Over the past few weeks, the exodus to Europe has begun with borderline NBA players jumping to make the big colorful multi-sized bucks in Europe instead of struggling with an undervalued NBA contract.  Josh Childress spurred the Hawks to go Greek and play for Olympiakos, Delonte West has played with the idea of heading to Mother Russia to dish out dimes to Chekhov, and yesterday little Earl Boykins jumped to Italy to shoot meatballs and be paid as the highest player in Italy for the 2008-2009 season.  So what would someone like…say…LeBron James corner in the European market?  Well, the King is somewhat interested in finding out.

The NBA has come out and said that having players like Childress, Nenad Kristic and Boykins leave for Europe is only going to make the world’s perception better.  It’s hard to disagree with that.  Having a player like LeBron leave for Europe, however, will hardly have the same effect.  Having mentioned that he wouldn’t mind playing in Europe for somewhere around $50 million a year, a Moscow team as well as Olympiakos have both raised their eyebrows and began checking their ability to lure him in.  You can’t possibly tell me that the NBA would be happy with LeBron James, arguably the most recognized name in the sport, hooping in Russia or Greece instead of on primetime in Cleveland or New York.  As an avid basketball fan, I’d be pissed.  I don’t go to basketball games with any sort of regularity and, if I were to go, I’d go to see a select matchup such as Kobe vs LeBron or KG vs Duncan.  I don’t go out of my way to see Josh Childress play.  I do to see LeBron play.

I hope Jay-Z steps up to the plate in two years when LeBron’s contract runs out.  If a European team steps up to the plate and is willing to pay a ludicrous amount of money to bring LeBron in, however, we could see the beginning of the end of the NBA.  I’m not saying the league would fold, but the loss of the most significant players to Europe would cripple the Assosication from the inside.