MONDAY OVERSEAS MARKET CHECK

Most of my weekends these days are spent watching my daughters chase their own dreams. Games, tournaments, driving all over the place, sitting around waiting for the next one to start. Somewhere in all of that, I read.

I go through the international basketball news, league announcements, signings, expansion plans, media deals and whatever else I can find that might eventually affect the overseas player. I’ve lived this life, and I know damn well when you’re playing you probably aren’t spending Saturday night reading about EuroLeague expansion or FIBA media rights.

So I’ll do it.

Every Monday I’m going to bring what I found here, tell you what I’m reading, and more importantly, tell you why I think it matters. Here’s what caught my attention this weekend.

THE NBA EXPERIENCE KEEPS MOVING OVERSEAS

Aaron Holiday signed in Rome. He’s 29, played eight seasons in the NBA and was getting playoff minutes with Houston a few months ago. Now he’s joining a new Italian club playing Serie A and EuroCup.

Cole Anthony is already in Australia with Melbourne United. He’s 26 with 367 NBA games. Joe Ingles helped recruit him there. Skylar Mays is in the NBL too after NBA time and the last couple years in Europe. These are really good basketball players choosing overseas jobs while they still have plenty of basketball left.

That changes the market. Aaron Holiday takes a spot. The really good guard who might have gotten that spot starts looking somewhere else. Maybe he lands with another EuroCup team. The player who would’ve gotten that job looks at BCL or a strong domestic league.

Keep following that chain and eventually it reaches a player who has absolutely nothing to do with Aaron Holiday. That’s how this market works.

KEEP AN EYE ON ROME

Maxima Roma is worth watching beyond the Holiday signing. This is a new organization entering Serie A and EuroCup and they’re already able to bring in a player with eight years of NBA experience.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about all the money potentially coming into European basketball with NBA Europe and EuroLeague expansion. Rome feels like another little piece of that bigger story. New investment creates jobs. It also raises expectations and brings better players into the market.

I want to see where this goes.

AUSTRALIA ISN’T SLOWING DOWN

I’ve talked about Cole Anthony already, but I’m keeping Australia on this list because I think players need to understand what’s happening there. The NBL keeps growing. The television product is better. Attendance is growing. The league has become a legitimate destination for players with NBA and high level European experience.

When I played in Australia, it was already a great league. The business around it now is completely different. If you’re mapping out an overseas career today and you’re still looking at Australia through whatever reputation it had five or ten years ago, update your map.

PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY FIND THE GAMES

The FIBA Women’s World Cup starts in September and all 36 games will be available on HBO Max in the United States, with 17 also appearing on TNT or truTV. I keep coming back to this because younger players probably don’t realize how ridiculous watching overseas basketball used to be.

You could be playing the best basketball of your life and basically disappear from America. Your family would be sitting at home trying to figure out a VPN while you sent them some questionable streaming link your teammate found five minutes before tip.

More international basketball on major platforms means more visibility for the leagues and the players in them. That matters for your career, your brand and eventually your value.

WHAT I’M READING

This week I spent time on the Aaron Holiday move to Rome and what Maxima Roma is building, Cole Anthony and the continued growth of Australia’s NBL, the NBA experience moving into international leagues, FIBA’s expanded American television distribution, and the latest movement around NBA Europe and EuroLeague expansion.

You don’t need to spend your weekend reading all of it. I will. What I want you to understand this Monday is pretty simple.

The overseas market is getting bigger, more visible and more valuable. The level of player entering it is rising right along with it. That creates opportunity, and it also means the job you thought was your level a few years ago might now have a guy with 300 NBA games looking at it.

Know the market you’re playing in. I’ll keep reading.