On the upside, this could set up a major windfall for him; if successful and everything plays out in favor, he could avoid the draft and will no longer have to be salary slotted. If this goes through and he is successful, a team WILL draft him in the late first or second round of the NBA and a team can trade his rights for players and salary cap relief. Josh Childress is doing a similar thing by playing in Europe; if he develops into a major player there, he could maximize his overall value and reap major financial investment from an NBA organization. We just have to watch how it all plays out. David Stern will find a way to make this work in the NBA’s favor somehow or another.

It’s a gutsy move to go overseas and if he can tough it out he’ll be a better person for it in both personally. Professionally? That’s a much harder call. Most teams who sign an American are looking for scoring and he shouldn’t expect a lot of individual training. He’s already shown by transferring to Oak Hill he’s willing to step out of his element(though by transferring and backing out on USC he may have issues with certain folks in LA.)

So what this all comes down to is $$$. The one year of not getting paid vs. one year of getting paid say $250,000- $1 MIL ( not sure what he would get). Some may disagree, but I think he is better off biting the bullet and going to school for one year and leaving the money on the table. The last two years has proven that having a solid 1 year at college can get you locked into the first round and lottery. The exposure will help make the player a household name. The difference in getting drafted 5 and 15 is close enough to what a guy would make in that one year. And don’t forget about the marketing benefits. What if Jeryd Bayless played in spain last year? He would just be another name w/o a face like danillo galinarri or alexis ajinca, he would be first round lock but def not lottery. To be straight, I am not very convinced that bayless should be drafted in the lottery, but because he played at zona and has a great agent who knows how to navigate the waters, he has a tremendous amount of hype behind him.

http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/58587
“A groundbreaking five-year, $50 million deal between the NBA and NCAA not only includes ambitious goals for overhauling youth basketball, but also marks a new level in the relationship between two powerful organizations that, until a couple of years ago, had never sat down together.

The as-yet-unnamed joint venture between the NBA and NCAA, which was to be formally announced today at the Final Four in San Antonio, will develop programs to help assure that boys and girls get consistent, high-quality basketball training and education. The first visible sign of the new business will likely be a Web site launched for the 2008-09 season that will provide information and social networking for young players, teams, leagues and event organizers. Before that happens, though, the NCAA and the NBA will have to hire a chief executive and a staff, and figure out where to establish a headquarters. That may be influenced, NCAA President Myles Brand said, by which technology company they partner with on their Web presence.

Terms of the deal call for each side to commit up to $15 million in cash and another $20 million in joint marketing investment.

“This is a historic deal,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who will coach the U.S. men’s Olympic team in Beijing this summer and who has been a longtime proponent of revamping youth basketball. “It’s going to make basketball in our country better. That’s the motivation. To help kids, but to make the game better.”

While most of the details have yet to be worked out, the joint venture will go far beyond just a Web presence. There are plans for an annual youth basketball congress, for coaching education and certification, for registering and training officials and for working with existing sanctioning organizations to establish national standards for competitive events.”