Can the NBA Keep Attracting Foreign Talent?

There aren't many gigs that pay better than professional basketball, but these days it's hardly a given that the best players will flock to the NBA. For one, most foreign clubs will include things like housing and taxes, which means that the salary being offered really does go straight to a player's pocket. Ball in Europe breaks down the math:

For example, the player drafted at No. 1 this year knows that he will earn 8.339 million USD in his first two seasons combined. Even with an exchange rate of one euro to 1.50 USD, this is still a large amount in Euros. But this salary is gross, so the player has to pay 29% tax on the amount; so he will only earn 5.920 million USD, about 4 million Euros, in two years.

If you go to the middle of the first round, the guaranteed salary for a player drafted 15th in the first two seasons combined will be about 2 million USD net. This is 1.3 million Euros in two years, so about 650.000 Euro per season. Guaranteed. This is a salary that good European players are paid in Europe.

Once you get out of the first round and into the second, the disparity gets even larger. And something Ball in Europe doesn't mention but is just as prohibitive are the expensive buyouts that a lot of players will need to cover out of pocket. An NBA team is only allowed to pitch in $500,000 to buy out a foreign contract, but that's sometimes just a drop in the bucket.

So will we see a day when the top Euro stars spurn the NBA? We're already there. Fran Vazquez, Tiago Splitter (pictured above) and Rudy Fernandez are all guys who may someday make the jump to the NBA but in the meantime are doing quite well for themselves on the other side of the pond. As Ball in Europe asks, if the number of players arriving has slowed down, how long until players start leaving?

So will we ever see a No. 1 pick refuse its NBA offer to move to Europe? And when will European teams recruit American high school players for their own (paid) youth programs and challenge the NCAA?

Given the NBA's new age limit (and rumors that it may be raised even higher), I wouldn't be surprised at all to see European clubs start offering talented American high school players a lucrative two-year deal, where they can get paid for their ability, start raking in endorsements as well as building a global brand as opposed to playing for free (and having NCAA investigators examining every deposit in their bank accounts) in college.