Chris Kaman is one of the greatest characters in the NBA, and it is a fantastic thing to have him on the Clippers.

Very often he doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but that’s the beauty of it. And as far as this latest escapade goes, I see nothing but positives coming from it. Of course we can always worry about guys getting hurt, but you just can’t approach basketball that way.

—His training just became more extensive, if it wasn’t already. Kaman made huge progress in his off-season regime last year. This would seem to take it to an even higher level.

-Kaman practicing in Germany, hanging out with Novitzki and a bunch of German guys? Awesome! Kaman had a fairly sheltered, troubled youth. He seems to have great family values and a sweet, fun-loving approach to life, and he has slowly grown into the beginnings of a nice professionalism as a basketball player. He grew up with a misdiagnosis of severe ADD and built the persona of a goofball. He turned into a good basketball player with vast potential, moved to the big city, and started getting paid. We’ve seen him mature not just as a player, but as a human being. In the beginning he was shutting out a lot of “untoward” influences and hanging out with his church group in Mexico during the offseason. Last year he was kicking it in Mexico on his yacht with his mentor, Kim Hughes, as they began to make a correct diagnosis of his mental function-his brain turned out to be too quick, just like his multiple spin moves. (I guess Kaman likes Mexico in the summer—maybe it’s a German thing.)

Going to Germany will give Kaman an international perspective. He has obviously evolved in his experience on the NBA circuit, but this take things to a new level. In general, it’s great for Americans, especially middle American guys like Kaman, to go to Europe and travel the world and see a different approach to life and set of values. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with his beliefs, and only want to make the point that he’s smart and successful and ready to embrace a broader perspective. He’s not going to turn into Vlade Divac overnight and start smoking cigarettes and hanging out in cafes, but going to Germany as more than a tourist is going to have a big impact. It should be really interesting to see how he does in learning to speak the language a little bit—it could turn out that he’s pretty good at it, now that he can study.

Ever since the BD deal started, I keep thinking about Clipper marketing. This move should raise Kaman’s profile quite a bit, in Germany if nowhere else. He’s very likeable and the Germans should have fun getting to know him. If the team is successful at all and makes it to the Olympics, his profile could go even higher. It’s an “olympic story” in itself already, and it will get a lot of play if they can win some games. The progression of the publicity is good, going from the new Brand-Davis partnership to Kaman playing with Nowitzki.

That should be good and fun to watch, and close quarters with Dirk could be really beneficial to Kaman and his game. MD has always wanted Kaman to be able to guard Nowitzki outside and inside, and Kaman is going to get a lot of practice now. We’ve been forced to wait very patiently to see Kaman 2.0 on the court with EB, but now we get to see Kaman with Nowitzki as a little appetizer.

So there it is: Kaman 2.5 turns out to be a German. And of course you know the other thing about Germany: very progressive and leading the way in the fight against global warming.

Just as I predicted: we take care of this point guard thing and then move on to the greening of Kaman. Check and check.

What’s next?