SI

Euroleague hopes NBA labor talks stall prospects' move to U.S.

The Euroleague is hoping the ongoing labor negotiations may enable young European players to postpone their move to the NBA, according to Euroleague president
Ian Thomsen|
Euroleague hopes NBA labor talks stall prospects' move to U.S.
Euroleague hopes NBA labor talks stall prospects' move to U.S.

The Euroleague is hoping the ongoing labor negotiations may enable young European players to postpone their move to the NBA, according to Euroleague president and CEO Jordi Bertomeu.

Bertomeu told SI.com that he met with NBA commissioner David Stern approximately a year and a half ago to discuss ways to help prevent young Europeans from moving to the NBA prematurely.

"We made a proposal once we knew that negotiations [with the players' union] had to take place," Bertomeu said. "We presented a document of elements that could be included in the negotiations between the NBA and the players' union.

"We can't give too many concrete details. But part of the proposal included a formula that included the elements of age, rookie salaries and how the rookie salaries computed into the salary cap. It was designed to create an incentive for the players to stay in Europe."

The goal is to create more stars like Manu Ginobili of Argentina (who didn't leave Italy to join the Spurs until he was 25) and fewer busts like Nikoloz Tskitishvili of Georgia (who never developed in the NBA after being drafted as a 19-year-old in the Italian league in 2002).

Stern was noncommittal. "I don't remember the memo, but I do remember the subject coming up in conversation," he told SI.com. "Obviously, it could only be considered in the context of negotiations with the players' union for a collective bargaining agreement.

"I also made the point to Jordi that many [European] players are now being drafted in the second round, and our teams don't sign them," Stern said. "Therefore, they do stay in Europe to develop."

Stern held out hope that some kind of measure could be enacted.

"Another way to achieve significant movement in this area," he said, "would be to raise the age limit across the board."

Under the former CBA, American players could be drafted essentially one year after their senior year of high school, while international players needed to be at least 19 in the year in which they were drafted. Stern noted that the Euroleague's request must wait on the back burner as NBA owners and players haggle over how to split more than $4 billion in annual revenue.

"I'm aware of the concern," Stern said of Bertomeu's request. "But we have many other pressing issues to resolve first."

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Ian Thomsen
IAN THOMSEN

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen, who joined the magazine in 1998, is one of SI's top basketball scribes. Along with writing columns and features for SI, Thomsen is a frequent contributor to SI.com. Before joining SI, Thomsen spent six years in Europe as the sports columnist for the International Herald Tribune, the world's largest international English-language daily. While at the paper Thomsen wrote about an array of sports for a global audience, including the major world and European soccer tournaments, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis events, Grand Prix auto races and, very rarely, cricket. Thomsen, who graduated from Northwestern with a journalism degree in 1983, was a feature writer for The National Sports Daily during its short, expensive run of 1990-91. His first job was with The Boston Globe, where he covered Doug Flutie's Boston College Eagles and all three of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the 1980s. Thomsen was a feature writer at SI before taking on the NBA beat fulltime in 2000. With Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura, Thomsen covered the 2001 scandal of overaged Little League pitcher Danny Almonte and wrote the first SI cover story on Kobe Bryant in 1998. Thomsen lives with his wife and two children near Boston.

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