Kristic Crazy Talk

Well another NBA player goes to Europe. No, it's not star, just someone who thinks he is. Nenad Kristic.

OK, he was a decent player in the league and at one point looked like he could be a legit center. But on the Nets he was clearly the 4th option and I don't think that he was going to get a whole hell of a lot better, especially coming off 2 injury-plagued years where he played just 26 games in 06-07 and 45 in 08-08.

Yet for some reason he feels he should have been paid like an elite player. Quoted in the Begen Record, Kristic said he plans to return to the NBA.

"That's my plan," said Krstic, who signed a two-year deal with Triumph in Moscow on Monday. "I'm going to try to play really good in Russia and see what's going to happen."

"I didn't want that," Krstic said of the Cleveland deal. "When you look at big guys in the NBA, they signed really big contracts. I know I am on that level. I know I'm healthy right now. I took that like disrespect. To accept that offer from an NBA team only because it's an NBA team, I didn't want to do that."

What level does he really think he's on. I know you can't teach height, but height is at least supposed to allow you to do things like rebound and block shots. Never in his career has Kristic averaged 7 rebounds per game or one blocked shot per game. At 7 feet tall, Kristic's inability to put up any

Yes, Kristic can score, but so can a lot of guys. At the $10M/year that Kristic was looking for, I'm much rather have a guy like Tyson Chandler, the Hatian Sensation or the Celtics' Kendrick Perkins, who at about $4M/year is a bargain. The truth is that the Nets will probably get just as good collective production from Josh Boone, Sean Williams and rookie Brook Lopez with a much improved defensive presence.

Just because Isiah was dumb enough to give Eddy Curry $10M/year, doesn't mean that anyone else would give a similar contract to Kristic...even Kevin McHale.