Josh Childress, a member of the Atlanta Hawks squad that surprised the nation and pushed the Boston Celtics to a seven game first round series last season, recently inked a 3 year deal worth $20 million with a Greek basketball club. While the market for basketball players has become globalized in the past decade, the trend has been for international players to join the NBA. But with the dollar losing value against the Euro, European teams are finally in a position to lure high level NBA players as was the case with Childress.
Childress' deal gets him more money than he would've made as a free agent in the NBA, and has some people worried that he represents the start of a trend. While NBA players in the past have gone to Europe or other international markets, this is probably the first time that a high quality NBA player has left the NBA at the prime of his career.
Will this be the start of a new trend? For sure it represents better bargaining opportunities for NBA players. But personally, I'm not convinced that this will be the norm from now on. The NBA is still the world's premiere league, and the world's top talent will continue to gravitate towards it. Had it been Lebron James signing with the Greeks, then I'd be worried.