Foreign Players Make Out Big In Mass Exodus Overseas

By Krystina Lucido

The NBA has officially been in lockout for 29 days, and instead of coverage heard during the NFL lockout about positions, demands and time expectancies, NBA players are taking a stand, showing league executives they don’t need an in-home league to play ball.

Starting with Deron Williams signing with Besiktas, a small mass of players followed, either signing contracts with international teams or at least considering the possibility should the lockout continue into the season as expected.

Keeping your face out there, continuing to make money playing a game you love, avoiding the loss of momentum -- there are plenty of reasons to play overseas as opposed to waiting out the inevitable here in the States. But who makes out best in his scenario?

Basketball made a huge outburst internationally, especially since the previous NBA lockout, which took place before the 1998-99 season. In 12 years, NBA Global boasts representation in countries including Africa, the UK, China, Canada and more. Though it has made such progress, international pride still holds more weight in most of these countries than anything else.

Players hailing from foreign countries have an advantage in the current mass exodus to international basketball waters. They stand to gain the most financially and in notoriety. It will be interesting to see when the tables turn and Serge Ibaka is the most popular player on the floor over Dwight Howard.

Paul Shirley understands what playing in Europe is all about. Author of the book, Can I Keep My Jersey?, this self-proclaimed basketball vagabond played for 11 teams in nine years, seven of which were international. Even though he never quite reached the status of a Kobe Bryant, his knowledge of the international basketball culture is well-documented.

"As far as the treatment of the players goes, it is true that if you're in Russia, I think (Andrei) Kirilenko is going to be a bigger name than whoever might go, Chris Paul or something like that," Shirley said. "I guess if the players are big enough, if by some miracle Dwight Howard wanted to play in Europe, I suppose he would be a big enough name that he would be the star there. But there is a lot of nationalism and loyalty to a home-grown talent and I don’t know if Americans can compete with that."

NBA commissioner David Stern has always pushed for a basketball culture to grow internationally, but the business aspects of the game in foreign countries are vastly different than what American athletes are accustomed to. Besiktas, for example, was already found to be involved in a futbol-fixing scandal and their funds were frozen as a result. Any player that previously played for an international team knows the luxuries are not nearly the same as the ones given to the basketball elite back in the States.

In his book, Shirley recounted multiple stints with international teams who housed him in small, unseemly living quarters and were late making payments for his services. The grass is certainly not greener across the Atlantic.

"I'm still owed like $53,000 from that team in Greece and another $15,000 by the team in Spain," Shirley said. "A lot of the money that's bandied about is theoretical. It's kind of like talking about the debt crisis, none of this is real. So it comes to actually getting teams to pay up; I think it will harder than people realize."

However, international players know this and are comfortable with it for three reasons. One, they are most likely not the culprit, since they are from these countries and would be treated well by their brethren. They are also reaping the benefits of already being internationally known and respected in their countries for playing in the NBA, which means if they return to actually play in their country, they are heroes. And they don’t even have to worry about making it onto a team.

American players are the ones who should be concerned. There is a cap on the number of American players that can be on one team, usually capped at two, though some teams extended that rule to three.

"I wouldn’t be surprised if that gets relaxed a little bit, maybe this year," Shirley said. "But in general, I've been watching carefully to see who gets these jobs because there just aren’t very many jobs. It's not necessarily fair, but it makes sense. The leagues want local interest in the game. If they just shipped over 12 Americans, there wouldn’t be as much interest, but it does cut down on the availability of jobs pretty quickly."

International clubs will not have nearly the amount of resources necessary to absorb 32 NBA teams into their coffers, but even the ones they do will be experiencing immense pay cuts. The face time players will get for their personal brands will prosper, but most of the tangible benefits they are used to receiving will remain unattainable.

Read my full interview with Paul Shirley.

Rookie School With Gilbert Arenas

By Payton Wales

With the lockout upon us, the NBA cancelled a lot of its summer events, none more important than the Rookie School, a place where all NBA rookies go to learn about how to manage their new life. Money, groupies, work ethic, social media, etc. are all topics covered in the school.

Now, with the lockout, there isn't going to be a class. So it's up to the veterans to school the newbies on how to act in the NBA, and who better to teach than the master himself: Agent Zero, Gilbert Arenas.

Why is he the master, you ask? Well, because nothing says maturity and a grasp of the NBA lifestyle better than bringing loaded guns to the locker room for a practical joke and then a couple days later making fun of the whole event in front of a live audience during player introductions. It was a stay-classy moment if ever we saw one, and that is why we are ecstatic he will be teaching our rookies.

Today, we have two lessons from Agent Zero. Perk up your ears, kiddos and listen.

Lesson One: How To Treat Your Plethora of Dates

Below is a diagram of how your date should go, according to Gil. Don't forget to use social media to berate your date, and as always use your smart phone to take a picture of the hi-jinx so you can show the world exactly what you are talking about. Let's take a peek below as Agent Zero takes us on one of his blind dates via Twitter:





This is a perfect example of how your date should go, rookie. Don't let anyone like your mother or father tell you otherwise because, honestly, how would they know? Are they millionaires? Do they play basketball for a living? Do they have a black card? Did they ever get more women than Wilt on an off day? No, so ignore their advice and listen to Uncle Gil. Follow the rules below.

1. Don't let them think you respect them.
2. Make sure the world knows you don't respect them.
3. Treat them as you see them, in this case, like a prostitute.
4. Berate them as much as you can, women like that and it's sure to get you some action.

-- To be fair, people, the girl does look like a homeless Thundercat in that shirt. And what the hell is the blue thing supposed to be? Is that an Arch-Reactor? Is she wearing an Ironman suit? I mean, if there was an Ironman suit that looked like a character from the stage play Cats. I'm not so sure Gilbert did the wrong thing here. Regardless, let's move on to the next lesson.

Lesson Number Two: Organizing Women in Your Smart Phone

This was another lesson provided by Agent Zero via Twitter. Let's see what he has to say?

 

 For those of you that need a closer look, here you go:

 

The lesson is pretty clear here. For optimal satisfaction, organize your phone as such. Some things to note while you look through this list:

• Out of the 107 girls on the list, he only respects one. I'm going to assume its a family member and leave it at that.
• Notice how there is not a list for "Plays Hard to Get" or "Girls I'd Date." That's because, as an NBA athlete, these categories should not exist for you, unless you are Doug Christie, in which case you only have one number in your phone anyway. I doubt his wife even allows him to keep his mother's number in his phone.

Now remember, Gilbert is just giving you the blueprint here, but there are obviously many different categories  by which you can list your conquests. Be creative, and if you are a pro, like Agent Zero, you should have your own stable of career NBA hoochies in no time.

Next weeks lesson: Password Protecting Your Phone, Multiple Phone Usage and special guest Shawn Kemp will stop by to teach you how to avoid your child support payments. School's out for the day.

-- It's obvious Arenas hasn't learned much, if anything, from his downfall in Washington, but can you get mad at him for this? At least he is being honest, and if he is joking around, he is blasting us for stereotyping players and that is just as good. It's no surprise this is what an NBA player's phone looks like. For that matter, I doubt any of the women are surprised either. They know they are on these lists and they know they aren't the only women in these players lives. Almost all of them, I said ALMOST, are not there for love anyway. They want the free ride, the fairytale. If you don't believe me, go google some of the sites out there dedicated to promoting groupie behavior among today's young women. OK... old women too.

As far as I'm concerned, if you are going to ride Arenas for this and say how bad it is, then you need to call out the hundreds of thousands of women who are willing to be on this list. Trust me, if you pick any 10 women you know right now, six of them would sleep with a pro athlete just to do it. If they were all married to a normal guy, I'd say at least four still would. And that, my friends, is the truth of the matter.

So is Agent Zero really wrong to put this up on Twitter? I say no.

Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

By Payton Wales

Let me start this off by saying I'm not familiar with the continuum of good ol' Cap. Sure, I've read some of the different comic series he has been involved in, but never to the extent that I could be considered an aficionado. I say this so if I miss something or agree with something even though it isn't historically accurate, you nerds ... er ... people don't attack me. After all, I am one of you. A nerd, that is.

The First Avenger takes us through the origin story of the pint-sized Steve Rogers and his transformation into our hero, Captain America. Set in World War II, The First Avenger takes us on a nostalgic ride through the time period while showing there were evils far worse than Hitler in the heart of Germany during the war and, of course, our hero is here to vanquish them all.

First things first. I'll be honest, Captain America isn't going to be the action-packed thrill ride Ironman was. That's not to say it doesn't have its fair share of action, but this movie chooses to focus more on the story and the era it takes place in, something that gives this movie charm, especially compared to the CGI/whizzbang-heavy Thor and Green Lantern. Captain America does have it's share of CGI, but it manages to almost seamlessly blend it into the the atmosphere of the movie.

The cast also plays a massive role in bringing this movie to life. Everyone has hit their marks in this piece. I did struggle with Chris Evans as Captain America just a little bit, but it had less to do with his acting and more to do with what I was bringing into the film from his previous movies. After I got past my own preconceived notions, his performance became more real to me.

Haylee Atwell does a great job as Peggy Carter, the strong-willed soldier and love interest of Rogers. The best thing she does is not overplay, or underplay for that matter, her role. This seems to always be a problem in the superhero movies and it's affected even the best actresses. For whatever reason when we try to bring a woman lead from a comic book to the screen, it just doesn't translate well. Maybe it's the strong yet frail nature of those characters. Maybe its the fact that a woman in real life cannot live up to the ... ahem ... amplified features of the comic. Regardless, Atwell nails the complexities of the character.

Tommy Lee Jones is perfect as Colonel Chester Phillips. His deadpan delivery gives the movie the edge and comedic relief it needs. Another great performance is given by Hugo Weaving and the Red Skull, leader of Hydra, archenemy of the Captain and the world for that matter. It's nice to finally see Weaving's face again in a movie ... er ... sorta. The last one I can remember seeing his actual face in is probably the Matrix Revolutions.

This movie is one of Marvel's gems upon many misses. It delivers enough action to keep you entertained while delivering an origin story that can still hold the public's interest. Although, at this point, I think we can safely eliminate the origin story as the starter movie, especially rebooting from the origin. Do you hear me, The Amazing Spiderman? The First Avenger delivers the goods while helping to establish the blueprint for successful comic book movies in the future.

As good as Catain America was, it was not without its flaws. The movie teetered on being too long and even had a song and dance routine that prompted me to turn to my friend and say, "OK I get it. Can we stop now?" The plot of the movie itself was good, not overly ambitious, and from everything I can tell, stuck to the mythos of the comics. But as the movie approaches finality, some small plot holes, or "illogical WTFs" as I like to call them, do appear. I don't want to give away too much, but I'd really like to know what was actually wrong with that plane. Seems like they skipped an explanation as to why it had to be landed right there. At least tell me there is something wrong with the plane's navigation.

All in all, The First Avenger was an enjoyable ride, giving us a sense of nostalgia while providing some insight into why a character like Captain America was important to the American public during World War II and even beyond.

Captain America: The First Avenger should give you  exactly what you are looking for in a summer movie: a lot good, some bad and worth your $10.

Rating: 3.5/5 Dribbles