Weekly Countdown (cont.)

3 Steps to exposing a longstanding problem in European basketball

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3. Acknowledge that players haven't been paid. There are two sides to the long-running marriage of American players to European basketball. At the high end is the contract Josh Childress signed with Olympiakos of Greece, paying the former Atlanta Hawk $32.5 million over three years. The Euroleague club outbid the NBA for Childress, leading to speculation that Olympiakos and other European powers could make offers of $30 million or more to lure LeBron or Kobe as NBA free agents.

But there is another less attractive side to basketball across the ocean. For as long as the sport has been played professionally in Europe, players have been at risk of not receiving their money. The stories include the excruciating tale of Danny Vranes, a former NBA player who told me that his Greek club in the late 1980s not only refused to pay him but also forced him to play in a big game by kidnapping Vranes' friend and not releasing him until the game was finished, at which time Vranes left Greece without his money.

Most of the stories of jilted players tend to the routine: The European team responds to a losing streak by changing its roster, or the American player is injured and replaced. In many of these cases, the displaced player is not paid the salary that was promised to him. The expatriate American players have had no recourse, and to this day they face a foreign legal system weighted to the benefit of the local club, the absence of a European players' association and an inherent conflict of interest in which the player's agent is paid by the European club. David Falk received his income from Michael Jordan, but in the European system Falk would have been paid his salary -- and essentially be working for -- the Chicago Bulls.

So who looks out for the best interests of the player?

2. Seek civil judgments against the club. In 2000-01, former NBA player Chris Morris underwent knee surgery in Greece as a player for Olympiakos. When the knee failed to heal quickly enough, Olympiakos replaced Morris without further pay. In 2003, Morris won a civil judgment against Olympiakos in U.S. District Court in Houston that awarded him close to $1.3 million (including attorneys' fees and interest to date). Morris' agent, Tom McLaughlin, won a similar action in U.S. District Court in Boston, ordering Olympiakos to now pay him close to $500,000.

Olympiakos did not defend itself in these cases and has not paid the money, so Morris and McLaughlin have upped the pressure. On Feb. 18, a U.S. Federal Court subpoena was served on Coca-Cola demanding the company to turn over all records of its financial dealings with Olympiakos since 2004. With the help of the international law firm Yormick & Associates, Morris and McLaughlin plan to serve similar subpoenas on all of the American sponsors of Olympiakos, including Nike and Citigroup.

When Morris went unpaid by Olympiakos, the club was owned by Greek magnate Socrates Kokkalis. The club is now operated by the Aggelopoulos brothers, a pair of ambitious, young billionaires who are to European basketball what Mark Cuban is to the NBA. They are being held accountable for the actions of their club, and McLaughlin hopes that other jilted players will follow this example.

"The idea is to get the American sponsors to know about this mistreatment of American athletes. I would think they would like to know about that,'' McLaughlin said. "It's like trying to deal with these deadbeat dads who are not paying child support. When the cases are publicized, something like 80 percent of the dads wind up paying. But if there is no publicity, they don't pay. What we're really trying to do is to get the deadbeat teams to pay.''

1. Form a players' association. The American International Players' Association (AIPA) is positioned in Europe to help resolve disputes between players and clubs, to "represent equal and fair accountability on both sides,'' according to co-founder and chairman David Rivers, a former Notre Dame star who led none other than Olympiakos to the 1996-97 Euroleague championship. With thousands of American men and women playing and coaching basketball professionally around the world, the AIPA could become a powerful clearinghouse of information as well as a force to improve the operating standards of the sport outside the United States.

2 Health issues concerning Tyson Chandler

2. Asthma. Chandler was shocked to be diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma five years ago. "My game is energy -- running the floor, being athletic, priding myself on being in better condition than the other big [man],'' the Hornets' center said. "I was wheezing and coughing, trying to go through training camp with shortness of breath. Initially, I was wondering, How is this going to affect me?''

Doctors told Chandler his illness was common among athletes.

"They say it can come on later in life,'' said Chandler, now 26. "Everybody's case is different. In my particular case, I came up with a game plan to deal with it.'' He doesn't want to describe his regimen "because I don't want kids to look at what I do and try to follow my exact footsteps. I would suggest that kids out there deal with their doctor and come up with a game plan of their own.''

Chandler has taken on his illness as a personal cause, encouraging a healthy lifestyle for children with asthma while emphasizing awareness of asthma control in his promotion of the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Skills Challenge.

"It hasn't affected me at all,'' said the 7-1 Chandler, who has averaged 12.5 points and 13.5 rebounds in two games since his trade to Oklahoma City was rescinded last week. "It hasn't been a problem. Since I was aware of it and understanding of how to deal with it, then everything was OK. It does affect you when you don't have an understanding of it.''

1. His left big toe. The trade was called off and Chandler was sent back to the Hornets because the Thunder physician, Dr. Carlan Yates, decided that Chandler's toe made him an injury risk. Yates performed surgery on the toe in 2007.

Chandler had heard rumors that the Hornets would be forced to make a trade to unload salary in order to avoid paying the luxury tax next season.

"I didn't necessarily think it would be myself,'' he said.

Rather than demoralize the Hornets, Chandler hopes the episode will create a sense of urgency to win now.

"It won't affect us except in motivating us to get out there and play harder and understand we have to seize the moment,'' he said. "It brought to our attention how much we respect and appreciate playing with one another, because there's a chance we may not be together next year. We feel like we've got to win now. Once the summer comes along, you never know what is going to happen.''

Though the Thunder refused to trade for him, Chandler believes other teams may be interested. He doubts other doctors will share Yates's long-term diagnosis.

"It's funny, when I came back and I was sitting in [the Hornets' management] office, teams were calling about me,'' Chandler said. "I'm sitting in the office and I can hear them saying, 'You've got so-and-so on the line,' and I knew what it was about because I had heard which teams had been trying to trade for me.''

1 Final thought on Stephon Marbury

1. His success depends entirely on his teammates. A point guard usually is expected to make his teammates play to a higher level. In this perverse case, however, it's up to Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to raise the level of their new point guard.

Based on the interviews they've given in recent days, it's easy to piece together how the Celtics decided to recruit Marbury. Coach Doc Rivers asked his three stars if Marbury should join the team. When they agreed, Rivers told them it was their responsibility to make it work.

Some of the biggest mistakes in the NBA are made by GMs and coaches who believe they can dramatically rehabilitate or salvage a player who has been self-destructive elsewhere. But few teams are able to apply so much hands-on experience to this experiment as the Celtics' three stars in combination with Rivers, a former player himself. None of them should believe they can change Marbury's personality. At best, they can create rules and boundaries for their new teammate, and then enforce them diligently.