Durantula in negotiations

didnt their team get the assets frozen or something? i thought i read that somewhere

 

Yes. But teams in Europe have no CBA rules. It is total free market principle, unlike US sports system.

So they can sign players using money from sponsors and marketers. Besiktas does not have a big basketball section (rather small by European basketball standards), but they do have a large football (soccer) section. It is the third biggest soccer club of Turkey I believe.

Combine that with the fact that they play in a huge market like Istanbul and they have lots and lots of sponsor and marketing money available to them. So even though the club itself cannot sign players due to the betting investigation, they can get sponsors to do so instead.

And in Europe that is allowed, unlike in the NBA where sponsors like Nike have enormous influence, maybe even more than Stern, but cannot actually sign a player.

So, Besiktas can just get one of their sponsors to sign Durant for them. No problem at all.

 

Geez, that will be an awesome pair to watch in action.

 

Didn't Kobe sign with that team too?

 

People talk about LeBron being anti-competitive because he teamed up with Wade and Bosh.

But isn't it even worse for two NBA all-stars (near superstars) to team up against clearly inferior competition in these foreign leagues?

 

It's probably the only team in the league that has big enough sponsors to afford them.

 

yeah.. the contract has to have certain incentives that I think they are willing to give also..

 

and don't forget Sasha signed a few days after Deron.

 

NEW BIG THREE!

 

euroleague commissioner says a heavy waive of nba talent will not be coming. Maybe 10-15 at most, that is the only spots they have since they have a limit on foreign players, and more importantly they don't want to just rent players for half a season. Usually the only people worth it are mega stars, and even that they don't have the finances for.

The players act like this gives them leverage. Take deron williams for example. In jersey he makes 14 plus million. He will be making 5 million in turkey. He doesn't have the same practice facilities, coaching, doctors, that the nba set up to have access too. He doesn't get the same tv exposure, 5 star suits, and other comforts. They have had trouble with paying checks on time, the professionalism and regulation isn't there. So all the infrastructure NBA has set up he doesn't have access to that and he is doing it for less than half his NBA salary. If anything, this euro experiment that can only accommodate a minority of the NBA players if that even, will be leverage for the owners to show how good they have it in the league.

 

I don't know. I think it's different in the NBA. Technically one superstar in a Euro team could already be unfair IMO, besides they're only playing for fun and to keep in shape.

 

Saša Vujačić signed for Efes Pilsen, not Bešiktaš.

 

They aren't even the biggest team in Turkey you mean?
And what is the level of the Turkish soccer league? I know lots of "stars" go their for the money but the real deals stay in England, Spain, Italy or Germany.

 

Are you joking with this? That would be true if their primary motivation was winning an easy championship in Turkey. They're trying to stick it to the NBA and make some money playing basketball, not dominate Turkish hoops.

 

I think Durvasa was being sarcastic.

 

Do they still limit the number of foreign players on a team and how many can play at the same time?