Josh Childress turned his back on the National Basketball Association's Atlanta Hawks and signed a three-year deal worth 20 million dollars on Wednesday with the Greek club Olympiakos.
The deal, the richest contract in European basketball history, trumped a five-year offer for 33 million dollars that Childresss received from the Hawks and Childress can opt out of the deal after each season.
"It's certainly different. We thought outside the box on this one," Childress said. "Players can see a fellow NBA athlete come overseas and live a normal life and adjust to the culture and think, 'Why not me?'"
Childress could see more NBA talent following him to Europe.
"I'm interested to see how these next weeks turn out for some of the other restricted free agents in my draft class," he said.
Hawks general manager Rick Sund said on Wednesday that he considered his club's offer a fair one after extensive talks with Childress about an extension.
"I don't think this happened because of the Hawks," Sund said. "We felt comfortable that if he was going to play in the US and the NBA, we would have the best offer - and we did. Our offer was more than market value here."
European clubs have no salary caps, unlike NBA clubs, and can make huge offers to players that NBA teams would struggle to equal.
"It would be a big mistake if we weren't competitive with what the league would offer him," Sund said. "We wanted to send a message that if someone made him an offer sheet that we would match."
Top US high school player Brandon Jennings signed with an Italian club earlier this month rather than take a scholarship offer from the University of Arizona.
NBA clubs no longer allow players coming out of high school to sign with NBA clubs without a one-year wait.
Childress spent four NBA seasons with the Hawks, averaging 11.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in 285 games. He came off the bench in every game last season, when he averaged 11.8 points and 4.9 rebounds.
"This is a unique situation with Greece, and to my knowledge it is believed to be the highest contract ever awarded in Euroleague history," Sund said.
Copyright 2008 AFP American Edition
