Bad news for Antonio Blakeney

He was retarded to declare as soon as we got a competent coach. Yeah I said it

overseas. I hope he does well overseas and gets to the NBA and isn't an assistant coach for a girl's high school team in 6 years.

Really wanted him stay another year.

Overseas pros make a huge range of salaries:

The Top

In Euro league: the best 30 players make somewhere between 1 and 3 million USD per year

In the top national leagues such as the ACB, VTB, ESAKE, BSL etc. most players will make between 5–10k a month

On top of this: house, car, food, and sometimes even taxes is paid for the players

The Middle

As you move down the ranks, payment gets a lot muddier. You have players in lower leagues getting paid more than players in higher leagues because they are popular and can draw a crowd. Veterans command more money than rookies and bigs often command more than guards. Then you have to consider each players value if they are considered an import or a local.

It is all very confusing, but between 1k and 3k a month is pretty good in the mid level leagues, any more you are doing really well.

The Bottom

One of the very cool things about the European system is you have a huge range of players that are getting paid to do what they love.

At the lower levels the contracts get much more creative as well.

Often players that are just getting their start will take a contract from 0–300ish a month just to build their resume and hope they can move up. These contracts often include food, travel, and a place to live. Sometimes the teams will set the players up other jobs in order to make some extra money.

Blakeney was a HS All American and a top 15 recruit. Justified or not, ALL of those guys look at college ball as something they will only play for 1 or 2 years max before moving on to the NBA. Hell, Blakeney tested the waters after last season, a season in which he really didn't play all that well until the final 8 games or so.

He probably would have been MUCH better served coming back to LSU and playing for an actual coach rather than a YMCA camp counselor. If nothing else, he would have been forced to at least try to defend someone AND would have found out what it was like to play in a structured offense. Unfortunately, once these guys get the mindset they are future NBA players come hell or high water, there's not much you can do to convince them otherwise.

However, not getting an invite to the combine isn't a death sentence for one's NBA dreams. All you have to do is look at Tim Quarterman last year. He didn't get an invite to the combine, but that didn't stop him from taking home $500,000+ sitting on the bench in Portland this year

Hopefully he can get some good value for that flashy car he has

will probably end up overseas somewhere like Baghdad

He's going to be a star in Latvia

I hope he took three years of one language thats not english.
Some guys marry woman in europe or russia and make a life.

Some work on game and make NBA

Some come to a bad end.

Pray for him to make good decisions.