There are a couple of billionaire’s in Europe who own teams so money is no problem. Remember Galaxy paid Beckam 50 million a yr. becuz they have a billionaire owner.

I doubt a Euro team can even afford to pay a player 50mill a year. The highest paid in Euro only makes like 15mill a year. Basketball isnt big enough in euro to pay a player 50mill a year. The highest paid player in italy is earl boykins at 3.5mill. Thats why theres not even any leverage Kobe can use.

As far as using Europe as leverage, I doubt the Lakers will do anything that will hurt them financially. They never been “bullied” into bad contracts.

I will say, if he did leave, then don’t come back. I still remember back in 2004 when he was talking about going to the Clippers and Bulls and in the end came back to the Lakers. I also remember last years tirade about going to the Bulls. I’m not a fan of players who openly discuss leaving a team that you are already under contract to play for. At least wait till the time comes.

I like how LeBron handled all the talk about European offers and that he was not really going to discuss it because he was still under contract.

My opinion, David Stern better start taking the European threat seriously, because the NBA has no control over TV rights from these leagues as far as I know and the US is still a very big market for basketball. Too bad there are no tampering rules against non-NBA teams, but that would probably not be enforceable even if they existed.

Kobe likes messing with the media. But hey, he could be serious. At the end, it just matters on how the Lakers play, how he feels and where he wants to be. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

But for the present, let’s just see how TEAM USA fairs and how the Lakers will do next season.

The business side of basketball is becoming very similar to soccer. The MLS gets international players who are at the end, or ending, their prime. I think Kobe would do something similar. He’ll play in Europe towards the end of his prime and probably get paid a lot (think Beckham – $250M over 5 years).

There is a difference betweeen global soccer and basketball, however. In soccer, players who play in Europe are in their prime because not only is the competition better, the pay is better (look at Brazil, the stars of Brazilian soccer play in Europe. Ronaldinho now plays in Italy as does Kaka). In basketball, the players who are in their prime will need to make a decision, do I play in America where the competition is better and make less money, or do I play in Europe where I can make more money with less competition? Lebron James is a young player who will have to answer this question and if someone offers him $50M for a season, don’t be surprised if he takes off to Europe when he can opt-out of his Cleveland contract.