Kenyon Martin has been the trail blazer, showing the path out of China back to the NBA.
But the path isn’t that appealing — you can’t sign to play anywhere else until the Chinese season ends, which is mid-February at the earliest and the playoffs go until late March. And you stop getting paid. So don’t expect J.R. Smith, Wilson Chandler and Aaron Brooks to go running down it, reports Chris Broussard at ESPN.
The risk is injury — something Smith had in his first game when he had a scare with his knee (that turned out not to be serious). All the NBA players in China are NBA free agents, so an injury could directly impact their ability to sign for big bucks when they come back to the NBA.
So they could do what Martin did — fly back to the United States and work out. Or they could keep playing and keep getting paid. And it sounds like that is what is going to happen.