Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul keeping their overseas options open: NBA Update
The National Basketball Association Lockout has completed its first month and there are still no definite signs of any progress. In fact in the last meeting held this Monday, the talks over the new Collective Bargaining Agreement
landed in hot waters and NBA filed two law suits against the players and their association NBPA.
After the postponement of the free agency, Rookie Transition Program (RTP) and cancelation of the Las Vegas Summer League, the work stoppage is now threatening the 2011-2012 season itself. This has forced many players to look for
playing options in Europe and China. Deron Williams, the New Jersey point guard was the first superstar to make the move.
Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard have shown their interest recently and now Dwyane Wade of Miami Heat, Carmelo Anthony of New York Knicks and Chris Paul of New Orleans Hornets have announced that they are going to consider all options,
if the league fails to make some quick moves to end the lockout.
Wade, Carmelo and Paul are in China for a promotional tour and will be back soon to supply more insight on their decisions to play with the international leagues.
China has a huge fan following of the NBA players and the 27-year-old small forward Anthony said on playing for the Chinese league.
"As far as coming over here, we've always said this whole trip that our options are open. Hopefully, we won't have to take that route - coming over here. Hopefully, we have a season, but who knows, we shall see."
The Chinese Basketball player Gao Yuan, who played with the NBA stars in one of the sponsored events on Monday, believes that having the players on board won’t be as exciting as NBA.
"If they played in China, the game wouldn't be as exciting as the NBA. I love the atmosphere of the NBA, the feeling you get when you watch it." Yuan said.
The NBA players were recently cleared by FIBA, the international governing body of basketball, to play overseas during the NBA lockout, provided they keep an escape clause in their contracts. This has made their path clear for
a mass exodus of NBA players. However, there are unconfirmed reports that the Chinese basketball association will not entertain NBA players, who will demand an out clause and that they want a maximum of one NBA players in their team.
This has certainly complicated the matters and there is huge possibility that the players will turn to Europe now.
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