Spanning the globe to bring you the latest on NBA players who are, who may or who may not be playing overseas this season (the drop dead date of Monday seems such a long way away, eh?)
From Jake Appleman of The New York Times in Mons, Belgium:
“Deron Williams, the Nets’ point guard, was here Tuesday night with his teammates on Besiktas Milangaz, a professional team from Istanbul playing a game in the Eurocup, a second-tier intercontinental competition. Perhaps Williams wished he had been back at the negotiating table. In a 74-63 loss to host Dexia Mons-Hainaut, he finished with 7 points, 7 assists and 6 turnovers. He shot 3 of 13 from the floor. The loss eliminated Besiktas from the tournament. … When Williams was told that the player formerly known as Ron Artest took to his Twitter page to incorrectly state that the labor dispute was over, Williams showed that, despite taking his game to another continent, he had not tuned out the N.B.A. entirely. “Metta World Peace?” he said.”
From Emilio Carchia of Sportando, who tweeted that there are rumors the offer to Kobe Bryant is for $1 million to play one game:
“Claudio Sabatini, owner of Virtus Bologna, confirmed at Radiofuturoshow Station that he had another conference call with Kobe’s agent and that it is real the hypothesis ‘one game’ for Bryant. ‘Last night we had another conference call with Bryant’s agent. Now we just have to wait the contract. We accepted his financial request and we submitted him two different proposals, for one game or for 40 days. Now the decision is up to him. We thought about the one game option to speed up the negotiations. He could land on Sunday, play the game against Benetton Treviso next Wednesday and maybe stay longer with us. People who don’t agree about the idea to have Kobe for just one game, have to understand that we all hope he can stay longer. Furthermore, Kobe has to be back to States in two weeks because of his sponsor. Now we are waiting for his final answer.”
From the West Australian:
Andrew Bogut has committed to joining the Sydney Kings on the provision he is able to secure an insurance policy for his whopping $39 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. Bogut had been linked to short-term deals with several NBL clubs while the NBA lockout over a pay dispute continues, but today the Australian Boomers star confirmed that Sydney was his club of choice. He will not be available for the season opener between the Kings and old rivals Melbourne tomorrow night because the insurance situation is yet to be resolved. NBL officials had hoped for a dream match up between Bogut and Boomers teammate Patty Mills, who signed to play for the Tigers during the lockout.
From Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News:
Spurs point guard Tony Parker has made his lockout fallback plan official. Should the NBA’s ongoing labor standoff postpone the start of the regular season, Parker has signed to play with ASVEL Villeurbanne, the French League team of which he is part owner. Parker announced the decision, which had been telegraphed for weeks, Wednesday morning on his Twitter account. In Parker the player, Parker the general manager got quite a steal. The three-time All-Star, slated to earn $12.5 million in the NBA this season, will play for $1,995 per month in France. “I’ll be playing nearly for free,” Parker told the French daily L’Equipe. “If I play the entire season, we’ll go for the title.”
If Kobe plays this one game, I’m going to attend it. It would be the sporting event of the year in Italy.