Hooped Up

Getting paid for something you would do for free is smart.  Getting paid doubled for it is genius.  Opa!

“Childress is living in a three-bedroom apartment in the fashionable Athens suburb of Glyfada. He received a three-year, $20 million contract from Olympiacos, making him the highest-paid basketball player in the world outside of the N.B.A. With his housing, Volvo, chef, telephone and Greek taxes paid for by the team, Childress estimated he would take home about $6 million this season, about twice as much as he would have had he played in the N.B.A. “I get paid double, my role increases, I have no expenses and I move to a nice city,” Childress said. “How many guys wouldn’t do that, regardless if you’re a lawyer or a doctor? In a business sense, if I were to tell people that I passed on that deal, I would be stupid. That would be the next headline: Josh Childress Shouldn’t Have Gone to Stanford. He’s an Idiot.”

New York Times

Sorting through the difference between Euros and dollars was crucial for Josh Childress and his representatives as they weighed an offer from a Greek team (Olympiakos) paying with Euros and an NBA team (Hawks) paying with dollars. Either way you slice it Olympiakos was offering more, including an annual salary nearly twice the value of the Hawks’ offer annually: club becomes a net of salary of about $6.7 million a year for Childress. The Hawks offered five years and $33 million, which after taxes paid by Childress becomes a net salary of about $3.4 million per year for Childress. In addition to the double-stuffed salary Olympiakos also pays for all of Childress’ living expenses, including luxury accommodations, a car and driver and maid service. Childress also has an annual opt-out clause in the contract that will allow him to weigh his NBA options, as a restricted free agent provided the Hawks tender a qualifying offer to him, every summer.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Atlanta Hawks fans won’t have to fret over the fate of restricted free agent swingman Josh Childress anymore.

That’s because Childress is no longer a Hawk. He said he agreed to terms Wednesday morning on a three-year contract with Olympiakos of Greece that is worth far more than $20 million initially reported.

“It’s official, I just signed,” Childress said by phone Wednesday morning from Athens, where he and agent Jim Tanner will be until Friday. “I think it was . . . a situation where I didn’t know who to expect coming in, coming over to Athens. But it’s a great city and a great organization. They do whatever they can to make you feel at home.”

The deal is the most lucrative current contract in European basketball and the biggest in Euroleague history. 

AJC

Free agent forward Josh Childress is weighing a three-year, $20 million offer from Olympiakos, a Greek basketball team, according to an online report.

Jim Tanner, Childress’ agent, told SN’s Sean Deveney, “He is definitely considering it. We’re here now.”

Yahoo is reporting Childress flew to Greece late on Sunday to visit with Olympiakos officials because he is “so flustered with the Hawks’ refusal to make a sign-and-trade deal.”

“Unless he just gets there and doesn’t like it at all, I think he’s going to go,” a league source told Yahoo. A source also told the site that there’s a “better than 50-50 chance” he’ll sign with the Greek team and spurn the NBA.

Only the Grizzlies have more than a mid-level exception available and their lack of activity on the free-agent market makes it clear they will not be spending on Childress or any other significant remaining free agents.

As part of a dynamic, young core for the Hawks, Childress averaged 11.8 points and 4.9 rebounds during the 2007-08 season.

Sporting News