Foreign intrigue

NBA Draft rules pose roadblock for international teens

If you think LeBron James is the hoops prodigy with headaches, check out the legal wrangling that awaits a couple of promising foreign lads, Darko Milicic of Yugoslavia and Sofoklis Scortsianitis of Greece.

Milicic, who compares his game to that of Kevin Garnett, widely projects as the second pick behind the more-celebrated James in the NBA Draft. Scortsianitis, who like Milicic stands 6 feet 11, is viewed by scouts as another early first-rounder, probably within the first 10 picks.

We’re talking fat contracts all around, with Milicic looking at something in the neighborhood of $11 million for three years.

The Foreign Crop Players projected as possible first-round picks in the 2003 NBA Draft Victor Khryapa 6-8 forward, 20 years old Plays for CSKA Moscow in the Russian League, averaging 5.3 points in 12 games. Darko Milicic 6-11 center/forward, 17 Plays for KK Hemofarm in Vrsac, Yugoslavia, coming off a season-best game of 21 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocks. Eyinmisan Nikagbatse 6-3 guard, 20 German, plays for Olympoacos B.C. Piraeus in the Greek League, averaging 4.1 in seven games. Zaur Pachulia 6-11 center, 18 Plays for Ulker in the Turkish League, averaging 14 points in 11 games. Mickael Pietrus 6-6 forward, 20 Plays for Pau Orthez in the French League, averaging 8.7 points in 12 games. Zoran Planinic 6-6 guard, 22 Plays for Cibona in the Croatian League, averaging 8.4 points in 12 games. Sofoklis Scortsianitis 6-11, center, 17 Plays in the Greek League, averaging 11.5 points in 11 games. Anderson Varejao 6-10 center, 20 Brazilian plays for F.C. Barcelona in the Spanish League, averaging 5.2 points in 12 games. Slavko Vranes 7-5 center, 19 Plays for Buducnost in the Yugoslav League, scoring 9 points in 12 games.

Well, not so fast. Both players will turn 18 before the June 26 draft -- but not until after the May 12 filing deadline for foreign players. And while language in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement isn’t precise on whether the deadline for turning 18 is the filing date or the draft itself, David Stern subscribes to the filing deadline, which would leave both players out of the 2003 draft. (An American high school player who graduates with his class is eligible, even if he’s 17.)

So it won’t be all gold, flash and celebrity bashes at the All-Star Game weekend in Atlanta. On Saturday morning, the executive committee of the NBA Players Association will debate whether to take the case of the European teenagers to arbitration.

“I know LeBron James is much more famous because he lives in the U.S., but my case is much bigger," contends Milicic, reached in Belgrade and speaking through an interpreter. “If I stay one more year, God forbid I get hurt next year -- nobody is going to touch me. Even if he has trouble with [high school] rules, LeBron is going to be the top pick. My case is much more complicated."

What you have is a questionable interpretation of a 20-year-old rule that predates the arrival of international players in the NBA. If either Milicic or Scortsianitis played high school ball in, say, Akron or Los Angeles, they could parade right to the draft-night podium.

Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O’Neal were both 17 when selected as first-rounders in the 1996 draft. This weekend, you'll notice, they’re All-Star Game starters.

“The concept of making [Milicic and Scortsianitis] wait another year is silly when they don’t have college eligibility," argues Marc Fleisher, who represents Scortsianitis. “It’s not like an American player whom the league is trying to encourage to stay in school. These kids are already pros [in Europe]. They couldn’t [play at] an American university if they wanted to."

At 17, Milicic is in his third season of pro ball in Yugoslavia. He takes home a modest $20,000 a season, but that's enough to set NCAA investigators off on a sprint if he ever set foot on a campus.

The Clause Here's the contract language that is fueling the debate Article X, Section 6(c) of the collective bargaining agreement between owners and players reads: “A foreign player who is at least eighteen (18) years old and who has not exercised intercollegiate basketball eligibility in the United States shall become eligible to be selected in an N.B.A. draft held prior to the calendar year in which he has his twenty-second (22nd) birthday if he expresses his desire to become eligible to be selected in the next N.B.A. draft by written notice to the N.B.A. at least forty-five (45) days prior to such draft.''

“Milicic’s choices or an international players’ choices are to stay and play professional overseas or to play professionally in the NBA," says Marc Cornstein, the player’s agent. “That is a fairly easy choice, if given the choice."

It’s not that simple, of course. There are a slew of conflicting interests at play here.

The agents have a deep financial stake in herding young talent to the North American market. At the same time, the league is eagerly pushing for a minimum age of 20 for incoming rookies -- which the union casts as an attempt to hold down salaries. There’s also a question of how strongly the union sticks up for foreign players.

Right now, nearly one-fifth of the NBA players are from outside the U.S., with another eight or nine international players projected as first-round picks in June. Yet not one foreign player sits on the executive committee that will help determine the union’s decision Saturday.

“There are those who think the union has sort of looked at foreign players as taking jobs away from American players, but I think [union boss] Billy Hunter realizes foreign players have a significant role to play in this union," says Fleisher, whose father was the union’s first executive director. “He realizes they will be a large part of his constituency and therefore he needs to pay attention to them. Whether this is one of those issues that he decides is important enough for him to pay attention to, I don’t know."

Hunter and union officials have said only that a decision will come out of Saturday’s meeting, but most expect the fight for the European players to be taken up. As one union official said, “You have two potential NBA players who have a big stake in this, and usually that’s enough to go to war."

If it isn’t this time, the two agents promise to pursue a legal fight on their own.

Both players are apparently worth the fuss. And if the collective bargaining agreement language about foreign entry is indeed ambiguous -- a claim the league strongly disputes -- then Milicic and Scortsianitis may well notch their first victories before stepping on a NBA court.

There are no leagues in Europe to compare to American college basketball. You also find most of the Europeans projecting as high draft picks this June are 19 or 20 years old, but their minutes and numbers are unimpressive as they compete against grown men.

Scortsianitis, averaging nearly 12 points and 6.2 rebounds for Iraklis in the Greek League, has stats as good as any of the top prospects. The kid was found by one of the nine agents/scouts employed overseas by Fleisher.

“He is not called ‘Baby Shaq’ for nothing," Fleisher cracks. “He’s a very, very big and strong 17-year-old who has not lifted weights in his life. Just naturally strong and agile."

Milicic is considered even better and with more upside. A lefty, he handles the ball deftly for his size and is described as a hard-nosed player.

“The last couple of years the NBA has become a global game -- [with] players not just from Europe, but all over the world," Milicic says. “I just don’t understand different rules for American players and the rest of the world. I’m 18 six days before the draft. Some players as soon as they finish high school in the U.S., if 17, they can go in the draft. It should be the same rules for everybody."

OK, maybe LeBron James doesn’t have it so tough.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for SI.com.

Comments? To e-mail Fish, click here.

 

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