With talks off in the NBA lockout, two marquee players are eager to play — somewhere — and Durant is reported close to a deal to join a German team.
Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant is in talks with a team in Germany about coming to play with them this season. Durant’s agent Aaron Goodwin confirmed as much to ESPN.com on Thursday. Meanwhile, Miami Heat star guard Dwyane Wade says he is ready to listen to overseas offers with the idea of entertaining one.
It’s come to this as the NBA lockout hits 141 days and counting with no end in sight.
"I'm right on the fence with playing overseas and I'm about to jump over," Durant said to Yahoo! Sports recently.
The news that Durant is considering playing for BBC Bayreuth in Germany — or possibly Spain’s Valencia club or Maccabi Electra Tel-Aviv in Israel — comes as Wade admits he has told his agent, Henry Thomas, to start looking into any viable offers to play overseas. Wade makes it clear he would much rather remain home and play in Miami but he also doesn’t want to waste a year.
The entire 2011–12 season is in jeopardy now after the NBA players reunion rejected the owners most recent offer Monday and then the players moved to decertify the union. Now there is the real chance the season will play out in court rooms across the country as the players begin filing antitrust lawsuits against the NBA.
"I told my agent to just take a peek," Wade said to the Associated Press. "It's time. There's a possibility that we're not going to have a season. We've got to see what's out there, what the possibilities are. I want to play competitive basketball this year. I've missed a year of basketball in my life before. I'm not trying to miss another. I don't have too many years of basketball left."
Unlike many of his counterparts, Wade is still hopeful a deal can be done and that the NBA season can get going by Christmas. He’s also a realist, so he understands odds are there will be no season.
"I'm with the majority. When everybody's ready to go, I'm ready to go," Wade said. "I'm ready to stick with our guns if that's what we decide to do. The message to fans doesn't change from what I've said: It's hard for players to say that we're sorry for this, because people say that we're not. This is our job and you see what we have to do. No one wants to be on the court more than the players."
Contact Terrance Harris at terrancefharris@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @Terranceharris.
(Photo: Ronald Martinez/GettyImages)
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