Childress Interviews

Here are choice excerpts from four ESPN interviews concerning Josh Childress' foray into Greece:

In this short sit-down, we learn:
1. There are only three other players on his old Atlanta Hawks team that he feels maybe would make it playing abroad as he has:

• Al Horford (a Dominican)
• Zaza Puchulia (a Georgian)
• Marvin Williams (only a US citizen)

2. He has three goals -

• Win the Triple Crown - his A1 Greek league (Olympiakos, 5-0, is currently tied with Panathinaikos for 1st), the Greek Cup, and the Euroleague
• Become a better player
• Have fun doing it

In this interview titled "My Big Fat Greek Contract," we see:

• Childress' "J-Chill" private pool - part of a team-funded private chef, maid service, car, and 3-story apartment package that Childress estimates saves him more tahn half a million a year.
• The scope of J-Chill's popularity in Athens is not necessarily commensurate to the size of the arenas he plays in. He made his Greek League debut in a gym holding around 1,000.
• When he runs onto the the courts of these gyms during the pre-game announcements, the Greek announcer bellows his name: "TZOSSSS CHİLDRESSSS"!
• The owners of Olympiakos said it was not "logic[al]" to offer Kobe or LeBron $50 million to play one season. But they are confident there are numbers that would lure higher-caliber players than Josh, who signed a 3-year, $20 million deal.
• Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, who played and coached for more than 20 years in Italy, said that Kobe or LeBron would never play abroad because, essentially, their egos would not allow them.
• They both want to be considered the best to ever play, he said, and to do that they have to play with the best, in the NBA. Also, in playing a year abroad, they sacrifice a year in which they could be adding to their NBA statistics.

Below, Panayiotis Angelopoulos, who owns Olympiakos with his brother, discusses what he perceives as the main difference between European club owners and NBA owners - NBA's owners assess players according to the salary cap and whether their market value will increase over a 2-3 year window whereas European owners, without a salary cap, have a more season-by-season approach.



Alright, ya'll, below we get to see that "J" truly is a "Chil" guy:

• He's picked up about 10 Greek words so far, including the expected bad ones.
• Skinned rabbits at the local grocery store freak him out.
• He looks at a dead, frozen octopus eye and doesn't flinch. If nothing else - you gotta check out the last 15 seconds of this video - it's redunk!

So when not staring down dead seafood, how is Josh faring in his league, you ask?
Here's the update:

Courtesy of Eurobasket:

Olympiakos S.F.P. Pireus Statistics

Season: 2008-2009 Field Goals Rebounds # Game min fgm-a 3pm-a ftm-a off def tot ast pf st bs pts 6 Childress, Josh 5 23.6 67.6% 16.7% 85.2% 1.0 2.2 3.2 0.2 1.2 1.6 0.8 14.4 16 Printezis, Giorgos 5 18.4 61.8% 25.0% 63.6% 0.8 2.4 3.2 1.0 1.8 0.4 0.2 10.4 10 Halperin, Yotam 5 19.8 77.8% 46.2% 75.0% 1.0 2.4 3.4 1.2 0.4 0.2 0.2 7.6 11 Greer, Lynn 5 17.0 77.8% 30.8% 85.7% 0.2 1.2 1.4 1.4 1.6 0.6 0.0 7.6 18 Teodosic, Milos 5 20.2 66.7% 54.5% 66.7% 0.4 3.0 3.4 1.4 2.4 0.4 0.2 6.8 9 Bourousis, Giannis 4 17.0 66.7% 50.0% 75.0% 2.0 5.5 7.5 0.5 1.3 0.5 0.8 8.3 17 Erceg, Zoran 5 14.6 50.0% 25.0% 77.8% 1.0 2.0 3.0 0.8 2.4 0.0 0.2 6.4 7 Vujcic, Nikola 4 21.0 47.4% 0.0% 63.6% 0.5 3.0 3.5 1.3 2.0 0.0 0.5 6.3 4 Papaloukas, Thodoros 4 20.0 60.0% 25.0% 100.0% 0.3 3.0 3.3 5.0 1.5 1.8 0.0 5.8 15 Schortsanitis, Sofoklis 2 10.0 80.0% 0.0% 60.0% 2.5 0.5 3.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 0.0 9.5 5 Pelekanos, Mihalis 4 12.8 50.0% 37.5% 25.0% 0.5 3.3 3.8 1.8 2.0 0.3 0.3 3.5 13 Vasilopoulos, Panagiotis 3 16.3 75.0% 33.3% 100.0% 0.3 1.7 2.0 1.0 1.0 0.3 0.3 4.7 14 Vougioukas, Ian 3 8.3 66.7% 0.0% 66.7% 0.3 2.7 3.0 0.0 1.7 0.0 0.3 4.0 19 Sloukas, Costas 2 6.5 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.5 0.0 1.0 8 Milosevic, Igor 2 6.5 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0

He leads the team in minutes, points, steals, and blocks (the latter two showing his defensive versatility and superior athleticism). But notice how the stronger "team play" in Europe can be seen in individual statistics. Nobody dominates the scoring, rebounding, or assist column like the best players do in the NBA. Admittedly, it is strange to my American eye to see half the team average 3-4 rebounds and 1-2 assists a game...