China’s pro basketball league has signed its first NBA lockout defector: former Denver Nugget Wilson Chandler. The 6-foot-8-inch forward, who has four years’ experience in the NBA, signed a one-year contract with Zhejiang Guangsha of the Chinese Basketball Association, ESPN reported Tuesday.
His agent didn’t specify the terms of the deal, but reportedly said it was worth less than a $3.1 million offer Denver had made to retain the 24-year-old, and more than the $1.7 million offer that had been reported elsewhere.
Mr. Chandler’s move is especially significant because he is the first NBA player to sign with a Chinese team following the league’s Aug. 19 adoption of new rules governing contracts for players who are locked out of the U.S. league due to a labor contract dispute (report in Chinese).
The usual autumn start to the NBA’s regular season is in jeopardy as owners and the players’ union engage in a heated dispute over how to split the league’s profit. Over the summer the owners locked out the players, effectively suspending the league until an agreement is reached—which optimists say could come early in 2012, and pessimists say could lead to a cancellation of the entire season.
That led to speculation that U.S. pros might sign with Chinese franchises eager to fill their arenas with headline stars. A few have already sought refuge with European teams, leaving many to wonder when basketball-mad China would enter the market.
But a CBA summit in Shenzhen in mid-August put the brakes on any mass exodus of NBA stars to China. The league decided at the conference to adopt two rules that would deter overseas talent from trying to establish a pied-à-terre in its market. First, any player under contract to an NBA team would be barred from signing with a Chinese team, and second, Chinese teams would be prohibited from offering opt-out clauses allowing players to return to the U.S. if and when the NBA lockout is resolved. New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams reportedly signed a $5 million deal in July with a Turkish club that would allow him to return to the NBA when the league gets its act together, but the CBA has demanded a full season’s commitment from prospective pros.
Read more at the China Real Time Report at the Wall Street Journal.
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