What's Happening!

PARIS (The Monday International Show) - Wow! After my free agent article two weeks ago, things really got going in the three-way wrestling match to get better between the Clips, Sixers and Warriors!

Maggette preferred the money to an immediate chance at the title while Posey got both in New Orleans!

Brand moved from a west weak sister to be closer to his family in the east with comparable money on a more up and coming team.

Baron Davis came home only to see Elton bolt but hope remains that another top flight player will land in LA!

Turiaf, who wanted to stay with his beloved Lakers, couldn't refuse Golden State's offer of twice the dollars AND twice the playing time!

Ronny's extended family in Martinique which is rich in love but materially underpriveledged will be set for generations to come.

This is a beautiful story when you think back two years to his open-heart operation!

His French buddy, Pietrus, will have a great oppurtunity to start in my old stomping ground, Orlando, and I know the fans there will love the all- out effort he brings each night to earn his deserved mid-level exception contract!

One of the big off-season stories that still needs an ending is the never-ending and crazy battle between Ron Artest, himself, the world and common sense!

He changes his mind more often than a three-year old in a toy store and any team that would trade for such a talented headache must be demented!

He's already destroyed the Pacers and Kings, what else do you need to know?

Let's team him up somewhere with Marbury, Joakim Noah, J.R. Smith, and why not... J.R. Rider while you're at it!

That would be spectacular!

After that rant, let's move on to the Athen's TPO and the confirmation that european basketball is as powerful as the euro right now, starting with my good friend Yannakis who coached Greece to a dominating olympic qualification and who will benefit from the strong euro with his club, Olympiakos, because their recruitment for next season is impressive!

As usual, Greece's success was built on a magnificently balanced TEAM effort and I'll bet Team USA is already shaking in their boots at the thought of meeting up again with a rejuvenated Baby Shaq and titanesque trio of guards in Papaloukas, Spanoulis and Diamantidis!

Three european teams logically qualified in Athens and poor Nesterovic's Slovenia is odd man out whereas the exemplary and humble superstar Nowitski, is finally going to the biggest show, the olympics, after having shined in the past with Germany in the european and world championships.

I'll tell you straight up, my two favorite NBA human beings are Dirk and his best buddy Steve Nash and I'm also thrilled for coach Bauerman who painfully had to choose between the national team and a fat club contract and is rightfully recompensed with a trip to Bejing. Bravo!

There are tears of joy in Croatia and by ricochet, just tears in France after the brillant run by Repesa's team and the emergence of Marko Thomas as a big-time leader to qualify for Bejing.

French basketball people can only think back to that nightmare loss to Croatia last summer in Madrid- with leading scorer and rebounder Kasun injured and unavailable-and feel that their roster full of NBA players should have been celebrating instead of Croatia this week in Athens!

Now France is facing the tough task of qualifying in september for the next european championships without practically any of the french NBA guys.

Phew, what a difference one game can make!!

Croatia will be fighting with Australia and Germany with China for a quarterfinal berth in Bejing and when you look at the schedule there are at least two mega-exciting matchups each day in the tournament which will be a b-ball lovers nirvhana, but I'll go more in depth on that subject in my next post.

Please note that during the olympic tournament I'll be writing every three days about the action.

George Eddy