You may well have never heard of Vassilis Spanoulis. In case you haven't, he is a little used PG for the Houston Rockets who just finished his rookie season after coming to America from Greece. And if he has it his way, you will never see him in a Houston uniform again, even though he has two years remaining on his contract with the Rockets. What?:
Spanoulis' agent, Miodrag Raznatovic, said he and Spanoulis have told the Rockets 10 times since the end of the season that Spanoulis will never return to play for the Rockets and that nothing would change his mind.
"He told them 10 times, 'I am not coming back,' " Raznatovic said. "In the beginning, it was between him and Jeff Van Gundy. Now it is not. He didn't adjust to the American way of living. 'I cannot survive. I must stay at my home.'
"I've been trying for one month and a half to make them understand. This is crazy. Believe me, he sold everything, his car, his apartment. He is not coming back. I don't understand how they don't understand. He said, 'I cannot live there. I thought I can. I was very happy when I signed the contract. After eight months, 10 months, I don't want a single second more.'
A couple things here. First off, Vassilis cannot sign with any FIBA team while he is still under contract with the Rockets. So for the next two years the Rockets have him whether he likes it or not. Secondly, a story like this combined with the current Yi Jianlian mess in Milwaukee is giving foreign NBA players a bad rap. Both Yi and Vassilis' actions show a complete disregard for the NBA and its rules. They are pretty simple rules too. You want to play in the NBA? You go to the team that drafts you. You sign a contract? You finish that contract. Hopefully these two situations are not the start of a trend, or else David Stern's pet project of global expansion will be going down in flames pretty fast.
