A Move Most Odd

Yesterday there was an NBA trade that was mostly lost in the midst of free agent signings and rumors. The Spurs traded Jackie Butler and Luis Scola to the Rockets for a 2nd Round pick and Vassilis Spanoulis . Yes, the same Vassilis Spanoulis declared that he would never play in the NBA again earlier this month. So in essentially the trade saw the Spurs give up two salaried players in exchange for a second round pick. To make things even more odd, Scola is actually quite a promising player. The 27 year old is looking to finally come over to the NBA, and scouts have lauded the 6-9 forward's game for years. So why give him up for essentially nothing? To a team in your own division no less?

The cold hard facts of this trade are that the Spurs were looking to dump salary. They knew that to bring Scola over from Europe that they would have to 1.) help buy out his contract and 2.) sign him to a contract that would make the move to America worth his while. So instead of doing so, they essentially gave Scola to the Rockets for free. What this deal reminds me of is a guy in fantasy football that trades to trade Tom Brady for Cleo Lemon. In your fantasy football league a commissioner would veto such a trade. In the NBA however, there are only trade restrictions concerning salary not equity of talent, so the Spurs are free to give the Rockets the gift of Scola as long as the contracts match up.

Home Cookin

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.