In case you didn't know, there were a lot of international players taken in last night's NBA draft. Nine to be exact, which is a good number, but not a ton. Two of them (Omer Asik and Semih Erden) are from Turkey but the player I'm focused on is Asik, who was drafted by the Portland Trailblazers before he was traded in a three-way trade to the Chicago Bulls for three second round picks.
It's a little bit of a hefty price but he's well worth it if, and that's a big if, he comes to the NBA. Jonathan Givony of draftexpress.com ranked him as one of the top European big men in this year's draft, but he "is in discussions right now with his Turkish team Fenerbahce about ripping up his current contract and signing a 5-year deal."
Apparently, this contract is supposed to be binding, meaning he can't even be bought out. That means the Bulls have to wait until he is 27-years old before they even get the opportunity to sign him. That's pretty old for a rookie, even for an international player coming to the U.S. Even after those five years, there's always the chance that he stays with the team so this is quite a gamble.
The nice thing with Asik playing in Turkey is that it's only 400 miles away from Israel. That's like the distance from Chicago to the Iowa and Nebraska border, which by plane isn't too long and by car is probably around seven hours. I'm not sure how I'd get there or if this is even feasible, but it would be nice to see the potential Bulls center of the future playing in Europe.
Speaking of Middle-Eastern basketball, I got to thinking about some notable players from Maccabi Tel Aviv who I'm looking forward to seeing. If you're looking at it from a Chicago Bulls fan perspective, you have to start with Marcus Fizer who was probably the defining draft choice in the Jerry Krause post-Jordan era. Glad to see he's made a home in Israel though. Anyone know the Hebrew word for bust?
Looking at the rest of this roster, there's Lior Eliyahu and Yotam Halperin who were selected in the 2006 draft. I'm not sure on what the status with either of them is, but I imagine at least Eliyahu will stay with the team since he didn't get a whole lot of minutes and struggled all season from what I read.
Another interesting player is 6-8 Omri Casspi, who could potentially enter the 2009 Draft. Givony currently has him as a mid-first round pick, while ESPN Draft Analyst Chad Ford is not yet convinced, saying he needs to have a stellar year in order to get into the first round. Given how much talent Maccabi has, I wouldn't be surprised if Casspi sits a lot next season, but that hasn't stopped NBA General Managers from drafting them (See Alexis Ajinca from this year, who averaged four minutes a game).
Clearly, it seems like I'll be close to plenty of good basketball to survive being thousands of miles from my Chicago Bulls. Hopefully I'll find someone as interested in international basketball as I am.
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