According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hawks forward Josh Childress has signed a three-year contract with Olympiakos of Greece for more than $20 million.
"It's official, I just signed," Childress told the AJC's Sekou Smith from Athens on Wednesday morning.
Childress, a restricted free agent, has averaged 11.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists in four seasons with Atlanta, which reportedly offered the Stanford product a five-year deal worth about $33 million.
The Hawks will retain Childress's rights for another two years, but they will get no immediate compensation when sign-and-trade possibilities with other NBA teams were available.
After missing the playoffs for nine consecutive seasons, the Hawks made the post-season this past year and even pushed the eventual champs to seven games in the first round. For the first time ever, Philips Arena not only hosted three playoffs games, but the arena was filled and as raucous as any other in the league.
With that in mind, the Hawks had a pair of off-season goals -- re-sign restricted free agents Josh Childress and Josh Smith. With no draft picks, they wanted to stand pat with their young and talented roster, and that was going to be enough to have Atlanta ready to strongly support this team in 2008-2009.
The loss of Childress is strike one. It hurts, but it's not a crushing blow.
If the Hawks were to lose Smith, it would be strikes two and three.
Smith, who was raised in Atlanta and is one of the NBA's most talented players at the age of 22, is reportedly ready to bolt town as well. The reason? Because the Hawks have been inexplicably hesitant to show him the money.
I ranted about the ineptness of the Hawks' Atlanta Sprint ownership group in a blog on Saturday. Again, I repeat that losing Smith would be the worst move this organization has ever made. And hey, that's saying something!
We're talking about a team that's spent lottery picks on Adam Keefe, DerMarr Johnson and Shelden Williams. We're talking about an organization that spent first-round picks on the likes of Priest Lauderdale, Doug Edwards, Dion Glover, Cal Bowdler and Ed Gray.
In other NBA news, the Suns signed Matt Barnes to a one-year contract Tuesday. Barnes is a versatile forward that has played well off the bench for Golden St. the last two years. Meanwhile, the Warriors traded a future draft pick to the Nets for point guard Marcus Williams.
