With all the talk of NBA players going overseas if the NBA lockout lingers, we might as well add another name to the list: Kevin Seraphin. His agent told Michael Lee that he'd look for opportunities to play in France if the lockout goes on, with his former club team being the leading candidate.
Seraphin's agent, Bouna Ndiaye, said his client has received interest from several European teams who hope to sign the 6-foot-9 forward who averaged 2.7 points and 2.6 rebounds in his rookie season with the Wizards. More than likely, Ndiaye said, Seraphin will look to return to his former team, Cholet Basket, which developed Seraphin when he left for France at age 16.
"We're starting to talk and see what the options are in case this thing lasts longer than we expected," Ndiaye said of the lockout. "If nothing is moving, then we'll probably just get him to a team, maybe his French team, to not take any risk of a new environment and keeping from getting better. We're kind of waiting a little bit to see what's going on."
Basketball is basketball, so I guess it's good that Seraphin won't be sitting around if the lockout happens. The concern is that insurance is dicey, so if Seraphin gets hurt, he could be in trouble. FIBA is apparently working on something to address this, so we'll see how it goes.
Seraphin is also trying out for the French National Team for the European Championships, which will be tough because he's competing with Tony Parker, Joakim Noah, Boris Diaw, Mickael Pietrus, Nicolas Batum and Ronny Turiaf. If he does make it, that'd be great experience.