5th NBA Player Signs In Greek League This Summer

[Lakas Fan Yo]

Cedric Simmons signed with Greek club Peristeri Athens. That makes 5 NBA players now signing in the Greek League this summer.

Jeremy Richardson - Aris Thessaloniki
Ira Newble - Aris Thessaloniki
Von Wafer - Olympiacos Piraeus
Linas Kleiza - Olympiacos Piraeus
Cedric Simmons - Peristeri Athens

Miami Heat 2009 Draft pick Robert Dozier also signed with Greek club Colossus Rhodes. And Kasib Powell who played in the NBA before last year also signed with Greek club Trikala. Supposedly more signings of NBA players are still planned by several Greek clubs.

[Huey Freeman]

If they're offering more money in Greece, I'd take the money as well.

[Phenith]

Originally Posted by Lakas Fan Yo

Cedric Simmons signed with Greek club Peristeri Athens. That makes 5 NBA players now signing in the Greek League this summer.

Jeremy Richardson - Aris Thessaloniki
Ira Newble - Aris Thessaloniki
Von Wafer - Olympiacos Piraeus
Linas Kleiza - Olympiacos Piraeus
Cedric Simmons - Peristeri Athens

Miami Heat 2009 Draft pick Robert Dozier also signed with Greek club Colossus Rhodes. And Kasib Powell who played in the NBA before last year also signed with Greek club Trikala. Supposedly more signings of NBA players are still planned by several Greek clubs.

With the exception of Kleiza and a breakout year from Wafer, none of those guys really had much of an "NBA" presence. And even in the case of Kleiza and Wafer, they won't be greatly missed.

I'm not saying Greek teams are wasting their money, i'm just saying that these guys didn't have a lot of NBA options to consider making a non-NBA league their only real choice if they wanted to keep playing basketball professionally. Also, i'm not extremely familiar with European basketball(or most of those players games) but these guys might be better off in the European style.

Childress on the other hand was a guy that could have had a pretty solid NBA career had he stayed, if you start seeing more signings like him then maybe it would be more of a story but pretty much every one of those guys will be all but forgotten in the NBA scene in 2-3 years (i'm pretty sure Kasib Powell has already been forgotten and Cedric Simmons is pretty close).

[Lakas Fan Yo]

Originally Posted by Phenith

With the exception of Kleiza and a breakout year from Wafer, none of those guys really had much of an "NBA" presence. And even in the case of Kleiza and Wafer, they won't be greatly missed.

I'm not saying Greek teams are wasting their money, i'm just saying that these guys didn't have a lot of NBA options to consider making a non-NBA league their only real choice if they wanted to keep playing basketball professionally. Also, i'm not extremely familiar with European basketball(or most of those players games) but these guys might be better off in the European style.

Childress on the other hand was a guy that could have had a pretty solid NBA career had he stayed, if you start seeing more signings like him then maybe it would be more of a story but pretty much every one of those guys will be all but forgotten in the NBA scene in 2-3 years (i'm pretty sure Kasib Powell has already been forgotten and Cedric Simmons is pretty close).

These players were signed to be role players at the Greek League level. Not stars.

[Fallguy20]

This will not start a trend that will affect the quality of play in the NBA, no worries.