Olympiakos

sina2002 · Post #1 » by **sina2002** » Sat Aug 2, 2008 7:04 am

don't you guys think that Olympiakos is just b.s.ing everyone with LB? I think its all marketing and nothing else... they just want to put their name out there... (Please Use More Appropriate Word)... LB will never leave NBA.

Mamba Venom · Post #2 » by **Mamba Venom** » Sat Aug 2, 2008 8:07 am

Its great marketing and its getting NBA players PAID

Post #3 » by **crazyeights** » Sat Aug 2, 2008 9:24 am

The wiretap mentioned Olympiakos loses millions of dollars every year...where are they getting the money to pay Lebron $40 M annually? Who owns this team?

idf469 · Post #4 » by **idf469** » Sat Aug 2, 2008 4:39 pm

i believe is Socrates Kokkalis a powerful billionare, 40 mill for him isnt much i guess. I also read he is a big gambler so he must be used to losing money.

I for one would be glad to see lebron overseas out of the NBA just tired of his show.

Post #5 » by **kno** » Sat Aug 2, 2008 5:26 pm

Although he's willing to pay him $40mill a season, I think it would actually be a great investment considering everything a player of Lebron's caliber would bring to his team, and the league as a whole.

Sedale Threatt · Post #6 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Sat Aug 2, 2008 6:17 pm

It's only a matter of time before one of these super-wealthy tycoons that own Euro teams makes an offer like this. If not to LeBron, then somebody else.

It won't be because European basketball has caught up, or surpassed, the NBA, like some of the guys on the general board are theorizing. I highly, highly doubt that's ever going to happen, not with the entrenched behemoth that is football (soccer), and not with the almost certain fact that the U.S. will remain the game's premier talent base.

It will be because some of these guys have a ridiculous amount of money to blow, and luring a U.S. megastar to their team is the next step in the arms race as they attempt to one-up each other. As such, I view it as a virtual certainty that one of them is going to make an astronomical offer like the one they're talking about within the next few years. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is.

slifersd · Post #7 » by **slifersd** » Sat Aug 2, 2008 6:58 pm

Most of those European powerhouse teams are owned by some incredably wealthy tycoons who flat out does not care about making money from their teams, unlike their American counterparts who rate the profitability of the team above anything else. A basketball team is more like a toy that European owners play with. The team can lose millions a year but that doesn't mean anything to those owners at all. When they feel like it, they will put in hundreds of millions of their own money to sign a boat load of great players just because they want to see them all on one team. I think it is only a matter of time before Euroleague steal some of the top players in the NBA because they have no restrictions on the amount European teams can offer to a player. Hopefully, the NBA and David Stern can figure out a way to prevent that from happening.

Post #8 » by **Slava** » Sun Aug 3, 2008 12:27 am

Olympiakos is a soccer powerhouse in Europe and just like Barcelona and Real Madrid, they have immense resources to direct into their basketball teams from their regular revenues. Believe me, ownes in EUrope do care about keeping their revenues up and its just that a soccer club of that importance never runs in losses.

On the other hand, unlike the NBA, they could just make billions from selling their merchandise, which they have complete rights over, if they get Lebron. This is similar to what Real did when they bought Beckham, they spent insane money on him and then recovered it in barely two months with all the jersey sales.

I wouldn't be surprised if they do offer even around $ 50 mil for a one year lease of Lebron and I could actually see Lebron thinking about it in his pursuit to become a billionaire as sson as posible.

GonzoLays · Post #9 » by **GonzoLays** » Sun Aug 3, 2008 1:50 am

How much did the Galaxy pay Beckham to come over? 50 million a year?

This is possible.

slifersd · Post #10 » by **slifersd** » Sun Aug 3, 2008 3:06 am

j-far wrote:Olympiakos is a soccer powerhouse in Europe and just like Barcelona and Real Madrid, they have immense resources to direct into their basketball teams from their regular revenues. Believe me, ownes in EUrope do care about keeping their revenues up and its just that a soccer club of that importance never runs in losses.

On the other hand, unlike the NBA, they could just make billions from selling their merchandise, which they have complete rights over, if they get Lebron. This is similar to what Real did when they bought Beckham, they spent insane money on him and then recovered it in barely two months with all the jersey sales.

As a soccer fan who follows European soccer regularly, I have to tell you that Olympiakos is not a soccer powerhouse in Europe. They are not even in the same caliber as Barcelona and Real Madrid. They couldn't possibly make billions from selling their merchandises because they don't have enough star power to do so.

If an European basketball team is anything like an European soccer team, they would be running in red. Most major soccer teams in Europe do not make an actual profit each year, with the exception of Manchester United, Juventus and Bayern Munich. The only teams that get to spend like crazy are the ones who are owned by some billionaire owner who do not care about money being pissed away like the old AC Milan with Berlusconi and the modern day Chelsea with Abramovich. For Olympiakos to sign LeBron to that kind of contract, it would have to be a decision coming from their owner to spend his own money on the team rather than the economic impact resulting from the signing.

Dr Aki · Post #11 » by **Dr Aki** » Sun Aug 3, 2008 7:21 am

GonzoLays wrote:How much did the Galaxy pay Beckham to come over? 50 million a year?

This is possible.

5 years 128 mil pounds

on topic, the european billionaires can afford to do this

but as long as they offer around the same amount as american teams, superior talent will prefer to stay in america

josemendoza88 · Post #12 » by **josemendoza88** » Mon Aug 4, 2008 12:08 am

except the only issue is that they arent paying them the same as american teams are

they are paying them twice as much because they are paying for their taxes

this is the one thing you have to realize

basketball players are business men, they have 10-15 years to make their money and then most of them are done. with the ability to opt out after every season, you'll start to see more and more higher quality players like josh childress leave for more money

gkonstantas · Post #13 » by **gkonstantas** » Mon Aug 4, 2008 9:49 am

Socratis Kokkalis is not anymore in charge of Olympiacos B.C. He is chairman in Olympiacos FC. In BC he is only president of the club,but with no real mixing in financial issues. The 2 brothers that are in charge of Basketball the last years are Aggelopoulos Brothers, 2 young and extremely wealthy people with passion and WAY too much money to spend. (Their aunt is Gianna Aggelopoulos,President of the Olympic Comittee for the 2004 Olympics,so you can imagine the power and money of the family) Now,for the LBJ rumour? Sorry, but it´s just CRAP. Childress is a good player, nothing special. LBJ is HOF. He must be stupid to leave the NBA,where he can be no.1 player of his era. Don´t think that Childress would be ever regarder the best of his generation... And even Olympiacos has better players than Childress... However,as a BBall fan it´s exciting for me to have the oppurtunity to see an NBA-caliber player this season live...

Post #14 » by **Slava** » Mon Aug 4, 2008 11:03 am

slifersd wrote:
j-far wrote:Olympiakos is a soccer powerhouse in Europe and just like Barcelona and Real Madrid, they have immense resources to direct into their basketball teams from their regular revenues. Believe me, ownes in EUrope do care about keeping their revenues up and its just that a soccer club of that importance never runs in losses.

On the other hand, unlike the NBA, they could just make billions from selling their merchandise, which they have complete rights over, if they get Lebron. This is similar to what Real did when they bought Beckham, they spent insane money on him and then recovered it in barely two months with all the jersey sales.

As a soccer fan who follows European soccer regularly, I have to tell you that Olympiakos is not a soccer powerhouse in Europe. They are not even in the same caliber as Barcelona and Real Madrid. They couldn't possibly make billions from selling their merchandises because they don't have enough star power to do so.

If an European basketball team is anything like an European soccer team, they would be running in red. Most major soccer teams in Europe do not make an actual profit each year, with the exception of Manchester United, Juventus and Bayern Munich. The only teams that get to spend like crazy are the ones who are owned by some billionaire owner who do not care about money being pissed away like the old AC Milan with Berlusconi and the modern day Chelsea with Abramovich. For Olympiakos to sign LeBron to that kind of contract, it would have to be a decision coming from their owner to spend his own money on the team rather than the economic impact resulting from the signing.

Well, comparing Olympiakos to the likes of Barcelona/United and Madrid is pointless becasue thats the pinaccle of professional club sports and I don't think any club in the NBA can match that kind of financial prowess. In relative terms, Olympiakos is still a very bug club in Europe and they have owners who are willing to spend. Couple that with the rising Euro value and you can pretty much say that they are not bluffing it when they say that they can make a bid for a big NBA star.

Re: Jersey sales, Beckham is an international icon and he sold most his jerseys in Asia and Middle East, two parts of the world that are least relevant to either the European competition ot the MLS except for the fact that they form the biggest bunch of funs to pro sport clubs. Lebron's "New" jerseys will be sold in a similar way, all around the world.

Gasoline16 · Post #15 » by **Gasoline16** » Mon Aug 4, 2008 2:46 pm

If a franchise player like Kobe or Lebron actually left to play for a Euro team, would we see the cap lifted or changed so that they could get paid similar in the states?

*Lakers* · Post #16 » by ***Lakers*** » Mon Aug 4, 2008 10:22 pm

1. exchange rate
2. sponsors (nike gets involved in soccer deals all the time)

mnkinga23 · Post #17 » by **mnkinga23** » Tue Aug 5, 2008 8:38 pm

I don't think that LeBron would leave for Europe even though he wants to be the global icon. I think that it is more feasible for a NBA star that grew up in Europe and has achieved fame in the States to be courted back to Europe by an obscene amount of money. An example would be (and I know this is blasphemous Lakers fans and I hope that it doesn't happen) Kobe Bryant. We all know that he grew up in Italy and is a multi lingual man of the world. He's just as big internationally as he is here in the US, and for a team like Olympiakos it would be a splash 10x the one that the Galaxy made when they signed Beckham to come over here. Here's a scenario: The Lakers win it all in 2009 and Kobe opts out in order to negotiate an extension (I know that he doesn't have to opt out to get an extension but bear with me ). What if Olympiakos or someone else offers him 5yrs/250 million to play oversees/ Kobe would have won his fourth championship and one without Shaq and more than likely cemented his place as one of the best players to ever play. If he felt that his legacy was secured, what would stop him from taking the money and running to Greece?

Gasoline16 wrote:If a franchise player like Kobe or Lebron actually left to play for a Euro team, would we see the cap lifted or changed so that they could get paid similar in the states?

I would hope that they wouldn't throw out the salary cap if a guy like Kobe left the NBA to go oversees because if they did it would end the NBA for all of the smaller market teams in the league. The only sport that the no salary cap thing works in is baseball, and that is because even though a team like the Yankees can sign the best player from a team like the Marlins for a price that the Marlins can't touch, the Marlins can replace him with a guy that has been playing professional baseball for years in the minors and knows what he is doing. That doesn't translate to basketball because who normally backs up star athletes? It is usually a 1st of 2nd year guy or a journeyman who can cut it for about 15 minutes a night but not much more. The Knicks already spend a hundred million on salaries now so what do you think they would spend if they didn't have to worry about luxury tax? Look at the Clippers and how for so long they would take a high draft pick and play him for four years and then when free agency came around they wouldn't pay him and he would be off somewhere else. They were horrible for decades and that would be the fate of everyone else who wasn't the Lakers, Knicks, Celtics, ect.

tracey_nice · Post #18 » by **tracey_nice** » Wed Aug 6, 2008 12:43 am

What would you purpose they do

Gasoline16 · Post #19 » by **Gasoline16** » Wed Aug 6, 2008 6:17 am

I don't think that they would throw out the cap kinga, and I agree that they shouldn't, but the NBA would certainly react to losing one of their superstars. To what extent do you think that David Stern would go to to keep his stars?

hype_2004 · Post #20 » by **hype_2004** » Wed Aug 6, 2008 2:43 pm

Stern could persuade the US government to add tarriffs to European goods coming into the country, he could ask congress to pass a bill to sanction any european country that signs NBA star players, he could persuade the federal reserve to stop printing money out of thin air so that the dollar can recoup its value, he could ask the Congress to pass a bill that bars the IRS from taxing NBA players salaries, in short theres not much he can do barring getting rid of the salary cap altogether, the world is a globalized free market theres nothing Stern can do to keep NBA plares from jumping ship short of threats and keeping them hostage with illegal and immoral tactics.