Despite lockout, NBA players just as busy selling shoes
A short time ago, “playing internationally” was something that Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady did in Toronto, or something that Steve Francis wouldn’t do in Vancouver. Nowadays, the phrase means something else entirely as people have realized there are decent professional basketball leagues on other continents.
To NBA players the idea of playing overseas has always been a mere novelty, to their agents the option has been one more opportunity for their clients to sign lucrative contracts. Still, it seems, until now, no serious NBA star had strongly considered such a move. The biggest names to play for an international club have been NBA-exiles Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury, me-first alpha-guards who likely thought they could Globetrotter their way through the pathetic defense of the smaller, slower Chinese and Turkish guards.
Not much is really know about these brief stints: Iverson refused to play because he claims his club, Besiktas (more on them later), wasn’t paying him, then he had optional calf surgery; while Marbury was traded from one smogged-out industrial town in rural China to another and barely played. Other lesser NBA players have gone overseas, but the migration route is east to west, and strictly one way for anyone capable of making an NBA team, even at the 11th and 12th spots.
In the slowly-developing story that is the NBA lockout, the only real revelation in two weeks has been big name NBA stars like Deron Williams, Kevin Durant and most recently Dwight Howard threatening to sign with international clubs, in a fairly transparent move to weaken the NBA’s leverage to attract and maintain 100 percent of the top basketball talent in the world.
It’s an unprecedented move in the big four North American sports for any top players to migrate internationally to play. Petr Forsberg played hockey in the Swedish Elite League under beleaguered circumstances, and some NFL players flock to Canada after failing to make NFL rosters, but except for sports such as soccer and tennis, significantly more money can be made in America, and the talent stays here.
Until someone actually takes to the court no one can speculate with any certainty, and even if it happens it’s doubtful to think it will be the deathblow that wins the NBAPA everything they want in these labor negotiations.
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While there is all this speculation about where NBA players will sign overseas, one of the biggest motivators of their decision may not even be the act of actually playing basketball.
The largest market for shoes in the entire world is China. Initial reports of Kobe Bryant signing with a Turkish team were made while he was in China on a tour with Nike, who signed the Black Mamba to an endorsement deal in 2010 worth $40-45 million. Before him, Nike also sponsored Kevin Durant’s tour of Guangzhou and Beijing, two of China’s biggest cities. Durant is currently in the middle of his seven-year deal to continue his shoe line, which will be pumping out his KD IV’s whether there is a lockout or not.
With news of Yao Ming’s retirement weakening the link between Asia and the NBA, Nike is doing its part to build basketball by bringing Kobe and Durant over, with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James also scheduled to make appearances for the Oregon-based shoe giant in China this summer.
Not to be outdone, reports have Dwight Howard saying it is a “huge possibility” that he will play basketball overseas. Whether the “huge” in that quote is simply a nod to Howard’s fully-loaded 6’11” build is unclear, as is the vagueness as to whether he will play pro or just in exhibition. The fact that his shoe sponsor, Adidas, wants a similar stake of that Chinese market share means both Adidas and Howard have the financial motivation to do so.
Other high-profile players such as Steve Nash and Stephen Curry also have shoe deals in China — Nash for Luyou, and Curry for Peak — and have openly suggested they may play professionally for a Chinese team*. Still, not one NBA star has come close to putting on any uniform of an international club.
Right now, the only real signing possibilities have come from the Turkish club Besiktas. Two weeks ago Deron Williams announced his intention to sign with them, and since then they’ve been eyeing Bryant too. It’s not outlandish to think to think the latter is considering it given that he has an apparent pathological instinct to play competitive basketball, not to mention an endorsement deal with a Turkish airline. Despite that, it’s also clear he and his camp are playing games with Besiktas, trying to maintain an upperhand in negotiations. After they offered him $500,000 per month to play for them, Bryant said Monday that he’ll only consider them at $1 million per month.
In light of news that Besiktas currently has its bank accounts frozen due to accusations of match-fixing on the professional football end of the organization, it’s doubtful the club will be able to sign Williams or Bryant, let alone both of them as they intend to.
Clearly, “playing internationally” means something different today than it did before, and it means different things to different types of players. For the Josh Childresses of the NBA, it’s a growing opportunity to play meaningful basketball and earn a quality living, but with that comes also a lot of effort and hard work. For superstars like Durant and Howard, it probably means a lot of exhibitions and smiling for photo-ops.
The superstars aren’t going to break a sweat, let alone do anything risky, and lesser known players will have no such impact. Given that, the end of this lockout is likely going to send a catastrophic shift through the extremes of the NBA labor circle, sending 12th men scattering to prove themselves in Istanbul and Barcelona.
While we wait for the NBA D-league to prove more effective in the generation of league-ready talent, perhaps the slow emigration of NBA cast-offs will strengthen international leagues, maybe even proving as a high-quality breeding ground like the Swedish and Russian leagues are for the NHL.
The posturing back and forth between the league and the players is going to continue. While it does, more players are likely to decide once and for all whether they will play overseas. Given that the NBAPA is extending its health insurance to players wishing to do so, it’s less risky and even more lucrative to play abroad.
But, as the “opt-out as soon as the NBA starts again” clause that is essential to Deron Williams’ contract becomes precedent, the threat to the NBA of players going international in the long term just isn’t there.
Regardless of whether there is NBA basketball in the fall, though, there are another billion or so people who love the sport beside the 360 NBA pros who get the most attention. Many of them will spend money on new basketball shoes, and this is economic incentive enough to keep the coffers of a few privileged NBA superstars stocked with cash through endorsement deals that can earn them more per year than their team contracts.
With A-list NBA help, China is the biggest and best place for Adidas and Nike to expand their all mighty empires. It certainly doesn’t hurt that their Chinese-made shoes can be shipped to stores domestically.
*Curiously, both players also wear Nikes on NBA courts – though it’s probably more of a matter of not breaking ankles rather than Nike sponsorship.
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