By Emily Dunn
The National Basketball Association has been around for years. This year will be the first season that the players will not be playing as of right now. Some of the players saw this coming so decided instead of sitting around waiting, they are going overseas to play there.
At first when Deron Williams announced that he was going to play in Europe, many thought it was a stupid idea and he would get hurt and ruin his NBA season here. Now being mid-November and the season still not starting many are starting to think Williams was smart to leave and continue playing.
Williams wasn’t the only player to leave to go play. Local Jazz player Andrei Kirilenko has gone over to play for Moscow with a three-year contract, but he has the option of leaving anytime when the NBA starts back up.  It is not only local players, but big-name players as well have left to play in the Euro league. One of the biggest stars in the basketball world right now, Kobe Bryant, was a big debate on playing across seas. Bryant ended up not going and rumors were started that the Euro league doesn’t have enough money for Bryant.
Europe hasn’t been as easy on these NBA players as they might have thought it would be. A lot of them have been struggling to get going, and their stats are nothing like what they are here.  Williams has said that “the reffing is different over there, and it has taken time to adjust to,” according to a fan site.
The players over there haven’t had respect for the NBA players coming over and stealing their spotlight, so they’re trying to make sure the stars stay out of the spotlight and on the benches.
Many of the players are wishing they had followed Williams from the beginning. Derek Fisher is the spokesman for the players during the lockout, and he is wishing he were overseas doing what he does best and what he loves.
As of now the lockout doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon, and many fans and players are very upset by this. If we could just go back to the days of high school or even college when money wasn’t an issue and it was all played with heart. The athletes and owners today have become too greedy and are ruining the great sport of basketball. If the lockout doesn’t end soon, I could see the whole NBA moving to the Euro league.