Childress blazes trail to Greece

A sixth man in the NBA, Josh Childress will be paid like a star in Greece. AP Steve Aschburner's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Steve. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

Leverage is owning Ventnor Avenue after the guy with the thimble buys Atlantic Avenue and Marvin Gardens. Leverage is packing a two-liter bottle of water in a no-liter lifeboat. Leverage, at its most fundamental, is two customers, one widget.

NBA players -- and in particular, a certain category of NBA players known as restricted free agents -- suddenly appear to have newfound leverage in the wake of former Atlanta swingman Josh Childress' decision Wednesday to sign with Olympiakos of Greece rather than re-up with the Hawks or settle for whatever offer sheet might come his way from the league's other 29 teams.

A fellow who knows a thing or two about leverage, improbably coiffed Donald Trump, once defined it as "having something the other guy wants. Or better yet, needs. Or best of all, simply cannot do without.'' That is what turns "You're fired!'' into "You're hired!'' The problem for NBA players -- in that relative sense in which people earning six-, seven- and eight-figure salaries can be said to have market-value problems -- is that, for so long, there have been few or no "other guys'' bidding for their services.

Europe and other international competition? Sure, that has been around for a long time -- a really, really long time in a B.C., world-history sense, and for several decades now in a pro hoops sense -- but it generally has been on par with the CBA, USBL and other minor leagues in terms of status and product quality. American players who sought jobs overseas generally did it for one of two reasons: to manufacture a bargaining position when in reality they had little or, more commonly, because they simply needed a job.

Back in 1980, newly drafted Kevin McHale and his agent, Ron Simon, tried to use a feeler from a team in Milan to twist the arm of Boston president Red Auerbach and the Celtics. Coach Bill Fitch scoffed at the notion, saying, "Let him eat spaghetti,'' and Auerbach didn't blink at an unconvincing flight Simon and McHale took to meet with the Italian club's owner. Five days into training camp, McHale -- a most un-cosmopolitan candidate to play overseas, an Irish kid from the Iron Range in the upper Midwest -- showed up and signed.

Nine years later, Danny Ferry didn't like the idea of joining the Clippers, the team that had drafted him. So he signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal with Il Messaggero Roma and played in Italy while L.A. surrendered and traded his rights to Cleveland. Then Ferry hurried back to begin a 13-season NBA career. Brian Shaw, his teammate with Il Messaggeroat at about half the salary, came back after one year away from the Celtics early in his career.

Others who found work in foreign lands typically were undrafted and unproven youngsters or NBA warhorses like Bob McAdoo trying to milk a year or two out of name recognition and creaky legs. The influx of international players has exploded over the past decade, of course, but the NBA and the United States most assuredly have been running a basketball trade deficit in star power, if not sheer numbers.

Until, maybe, now.

"The path to globalization now apparently travels in both directions,'' agent Lon Babby told reporters by teleconference from Greece on Wednesday after Childress signed a three-year contract with Olympiakos that is more lucrative, on average, than what Atlanta offered in a five-year, $33 million package.

Childress' move represents the next logical phase in this shrinking basketball world. It has been fairly routine, in recent years, for NBA teams to have their international players leave for jobs overseas. New Jersey's Bostjan Nachbar, for instance, opted this week to sign with Russia's Dynamo Moscow club for a reported $14.3 million over three years, a fat raise over his $2.5 million salary from the Nets in 2007-08. Factor in the exchange rate almost anywhere relative to the U.S. dollar these days, the fact that many sports contracts are tax-free to Americans and other typical perks, like housing or transportation, and these deals get fatter still.