It can potentially be bad (for the NBA), because you’ll have organizations looking at teams best players, throwing money out there,” Anthony said. “Mr. Stern, he got the game global the way he wanted it to be, and now, we’re there (with these issues).”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
