Author: John Paulsen (Page 8 of 937)

Carlos Boozer told ESPN The Magazine that he “definitely” plans to play overseas if the NBA season is delayed or canceled.

Boozer told ESPN The Magazine on Wednesday that he will pursue signing with a foreign team if the season doesn’t start on time.

“I think as players we have to look at this lockout as an unfortunate challenge, but one that can create other unique and positive opportunities,” he said. “When I was part of Team USA that won Olympic Gold in Beijing, that experience changed my life in incredible ways.

“If the NBA season gets delayed or postponed, I plan on using those months to experience something similar to what I did in the summer of 2008. That’s why, if the lockout continues, I definitely plan on playing overseas.”

Meanwhile, Dwyane Wade had this to say:

“I’m going to play basketball this year,” Wade said from New York, where he’s taking some business meetings. “I don’t know where, but I love the game so much that I will play it. And we will figure that out.”

This could just be posturing, but things are going to get really interesting if the lockout drags into October.

So says Matt Tolnick of HoopsHype. He suggests a system where players share in profits/losses alongside the owners:

So rather than assigning the players a fixed percentage of BRI annually (whether 45 percent, 57 percent, or anywhere in between), regardless of how profitable the business is, the players could receive two forms of payment: (a) a guaranteed, fixed percentage of BRI, and (b) a raise or paycut depending on the NBA’s profitability. So, if the NBA’s owners collectively profit, then players will receive additional money beyond their initial BRI allocation. If the owners take a loss, then the players would receive less than their share of BRI.

For such a system to work, annual increases or decreases in the NBA’s teams’ equity values would need to be accounted for (which may be difficult to accurately measure), and strict transparency of teams’ books (audited by a neutral third party) would be required to ensure that the NBA was being perfectly frank about its profits and losses.

It’s a good read, if a bit heavy on the numbers.

Per ESPN…

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant is in the early stages of contract negotiations with the same Turkish team that has signed Deron Williams and has been pursuing Kobe Bryant, according to Durant’s agent.

Agent Aaron Goodwin told ESPN.com on Tuesday night that he has met with officials from Turkish club Besiktas and has likewise begun exploring opportunities for Durant in Spain and Russia. Goodwin added that playing in China is not something Durant is considering at this time.

“The Turkish option is very intriguing,” Goodwin said. “We’re looking at other countries as well. Kevin hasn’t agreed to play anywhere yet, but we’re looking for the best fit.”

The longer this lockout goes, more and more big name players will find somewhere else to play.

Ken Berger of CBS Sports doesn’t think it’s likely, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

What if the top 25 or 30 players in the NBA — All-Stars and others deserving of that status — announced their intention to form a rival league? On many levels, it’s even more of a pie-in-the-sky dream for the players than getting a few million dollars from overseas teams. But short of a legal shock to the labor negotiations — for example, the issuing of a complaint against the NBA by the National Labor Relations Board in the next 60 days — it’s difficult to imagine a more effective leverage play than a breakaway league featuring the biggest stars in successful markets.

If someone could pull it off, it would beat the hell out of Sonny Weems signing in Lithuania as far as leverage goes.

How would Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan react if, say, Amar’e Stoudemire, Anthony and Paul joined forces on a team based in the New York metropolitan area and went on a mini barnstorming tour against such teams as an L.A.-based squad featuring Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin and UCLA’s Russell Westbrook? How about instead of tearing up Rucker Park in his free time, Kevin Durant went back to Texas to play with Dirk Nowitzki, facing a Midwestern-based team starring Chicago natives Derrick Rose and Wade?

It’s an interesting thought, but who is going to put up the money for the league knowing full well that the owners would be back at the table in a New York minute?

Berger says that the potential for a spin-off league increases as the lockout goes deeper into the season

…if the two sides got deep into the fall — maybe all the way to Christmas — without a new CBA, the canceling of the season would open a window from, say, February to June for such an idea to work without the threat of the NBA resuming. The focus would then shift away from the failed efforts to save the season and toward the filling of a void in the marketplace for pro basketball. And there is a small pile of money to start with — the $188 million the league owes the players from last season’s escrow.

It’s an interesting idea that could work if the league’s biggest stars got together and could agree on format and financing.