Former NBA player Tate George plays whistle-blower

By John McMullen

Wary of the country's struggling economy, NBA commissioner David Stern slashed his own staff by nearly 10 percent before last season.
Meanwhile, 12 NBA teams accepted the league's offer to borrow a total of $200 million from JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America last year, with between $13 million and $20 million available to each team.
Moral of the story?
Times are tough.
Families all across the country continue to have trouble filling up the gas tank and paying the mortgage.
Conventional wisdom has always said the sports industry is recession-proof. The theory is that struggling people look for escapist entertainment. To this point, fans are still attending live events at a brisk pace and watching on television with incredible fervor, but at it's at least conceivable that disposable income will wear thin.
NBA owners realize this and have tried to put a halt on their Congressional- like spending habits. That strategy has its pluses and minuses. Since basketball enjoys a worldwide following with numerous competitive leagues around the globe, the league is always at risk of losing players.
However, as the value of the American dollar continues to tank on the world stage, most other industrialized countries are going through recessions far deeper than that of the United States.
The most high-profile NBA defection thus far took place last year when former Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Childress, a solid young player, jumped overseas to play with Greek powerhouse Olympiakos for three years and $20 million.
Having options is a wonderful thing for a player and Europe seemed like a bit of a panacea. After all, while NBA players pay taxes on their own salaries in the United States, European teams have made it a standard practice to pay the taxes of their stars.
Of course, when something seems too good to be true, it often is. Just ask Tate George.
A former first-round draft pick that toiled with the New Jersey Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks as well as several European professional teams, George is currently a member of the NBA Legends Board and, with the help of New York Congressman Peter King, looking to shine a light on a growing problem with overseas teams.
"We have guys living in their families' basements that have very little life skills and no one is stepping up to assist in the transition of the men they promote to build the NBA brand," George said. "Enough is enough."
George was responding to a U.S., court order ordering Olympiakos to pay $1.1 million to former NBA player Chris Morris, who played for the club in 1999, and several others, including former Notre Dame star and NBA veteran David Rivers, who have come forward to say they are still owed money by Olympiakos.
"It's really galling," King told ITK, "the way some of these guys are treated, usually during the last year or two of their contracts, especially since athletes have a limited career life span."
King has threatened a congressional probe of the NBA's ties to European basketball clubs, and is urging the NBA Legends Board to fight for its members and make the NBA take notice of shoddy treatment former players have received overseas.
Tate believes any contract signed in Europe or the United States has to be enforced universally.
"If they're not being enforced, then American professional leagues should do what they can to make sure they are enforced." insists George. "I agree with Congressman King's view that if the NBA is in any way is going to acquiesce in foreign teams violating the contractual rights of American players including former NBA players, then the NBA is clearly falling down in its fiduciary responsibility, its ethical responsibility, its moral responsibility to its players."
Some serious charges have been leveled at Olympiakos.
Gary Ebert, Morris' agent, filed a police report in Shreveport, La after he received a death threat from someone claiming to be associated with Olympiakos owner Panagiotis Angelopoulos.
"I was outraged," George said. "I played with Chris for three years. This is a very, very serious issue. I want to see the NBA step up and protect those that have helped the owners make billions of dollars. The NBA should have some social obligation to those that they build their brand on. Players are being defrauded by certain teams in Europe."
So what can the NBA do?
Tate feels the league should stop helping European clubs by playing them in preseason games and marketing their product, a problem that heated up last week when Olympiakos arrived in the United States to play two exhibition games against the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs.
"The NBA let a professional team that owes the Legends money come into this country without paying those players a dime for their services," George said. "We as a body will not allow this anymore. Chris Morris and David Rivers are our members of our association, not just names.
"We should be fighting to help our own much like the courts are doing. The NBA is making money with organizations that owe our members millions of dollars from all over the world."
Last Wednesday, King sent a letter to Stern detailing what he had learned and demanding action.
"It's time for the NBA to use their leverage to make sure these players aren't defrauded," the congressman said.