San Antonio Spurs Offer Ioannis Bourousis Contract

[KWSN-Men]

http://www.48minutesofhell.com/2009/06/ ... ouroussis/

According to reports out of Greece, the Spurs have offered Bouroussis a 3 year contract worth between 10.5 and 12 million.

http://thehoop.blogspot.com/2009/06/bou ... d-nba.html

The negotiations have started about the future of Ioannis Bourousis(2.15-C) who is considered to be one of the hottest players this summer. Sportnet.gr says that there is initially a big gap between the money that Bourousis is asking and what Olympiakos are offering. It also says that the San Antonio Spurs offer him a 4 season contract whereas Olympiakos offer a 3+1 contract. It also says that San Antonio offer more money than Olympiakos at this moment in time.

Another report comes from gazzetta.gr which mentions 2 more NBA teams interested in the young Greek center apart from San Antonio and they are Memphis and Cleveland.

[Rasho Brezec]

Are they allowed to do that before July 1st?

[KWSN-Men]

Are they allowed to do that before July 1st?

Not officially.

[Joana]

I'll be extremely surprised if he doesn't stay in Greece. He'll sign a new contract with Olympiacos.

[Blame Rasho]

He is going to stay in Greece esp if Printezis wants to leave to play with the Raptors. There is no way that Oympiacos will let two of their forwards go to the NBA.

[KWSN-Men]

He is going to stay in Greece esp if Printezis wants to leave to play with the Raptors. There is no way that Oympiacos will let two of their forwards go to the NBA.

I am not so sure. The amount being offered by Olympiacos isn't that much better.

[AdamTheGreek]

Both Printezis and Bourousis would be awesome in the NBA, they need to jump now before it's too late.
Plus, this will help Childress.

[KWSN-Men]

Both Printezis and Bourousis would be awesome in the NBA, they need to jump now before it's too late.
Plus, this will help Childress.

Bourousis didn't even bother to meet with the Olympiacos owners and he has been putting off the meeting for days now. I'd say it's an 80% chance he is going to the NBA the way it looks right now.

[brassviews]

Both Printezis and Bourousis would be awesome in the NBA, they need to jump now before it's too late.
Plus, this will help Childress.

Add Schor to that group as well, though he probably wouldn't be playing for the Clips.

[KWSN-Men]

Both Printezis and Bourousis would be awesome in the NBA, they need to jump now before it's too late.
Plus, this will help Childress.

Add Schor to that group as well, though he probably wouldn't be playing for the Clips.

Sofo is pretty terrible. He has no business even being on a Euroleague roster.

[KWSN-Men]

A new update. Bourousis was offered a huge contract by Olympiacos and he refused it. Unless he becomes the highest paid player in Europe he will leave for the NBA and the Spurs are the most probable destination. The Cavs could also be possible.

[HMFFL]

When you say "huge" how much exactly? We roughly know what the Spurs offered so was it more?

[KWSN-Men]

When you say "huge" how much exactly? We roughly know what the Spurs offered so was it more?

In NBA terms it would be like $8 million a season for 4 years.

[Hassassin]

When you say "huge" how much exactly? We roughly know what the Spurs offered so was it more?

In NBA terms it would be like $8 million a season for 4 years.

Hey man, where do you get all your information? Do you use blogs/forums?

[Apollo64]

The rumour is that he got offered 3 years x 2.2mil euros and his agent wants 4 years x 2.5mil euros. Honestly, i think he deserves that money.

[KWSN-Men]

The rumour is that he got offered 3 years x 2.2mil euros and his agent wants 4 years x 2.5mil euros. Honestly, i think he deserves that money.

The report I heard was he turned down 2.6 million already.

[Blame Rasho]

When you say "huge" how much exactly? We roughly know what the Spurs offered so was it more?

In NBA terms it would be like $8 million a season for 4 years.

Hey man, where do you get all your information? Do you use blogs/forums?

Talkbasket.net...lol

[Joana]

Talkbasket is a well-respected site and shall not be confused with KWSN-Men (who also shall not be confused with KWSN-Men, a well-respected post in another board ).

The difference between what Olympiacos is offering and what Papadakis is asking is about € 0.3 millions /year net.

[Blame Rasho]

Talkbasket is a well-respected site and shall not be confused with KWSN-Men (who also shall not be confused with KWSN-Men, a well-respected post in another board ).

The difference between what Olympiacos is offering and what Papadakis is asking is about € 0.3 millions /year net.

I read this link and could help but not laugh... I know it is a blog within the site but still...

http://www.talkbasket.net/blogs/san-ant ... ousis.html

NBA Comparison: Young Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Bourousis is an excellent pick and roll player that also has an excellent mid range jump shot. He has shooting range to the NBA 3 point line, but he usually shoots from 15-20 feet. He has been developing a post game recently. He is a strong defender in the lane and at the basket. He is a tremendous rebounding machine and a very good dunker.

He did not start playing basketball until he was 18 years old. Like Tim Duncan he began his athletic career as a swimmer, but he grew too big for the sport and just like Duncan because of this switched to basketball. The development of Bourousis since then has been quite impressive as every single year he is noticeably better than the previous year. This season he led the Euroleague in rebounding and he was the league's most efficient player per minute. He also led the Euroleague in PER. Those great stats led to the Houston Rockets GM and so-called "stats guru" Daryl Morey setting up a personal meeting with him. Bourousis was named the best center in the Euroleague, ahead of the highly touted and coveted Spurs draft pick Tiago Splitter.

At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, almost all NBA international scouts that were in attendance agreed and reported that Bourousis outplayed Chris Kaman, Luis Scola, and Yao Ming in the games in which he played against them.

So it is certainly true that Bourousis is a very serious NBA prospect. He is certainly already better than most starting centers in the NBA and he is improving every season. So with that out of the way let's get to the issue of if the Spurs can sign him or not.

Well, the Spurs have offered him a 4 year $12 million contract and some rumors indicate perhaps even more than that. Bourousis' current team, Olympiacos, will obviously offer him significantly more than that to keep him as it is one of the richest sports clubs in the world and currently the basketball department has a budget that is bigger than that of most NBA teams. So on the money side clearly Olympiacos wins.

However, there is also the issue of if Bourousis wants to play in the NBA or not. Well, for the last 2 years or so, Bourousis has constantly stated that he wants to play in the NBA and he has even several times stated that he will play in the NBA at some point. Obviously, that combined with the chance to start for the Spurs would give the Spurs a great chance to get him, even with the money difference.

One sticking point for the Spurs remains the Vassilis Spanoulis situation. Spanoulis is the star of the Greek National Basketball Team. He is the star player on the best team in the world that is not in the NBA, Panathinaikos Athens. Spanoulis this year was the MVP of the Euroleague playoffs and he was named the Player of the Year in the Greek A1 league, which is a premiere national domestic league in Europe.

Since the best Greek player and a true superstar in Europe in Spanoulis went to the NBA with the Houston Rockets and was summarily benched all season by the former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, most all of the top Greek players have since been scared off by the NBA.

The Greek basketball stars Theo Papaloukas and Dimitris Diamantidis have both turned down full MLE NBA contract offers since then, both citing how Spanoulis was benched all year by an NBA coach that had told Spanoulis he does not like European players. So because of this, Bourousis, like all the other Greek national team stars is very worried about being treated the same way as Spanoulis was in the NBA.

To this issue, Spurs head coach Greg Popovich wants to meet Bourousis in person in San Antonio to discuss that very issue with him. Popovich would like to assure Bourousis that he will give him every chance to become the team's starting center. We will see in the next few days how this story plays out.

Also read:

* Olympiacos BC Has Offered Kobe 3x More Than The Lakers Have
* Olympiacos Prepared To Offer Kobe $60 Million

I mean honestly.... he grew too big? He played basketball because a hurricane destroyed the only pool.

The fact that Spanoulis had a bad experience only reflects poorly on him. If you are good enough to get rotation mins you will get it. The arrogance that players are entitled to mins is something that is beyond me. If certain Greek players think that, then I don't want them on the Spurs.

[Blame Rasho]

Nonetheless Olympiacos needs to have X amount of Greek players on its team and unless they have plans to pry away another player from another team, they will keep their 1st team center. They gave an ungodly amount of money to Childress, so I can't see them letting him go over so little money.