Kenyon Martin, Wilson Chandler J.R. Smith and Aaron Brooks: NBA players stuck in China till March
When it seemed that the labour talks were not making much progress in the initial phase of the NBA lockout, many players started searching for the jobs overseas and jumped on whatever opportunity they got to make money during this
work stoppage, without considering the negative aspects, especially in the Chinese deals.
The free agents who signed up for the Chinese franchises were Kenyon Martin, Wilson Chandler, Patty Mills, J.R. Smith and Aaron Brooks. All of them signed contracts which didn’t have an out-clause ensuring their return to United
States whenever the NBA lockout got over.
However, what seemed right at that time to these players is now causing them a lot of pain. Firstly because they cannot return to the NBA before the Chinese season comes to end in March. Secondly, Chinese teams aren’t paying them
as much money as they used to get in the NBA. Add salt to the injury, they are getting average travelling facilities and bearing cuisines.
This doesn’t mean that Chinese teams haven’t provided them with any facilities. These players have been given personal drivers and chefs, but nothing can be compared to the facilities they are used to at home. Martin had reportedly
changed three chefs since his arrival and now finally has settled for the fourth, who could cook Western-style food as per his liking.
The reason why the Chinese introduced tougher playing laws was that their basketball association didn’t want its season to get spoiled, if the NBA lockout comes to an end and the players leave in the middle of the season. Now these
NBA players cannot shy away from their commitment and even if they try to do so, they’ll face some serious penalties.
To start off with, the CBA wouldn’t issue them clearance letters, which these players require to join NBA again. As, NBA is a member of the
Fédération Internationale de Basketball (commonly known as FIBA or International Basketball Association) it has to abide by its rules and cannot allow these players to join it without clearance letters.
A Chinese Basketball Association official recently stated,
“If they think that they’re going to make things difficult, not play, create problems, what’s going to happen is that the teams will not release their letters of clearance they’ll need to sign in the NBA.” So, “There’s no way out.”
So now these players have to wait for the Chinese season to get over.
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