The Turkey Basketball League is About to Get Way Better

There's a lot of talk of NBA players signing with teams overseas if the NBA loses games during the lockout. I think this is an interesting idea and while I don't think it will hurt the league it could take some players away from the NBA when the lockout is over. The NBA is now a worldwide sport and if you play basketball you want to play in the NBA, whether you live in Chicago or Cambodia.

There will be a few players that love playing overseas because the money isn't that much better, the love being a bigger star on their team, or they fall in love with the country they are playing in. In saying this, if players play in Europe and then the NBA lockout ends I do not think a lot of players will stay in Europe but I do believe there will be a handful. If a player like Kobe Bryant goes overseas to play he will not make the kind of money he is making with the LA Lakers. But contracts in the NBA are expected to get smaller after the lockout and maybe for a role player in the NBA that contract in Turkey isn't that much less than what he is getting paid in the NBA.

Put that same player on a team where he is the "man" and gets to carry his team every night and he could extend their stay very quickly. All the players in the NBA were the best player on their team at some point in their lives. You might have to go back to high school for some of these players but they were the "man". They were the player that got the ball in crunch time, they were the player that the other team's defense was built around, they were the one the girls came to cheer for, and that cannot be easy to deal with when you become the 10th man on an NBA basketball team. These are competitive guys that have a lot of pride in their skills. Given the chance to be the "man" again is an opportunity I think some of these guys will jump on and extend their time playing in Europe.

We won't be losing a Kobe or a Deron Williams to a Turkey Basketball League, that I would assume is less competitive than some inner city rec leagues, but there will be players that stay. They might not have been 6th men, or even 7th or 8th, but there will be players that find joy in their new roles and teams and have a nice
little career playing basketball in Europe.

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