greek website claims spurs have offered Ioannis Bourousis a contract

[StNick2261]

Originally Posted by BackHome

Screw the dude...I udnerstand his agent is doing his job in trying to play the Spurs and his team to get the most amount of money. The main issue is that he realy does not want to leave Greece and that is the bottom line. So Spurs should let his team know that they are walking away from the table and now his team can play hard ball and pay him alot less then what he is trying to get with his lame ass.

Looking at who is playing in the NBA and who is comming over I would only draft guys from the following countries. Argentina, Spain, and France.........all the other players are soft and don't want to compete against the best players int he world!

Would you cut off your nose just to spite your face? He's not "playing" the spurs. He has an offer from the spurs and he has a meeting with his team about their offer. Let's say you enjoy your job and you are due for a raise. And lets say that before you are given your new raise, another company contacts you about a job opening with a salary substantially more than you are currently making (but comparable to what you would be making with your raise).

If the spurs were to contact his team and say, "we're pulling his offer, play hard ball"... they would be screwing Bourousis... people would find out... and we'd NEVER get an international player again. The fact is that we can't make official offers until July 1st and he'll make his decision before then. If he chooses to stay, then we have plenty of time to go after someone else and we don't lose out on anything. If he does decide he wanted to come to us, would you really want us pulling his offer now? Right before he announces he's ready to sign with us?

Let's say (for argument sake) that Dirk developed into the player that he is... but he's still playing overseas and the Spurs have his rights. Would you release him from his rights and say, "we're never gonna bring you over because you're not from Spain, Argentina or France"? And you don't want Splitter on the team because he's from Brazil, right? You wouldn't want Steve Nash (Canada) backing up Parker? I think Yao Ming would solve our Center problems... or even Kaman (Germany)... is he "soft"?

In fact... here's a whole list of players you'd be giving up of international players who played in the NBA (not including players drafted but haven't played yet)
List of foreign NBA players - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[maddog]

I've seen people comparing Manu's past position of wanting to come to the USA. I don't know for certain but I suspect at that time Manu didn't give up much salary wise and was looking at a huge windfall. Also Manu was not italian, he had already left home. I understand Bourousis position and respect whatever decision he makes.

[MichaelWi101]

This thread is showing great potential to be one of the longest in spursreport history, and what's truly remarkable is that it's about a player that most of us have never heard of, or seen...

[StNick2261]

This doesn't even come close to the Javtokas, (multiple) Scola, and Udoka threads

Edit: Here are some of the longer posts that we're about specific games...

http://www.spursreport.com/forums/sp...jor-fight.html

http://www.spursreport.com/forums/sp...urs-rasho.html (Blazers Want to sign and trade Shareef Abdur-Rahim to the SPURS for Rasho)

http://www.spursreport.com/forums/sp...cks-spurs.html (FINLEY PICKS SPURS !!!!)

http://www.spursreport.com/forums/sp...-prepared.html (Everyone. Please be prepared......)

http://www.spursreport.com/forums/sp...next-year.html (Javtokas will not be Spur next year)

[Rysio]

Originally Posted by MichaelWi101

This thread is showing great potential to be one of the longest in spursreport history, and what's truly remarkable is that it's about a player that most of us have never heard of, or seen...

proud to have posted ha ha ha h, its pretty unlikly he will even end up a spur lol

[Vangelis]

*****UPDATE****

I don't want to jinx this but things are looking much better than they were this time last week! Reports coming from the greek sports paper "FOS" (which is an authority on all matters of Olympiakos) over the last 2 days indicate that as things stand at the moment Bouroussis is coming to San Antonio.

It is now a fact that the Olympiakos basketball budget for next year will be drastically cut and a deal between the Angelopoulos brothers and the soccer team appears as certain.

Bouroussis appears to have made the decision to rise to Pop's challenge and try his luck in the NBA.

[Ice009]

Originally Posted by Vangelis

*****UPDATE****

I don't want to jinx this but things are looking much better than they were this time last week! Reports coming from the greek sports paper "FOS" (which is an authority on all matters of Olympiakos) over the last 2 days indicate that as things stand at the moment Bouroussis is coming to San Antonio.

It is now a fact that the Olympiakos basketball budget for next year will be drastically cut and a deal between the Angelopoulos brothers and the soccer team appears as certain.

Bouroussis appears to have made the decision to rise to Pop's challenge and try his luck in the NBA.

Are you serious? You think he's coming to the Spurs?

[Vangelis]

According to the Greek press the odds for him joining the Spurs at the moment are greater than him staying with Olympiakos, assuming the Spurs will follow through with their initial rumoured offer.

I have been reading the Greek press for years and the "tone" of the reporting on Bouroussis has become increasingly very pessimistic for Olympiakos following the failed meeting on Wednesday. Olympiakos are also in danger of losing George Printezis (another promising Greek young player) to the Raptors.

As I've said before, the key here is whether the Angelopoulos brothers will get involved with the Olympiakos soccer team. If (like all reports are currently suggesting) they will, it is very likely that they will not match the Spurs offer to Bouroussis.

I don't want to jinx this as there are many variables involved for this to happen. It is a big decision for Bouroussis to say goodbye to family/friends/country and a glorious (and lucrative - let's not forget that 1.7m Euros p.a. is still a lot of money!) sporting career in Europe where he is the "top man" of Olympiakos to come to the NBA where the chances of success are significantly lower... but in the same time the fruits of success would be far greater!

We can only hope that Yannis makes the right decision.

[Ice009]

You don't think he is playing the Spurs though to get more money from Olympiakos do you?

He is thinking about joining the Spurs legitimately?

[Vangelis]

I can obviously only guess... it is only his immediate circle that will know his true intentions for sure.

I am a fan of Olympiakos & Greek basketball and have been following his career for years. Based on his character and personality the way I have understood it, my guess is that he is genuinely interested in joining the Spurs. I am also saying this because:

a.) He has already left Greece to play abroad before (he went to Barcelona in 2006).
b.) Although he is currently the hero of Olympiakos fans, he actually started his career with AEK Athens where he spent 5 years (a fierce rival of Olympiakos) - he actually only joined Olympiakos after his one year in Spain.

Thus, his previous history indicates that he is willing to "step up" and take a risk to advance his career. I just hope that he will ignore the bad experience of his team-mate in the Greek national team Vassilis Spanoulis (V-Span) with the Rockets. Playing for Pop who loves and appreciates international basketball is one thing, and dealing with that jerk Jeff Van Gundy is another.

[Ice009]

Yeah, Thanks Vangelis.

If he is really considering joining the Spurs then I will welcome him to the team.

[miguelito]

Vangelis, thanks for all the info. I really hope this happens as well.

Sometimes great big men can be found in the least likely of places. Tim Duncan was virtually an unknown player in the Virgin Islands. Very few people knew about him, so he was only recruited by a couple of universities in the US. My roomate at the time was Wake Forest Coach Dave Odom's son, so I met Tim when he was a 17 year old recruit. Actually, he might have been 16 when he first visited Wake. Quiet kid, very polite. I remembered hearing that they thought he could be a solid player if they could get him to be aggressive. Plus he hadn't been playing the game very long and was still picking things up.

Anyway, that 17-year-old kid turned out just fine.

[alh1020]

I wish July 1st would hurry up and get here .... the suspense is killing me.

[SleepyAdamII]

what about Kidd to SA? the longest?

[Dulce]

Originally Posted by Vangelis

According to the Greek press the odds for him joining the Spurs at the moment are greater than him staying with Olympiakos, assuming the Spurs will follow through with their initial rumoured offer.

I have been reading the Greek press for years and the "tone" of the reporting on Bouroussis has become increasingly very pessimistic for Olympiakos following the failed meeting on Wednesday. Olympiakos are also in danger of losing George Printezis (another promising Greek young player) to the Raptors.

As I've said before, the key here is whether the Angelopoulos brothers will get involved with the Olympiakos soccer team. If (like all reports are currently suggesting) they will, it is very likely that they will not match the Spurs offer to Bouroussis.

I don't want to jinx this as there are many variables involved for this to happen. It is a big decision for Bouroussis to say goodbye to family/friends/country and a glorious (and lucrative - let's not forget that 1.7m Euros p.a. is still a lot of money!) sporting career in Europe where he is the "top man" of Olympiakos to come to the NBA where the chances of success are significantly lower... but in the same time the fruits of success would be far greater!

We can only hope that Yannis makes the right decision.

Do you have a link for any of these reports?

[StNick2261]

Originally Posted by SleepyAdamII

what about Kidd to SA? the longest?

I thnk some of the longest ones were deleted... which I think included the Udoka thread

[Vangelis]

Dulce,

Unfortunately, the "FOS" newspaper does not have an established website, but I read the front page every day via the contra.gr website. The "Fos" is the authority on all things Olympiakos and has been since the 1960s.

1.) Yesterday's FOS newspaper front page - 13 June

??????????, ??????????? - Contra.gr

If you zoom in and read the top right-hand section you will see the following:

"Danger with Bouroussis & Printezis... The change of philosophy/policy of the Angelopoulos brothers sends the two players away as the money difference is significant and is troubling both players... The Angelopulos brothers have decided to tighten up the budget in terms of salaries... Bouroussis is not happy... he is going to the Greek resort of Chalkidiki to spend some time there... Printezis is considering the Raptors'.

2.) Today's "Fos" newspaper front page - 14 June
??????????, ??????????? - Contra.gr

If you zoom in and read the bottom right-hand section you will see the following:

"Great concern over Bouroussis & Printezis... Bouroussis was in his hometown of Karditsa in Northern Greece yesterday... it is expected that a new meeting will take place next week... Glyniadakis (a young Greek center) will come to Olympiakos whatever happens with Bouroussis...if Bouroussis goes, then Mavrokefalidis (another big) will definitely stay on the roster".

[buttsR4rebounding]

Crap, it's all Greek to me...

[Big Empty]

He's a big body but he seems like he has less hops than Tim Duncan. We're missing a big man than can obstruct shots above the rim and play decent defense. I hope we don't sign an upgraded Rasho.

[Dulce]

Originally Posted by Vangelis

Dulce,

Unfortunately, the "FOS" newspaper does not have an established website, but I read the front page every day via the contra.gr website. The "Fos" is the authority on all things Olympiakos and has been since the 1960s.

1.) Yesterday's FOS newspaper front page - 13 June

??????????, ??????????? - Contra.gr

If you zoom in and read the top right-hand section you will see the following:

"Danger with Bouroussis & Printezis... The change of philosophy/policy of the Angelopoulos brothers sends the two players away as the money difference is significant and is troubling both players... The Angelopulos brothers have decided to tighten up the budget in terms of salaries... Bouroussis is not happy... he is going to the Greek resort of Chalkidiki to spend some time there... Printezis is considering the Raptors'.

2.) Today's "Fos" newspaper front page - 14 June
??????????, ??????????? - Contra.gr

If you zoom in and read the bottom right-hand section you will see the following:

"Great concern over Bouroussis & Printezis... Bouroussis was in his hometown of Karditsa in Northern Greece yesterday... it is expected that a new meeting will take place next week... Glyniadakis (a young Greek center) will come to Olympiakos whatever happens with Bouroussis...if Bouroussis goes, then Mavrokefalidis (another big) will definitely stay on the roster".

Thanks for the explanation and keeping us updated.