Lorbek to stay in Europe

[mountainballer]

It could be a lot of things:
- Lorbek being genuinely interested in Spurs.
- Lorbek using Spurs to get a big contract from Barcelona.
- Lorbek using Spurs as an excuse to avoid playing with Slovenia this summer.

so it's either a or b.
but let's try to see things in a bigger picture and try to include the situation of Barca. (what we didn't do yet)
Lorbek is traded at June 23rd to the Spurs. on 24th Barca picks the TO they have for the 3rd year of his contract.
we know that Lorbek already had a NBA buyout clause in his contract.
what if Lorbek wanted to join the Spurs (and the whole scenario was already checked by Spurs and Pacers FO and Lobek's agent), even with the risk of a lock out. in that case it was just good business by Barca to pick the option to secure the buy out fee.
however, let's think about the other scenario, Lorbek wants to push Barca to terminate the 3rd year and give him a bigger contract (maybe even for a longer period). I'm not sure Barca is willing to do so. they still have enough size in Vasquez, Perovic and Ndong and they already spent a lot of money for extending Vasquez and Mickeal. they need to replace Morris and Anderson.
the loss against Pana in the Euroleague wasn't a lack of size, it was more about power and athleticism. IMO Barca will rather invest in that department, before they try to keep Lorbek at any costs.

whatever we read into this, IOM the chance to sign him might be better than thought in the first place.

[Grega]

so it's either a or b.
but let's try to see things in a bigger picture and try to include the situation of Barca. (what we didn't do yet)
Lorbek is traded at June 23rd to the Spurs. on 24th Barca picks the TO they have for the 3rd year of his contract.
we know that Lorbek already had a NBA buyout clause in his contract.
what if Lorbek wanted to join the Spurs (and the whole scenario was already checked by Spurs and Pacers FO and Lobek's agent), even with the risk of a lock out. in that case it was just good business by Barca to pick the option to secure the buy out fee.
however, let's think about the other scenario, Lorbek wants to push Barca to terminate the 3rd year and give him a bigger contract (maybe even for a longer period). I'm not sure Barca is willing to do so. they still have enough size in Vasquez, Perovic and Ndong and they already spent a lot of money for extending Vasquez and Mickeal. they need to replace Morris and Anderson.
the loss against Pana in the Euroleague wasn't a lack of size, it was more about power and athleticism. IMO Barca will rather invest in that department, before they try to keep Lorbek at any costs.

whatever we read into this, IOM the chance to sign him might be better than thought in the first place.

Supposedly he already signed a new contract, or at least he intends to. In an interview today he said that the slovenian basketball association agreed to insure his contract for this year and and the extra two - the length of his new contract. The only question is does he have an NBA buyout clause in it. I think he should, especially because of the way he was raving about NBA in the last couple of weeks. Of course it could have been just rhetorics in order to secure better terms, but I doubt it.

[Ozzy]

The whole Lorbek/NT affair is getting funnier and funnier. Today at the press conference he officially announced that he will play for the NT. His statement lasted for 39 seconds and that was it. Nobody from the Slovenian bball federation wanted to comment on anything. (On Sunday they were promising to air a lot of dirty laundry today... how quickly things change.)
All in all, I am glad that he changed his mind...

But more and more stories crop up, though most of them are hearsay... The latest I came across was that it had to do something with insurance. Apparently Lorberk wanted insurance for 3 years, but Fiba rules prevent that. Additionally there was talk that if he signs for an NBA club this insurance would not be sufficient, etc... Although plenty of stories circle around there is still some common ground behind them - Lorbek is for sure at least considering joining the Spurs at some point in time. He might not be considering it too seriously, but I think he actually put the though of coming to NBA somewhere in the back of his mind. I think he didn't have any interest of coming over at all before Spurs got the rights.



Bruno: I heard that French basketball federation asked their government for a loan, because the insurance for all of their NBA players sums up to 2 million euros. Any truth in that?


Lorbek's announcement that he will play. Even though most of you can't understand a word he is saying you can still see that he was nervous as .

[Kamnik]

Lorbek's announcement that he will play. Even though most of you can't understand a word he is saying you can still see that he was nervous as .

Maybe it is interesting to hear that our basketball association DEMANDED that he gives a statement himself; it is somewhat of a punishment/statement for him being forced to do that. He deserved it... Even if his BB daddy created all this storm.

[Bruno]

Bruno: I heard that French basketball federation asked their government for a loan, because the insurance for all of their NBA players sums up to 2 million euros. Any truth in that?

2M€ was the first estimation. Since that, with the help of FIBA Europe, all NT have talked together to a single assurance firm to reduce costs. NT are still negotiating but the latest number I've seen were 400K€ for French players. If it's 400K€, it shouldn't be a problem to pay it with the help but they fear a last minute raise.

Unless Slovenia has negotiated something on his own, Dragic's contract isn't insured for the moment. It will be way cheaper than for France since it's $2M compared to about $130M for french players.

[Ozzy]

The info that is floating around is that our bball federation payed 50.000 EUR for Dragic's insurance.

[Trill Clinton]

I hate this thread.

[GSH]

From what I have been able to find, Lorbek would have seriously considered playing here, after the Spurs acquired his rights. The club has him by the short hairs, and made sure it wouldn't happen. I don't know the details, but from what I understand, the insurance story is totall bull - it's the spin they put on to make it look nice. That story fits, if you look at that bizarre press conference.

A lot of people act like playing overseason is just like playing here, but not in English. Sometimes it is, but sometimes it isn't. But if the players think NBA owners are hard-core pricks, wait until they meet some (not all, but some) of the overseas owners. These guys play hardball in ways our players could never dream of. A while back, I talked about how many players have had problems even getting paid. Some of our esteemed international fans screamed, and said I didn't know what I was talking about. (It never happens, they said, and not being from the U.S. they know more about everything.) Well here's an article about the Turkish team that is tying to sign Deron Williams. They are far from the only team to pull stuff like this:

“Besiktas is the most ed up team when it comes to this thing,” a Turkish player that requested anonymity told HoopsHype. “They are supposed to be one of the best teams in Turkey and the last few years even though they had the best players, they didn’t win because the players were mentally messed up (for not getting paid).”

It’s a pattern with this club, according to Turkish basketball journalist Mete Aktas.

“Besiktas’ basketball branch always had problems when it comes to payments to players,” Aktas said. “I can’t remember a single season for the past 3-4 years that the players’ wages are paid on time and fully. There were several occasions last season and in 2009-10 where some of the players skipped practices and boycotted the team management. In the summer of 2010, the management prohibited three players who were under contract at the time to enter training facilities. Why? Because they had submitted an official protest note to the club to pay them their delayed payments. And currently Besiktas is trying to waive three players who are currently under contract for the 2011-12 season. Since the players don’t want to be waived, the management is trying to indimidate and daunt them by forcing the players to train three times a day… during the summer!”

You can read the rest of the article here:
http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/sie...heckered-past/

I don't know what leverage they have on Lorbek, but unless the Spurs can come to his rescue, it looks like you can forget about seeing him in a silver and black jersey any time soon, if ever. The problem is, the thing they would probably respond to is cold, hard cash. And the Spurs couldn't deliver enough of it above board, and within league rules.

BTW - I expect the usual rants that the article is one big lie, and these things just don't happen. But they do happen. Every season. The biggest teams don't usually just fail to pay. But even they have a knack for some very... what would you call it? Creative negotiations?

[mountainballer]

but what does this whole story about not paying players have to do with Lorbek's buy out?
reportedly he has a buy out clause and number in his contract. he pays it, he is free. where is the room for creative negotiations by the owners?
if he can't afford this number, he stays with Barca.
and btw. even if we learned a lot of stories from team from Tukey, Greece, Russia and Italy about bad habits with contracts, we never ever heard from Barca being involved in such stuff. (being the wealthiest sports club in the world helps of course)

[TJastal]

but what does this whole story about not paying players have to do with Lorbek's buy out?
reportedly he has a buy out clause and number in his contract. he pays it, he is free. where is the room for creative negotiations by the owners?
if he can't afford this number, he stays with Barca.
and btw. even if we learned a lot of stories from team from Tukey, Greece, Russia and Italy about bad habits with contracts, we never ever heard from Barca being involved in such stuff. (being the wealthiest sports club in the world helps of course)

IIRC Splitter had to be bought out by July 15th, if Lorbek's team's buyout is the same, the deadline would be tomorrow

.

[mountainballer]

why? just because you touched it?

[Dex]

Lies!!!