Is the NBA losing it’s grip on the world’s best players? Two surprising hoops stories in as many weeks may be aberrations, or they may signal a major shift in the global market for basketball talent. Brandon Jennings, one of America’s best high school point guards, is bypassing college to play for an Italian club for at least a year before entering the NBA draft. Forward Josh Childress decided to leave the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and sign with a club in Athens for $21 million (after tax)/3 years. This after four non-American players opted to play overseas next year, rather than return to the NBA.

What does this mean for the players themselves, and what does this mean for the future of American hoops? The game has gone truly global, and the erosion of American hoops hegemony might actually be a good thing for the game.

Each of the recent NBA defections to Europe had a different reason for his choice. For the four foreign players, returning overseas is easy, because foreign teams can sign an unlimited number of non-American players. (There is a limit to the number of American citizens any club can sign; this cap was established as a way to prevent the flooding of the overseas market. But now that the world is catching up, that cap system should be reevaluated.) And with the dollar as weak as it is, some players can make a lot more overseas than they can in the U.S. There is nothing surprising or new about their choices, since foreign players have alternated between overseas and NBA clubs for years.

Jennings is a different case; he is a high school student who did not score high enough on the SATs to attend a major basketball college, and the NBA instituted a rule two years ago preventing players from going straight to the NBA from high school. So Jennings could: a) go back to an unpaid prep academy for one year; b) join the NBA’s Developmental League and make less than $30,000 a year, or; c) go overseas and make hundreds of thousands of dollars while training and playing against adult professionals and living somewhere cool. The risks of the third option are many. There is no guarantee that Jennings will succeed or even play against the professionals overseas, and he won’t receive the type of national exposure that he would have had he gone to, say, the University of Arizona. Foreign coaches won’t feel the kind of pressure that Lute Olson would have to play the phenom. And the competition for playing time overseas will be against men with significantly more experience. That said, Jennings’ choice could lay out the path for future stars who will choose between the potential fame and glory of starring for a major college program (as Kevin Durant did) or earning a lot of money immediately. The net effect is likely to drain some of the top talent every year away from college in a way unforeseen when the NBA changed its rules.

Childress, though, is the one that surprises me, and I think it’s a good thing. Childress was a restricted free agent this year, meaning that he could negotiate a contract with another NBA team, but if the Hawks chose to match that deal, Childress would be bound to return to Atlanta to play out that new contract. It’s a good deal for the team that holds the restriction rights, since it allows other teams to set the market value for a player, which they could then choose to meet or let the player go. But here’s the thing: a restricted free agent, like Childress, is restricted only as to other NBA teams. If he goes overseas, he can go wherever he wants.

And that’s where this gets interesting. Childress is the first American-born player that I know of to go overseas in the middle of a successful NBA career. (Although a couple have gone at the beginning to avoid playing for the teams that drafted them.) Childress obviously didn’t like playing for the Hawks’ notoriously disorganized management, and instead of waiting another year or two to become an unrestricted free agent, he decided to take his services overseas. (If he comes back to the NBA after a year, Atlanta would still hold his rights, so this isn’t just a leveraging ploy.)

This is real free-market basketball. This is great. For kids coming out of high school, it gives them the opportunity to earn a good living right away, without sacrificing their draft position or the right to play in the NBA later on. And for established players like Childress, even the threat of going overseas gives them more leverage with NBA teams. “Restricted” free agents, at least those willing to live abroad, have just been set a little more free. And for the fans like me who enjoy following players’ careers, this just got more interesting; I like the idea of ESPN having to cover Greek, Russian, Spanish, and Israeli teams, because big-name American talents are playing for them. How soon until I see a 10 year old kid wearing an Olympiakos Childress jersey?

For years, the NBA, MLB, and NFL have been accused of monopolizing the market for top American talent. The leagues have defeated those allegations by pointing to the overseas leagues as competitors. In the case of the NBA, that is now true.