It seems more likely they will choose one or the other, but not both.

It’s fun watching the “Spanish Armada” back in action, plus I’ve watched the Spanish National Team the last three summers and enjoy watching Llull and Reyes play also. And Ibaka is pretty good too, wish the Blazers could somehow get him from the Thunder … Aldridge and Ibaka would be a pretty sweet frontcourt (not for other teams, of course)!

Take Germany, for instance. That place is rock solid.

Things are not going so well right now in the majority of countries in Europe and it will only get worse. Take Greece as an example or even Spain. Sports still one of the areas that are not so affected but I wouldn’t count on that for long. Also true that Germany is quite stable right now and has been for quite some time, but when the European Union take a big hit it will also hit Germany.

The original article that this post relates to talks exactly about what you’re pointing out here.. NBA players will not get a salary anywhere near their NBA’s salary and it also reports that there are only about a dozen of teams or markets of size and potential expected by the same players.

They just don’t have the ability to borrow as much as we do.

not only that but most of the big $ guys will get insurance on their NBA contracts.

If players are able to go anywhere in the world and play as professionals (i.e. for good pay) then how does the NBA have monopolistic power over them. I’ve read that the NBA will argue that there are now lots of professional basketball leagues all over the world for the players services (unlike American football for instance). I guess it will depend on how much weight (if any) the US courts give to “world-wide employment opportunities” for high-profile professional athletes.

(walton, thompson, bowie, sabonis, duckworth, oden) and run as far away from pdx as possible

and LA makes more sense as I think he’d play better as part of a team then Dwight would, plus LA already played with Rudy and Sergio. One thing you can’t really argue about is how well Rudy and LA played together … unless you didn’t like all the running alley-oops for some ungodly reason.

I know Dwight’s a great player but I’m not really interested in seeing him in a Blazer’s uni … I’ve seen him lose composure way too many times and throw players down in frustration.

Aldridge, is uh, berry gewd at da alley oopz, we can wins championship with him.

An established All-Star player would be the best marketing move you could possibly make. The American networks would eat up a Euro basket scene if the best players in the world were competing head to head every night. The worst case would be the NBA and the players make an agreement in two weeks and Aldridge, Serge Ibaka and Rudy Fernandez all leave your team. What would be more likely would be you bring Aldridge over as soon as possible and for a month and a half you enjoy a lot of buzz about your starting lineup that features the three best players at their position on your side of the pond and your team gets a month and a half of on the court coaching from one of the top 15 players in the NBA last season.

TL:DR: If you are Real Madrid, signing Aldridge is what amounts to a bet against the resolution of the NBA lockout.

And it could boost interest in both the ACB and Euroleague going into the future. Plus, if the lockout goes all season Regal Barcelona will probably sign the Gasol brothers and you need players that can play at their level if you want to compete. We all know what they can bring separately but together they are like the Spanish version of the Twin Towers, but WAY better. It’ll be interesting to see how the Olympics go next year …

Producing better worldwide basketball in the process.

The article also says that Howard would be the second option, that goes against the first article which said Aldridge would be the first option then Howard as runner up.