Brand leaving, fans suffering... meanwhile in Germany Chris Kaman arrived.

over 3 years ago KingHenne 7 comments 0 recs |

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Wow

Surreal.

by John R on Jul 9, 2008 3:53 PM PDT reply actions

Chris Kaman sat on the bench for the preparation game against Canada. (Germany is preparing for the qualifying tournament in Greece to earn a spot in the olympics.) The reason that he was not playing was that his insurance wasn’t completed yesterday. According to spiegel.de the amount of this insurance would be approximately 130.000 EUR (about $200.000). This seems pretty low to me for a guy who gets paid $10M a year! What do you think?

by KingHenne on Jul 10, 2008 2:58 AM PDT reply actions

Hmmm...

Seems like someone can pony up 130 EUR. Should I take up a collection?

Are you going to make it to Greece? Will you watch the games on EuroSport? Keep us posted.

Vielen Dank!

The Clippers! The (second) Best NBA Team in LA!

by Steve Perrin on Jul 10, 2008 11:37 PM PDT up reply actions

Cultural Differences

Oh I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. In much of Europe a comma is used as a decimal separator, while a full stop (or a space) is used for the presentation of large numbers. So I should have written 130,000 EUR.

I won’t make it to Greece but I will watch the games live on DSF (german sports channel). I’ll keep you up-to-date…

by KingHenne on Jul 11, 2008 4:57 AM PDT up reply actions

Oh, I knew that!

I lived in Heidelberg in college, and I lived in Paris for three years in the 90’s. I’m supposed to be pretty culturally literate. I should have noticed the three 000’s after the decimal. So that’s my bad.

I know Ilgauskas is not playing for Lithuania because they couldn’t work out the insurance. But I would assume that Deutschland would have known about and been prepared to deal with Kaman’s insurance before going to the trouble to get him a passport and a uniform.

The Clippers! The (second) Best NBA Team in LA!

by Steve Perrin on Jul 11, 2008 11:19 AM PDT up reply actions

honestly...

I don’t see why people have such a hang-up over people playing for other countries in the olympics. I mean, sure it’s cool to represent your true country (USA for me), but this is an opportunity to do something that is truly a possibly once in a lifetime experience. The fact that Kaman is writing it off by saying it’s better comp than the summer league is both funny, and true.

In my native Texas, San Antonio Silver Stars G Becky Hammon caught a ton of flak for wanting to play for Russia, most notably from the archaic coach that cut her (she’s one of the five best in the league…)

Given the iffy nature of the situation (you are in effect, playing literally for the other side) it’s easy to see why some people would be upset, but seeing as how one man’s patriotism is another’s fascism, I think that’s to be expected. The important thing to remember is that this is a sport, and not the selling of nuclear secrets. Shut up, play some ball, and go Team USA…

by Justin Biehle on Jul 13, 2008 1:24 PM PDT reply actions