Overseas basketball

NEWS FLASH!!!!

July 08 2005

Only three months have passed since I wrote this section, but it is already obsolete. Professional basketball in Europe is undergoing some major changes, which should be very exciting for Americans looking for opportunities to play.

The Euroleague, which is an invitational tournament for the very best teams from across Europe, announced an abrupt change in their rules for next season. While last season teams where only allowed to play with two Americans, next season there will be no limit at all.

Because the Euroleague is the pinnacle of basketball in Europe- something like the NCAA tournament for college ball - many countries are moving in line with the new rules.

Germany has already declared that each first division team's roster can include any number of Americans.

While many other leagues are keeping limits in place, in time more and more countries will allow unlimited American players. The natural result will be more and more job opportunities for American basketball players.

There has never been a better time for US citizens to get a shot at playing basketball, and making money in Europe.

*The Polish and Portuguese leagues have just shifted from allowing only 2 to allowing 5 American players for each team.

*France has announced their ruling to allow 4 Americans in the first division and 2 in the second division. Both divisions will allow 2 players from Europe, Africa or the Caribbean. The remaining players must all be French. Until now, both leagues only allowed two Americans.

In college, players are defined only by their ability. Professional basketball in Europe is different. The first statistic that a team will want to know about you is what nationality is marked on your passport.

The reason for this is that the European leagues want to stay European, and to ensure that they do there are tough limits on the number of outsiders allowed on each team.

With the rules in place, every team in Europe is allowed to employ unlimited European players but only 2 non-Europeans. In nearly every case that means 2 Americans. Because of this limit, the teams try to ensure that they get the absolute maximum productivity out of their two American players. To get the best, these teams are willing to pay a lot of money, but the competition is fierce. Finding a spot on a team is tough for a US citizen because there are so many players competing for those precious few spots.

It is very competitive, but the bright side is that there are close to a thousand professional teams in Europe alone, and once an American wins a spot on a team his status is high. He will usually be the go-to guy on that team, will have all the playing time that he wants, and plays designed for him to get the ball and score.

Players with European passports have an easier time finding a job. With most teams having a roster of 8-12 professionals, and 2 spots going to Americans, there are a lot of places left over for European players. If you have a parent or grandparent or recent European decent, stop reading right now, and go and investigate the possibility of getting European citizenship for yourself. Right now! Nothing else will have nearly the same power to raise your earning potential as a European passport. Your first stop should be to find the phone number of the European country's embassy in the united states and ask how you would go about getting dual citizenship.

A recent rule has also opened up an allowance for each team to sign what is called a 'cotonou' player in addition to their two Americans. A cotonou player is someone with a passport from nearly any African or Caribbean nation. If you have a Jamaican, Nigerian, Dominican Liberian or other such parent or grandparent, you need to call the embassy too because this could open up hundreds of job opportunities for you.

To summarize; for a group of players all with equal ability one with a European passport will make the most money because a team can sign him and still leave the American and cotonou slots open, next will be the cotonou player and in last place will be the American. It is not fair but it is the reality.

Also not fair is the fact that moving from center down to point guard, the average salary also decreases. This is because there a just a lot more little guys than big guys, the big guys are harder to find so they get paid more.

chris@playerexposure.com