Lance Allred offers up a cautionary

Lance Allred has never been afraid to speak his mind.

His book, "Longshot: The Adventures of a Deaf Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA." tackled some pretty compelling stuff.

After all the 6-foot-11 Allred is deaf. He grew up on a polygamous Mormon commune. He’s asthmatic. He has obsessive compulsive disorder and he was viciously berated by his first college coach, Utah’s Rick Majerus.

Despite those roadblocks, Allred eventually achieved his dream of playing in the NBA on March 13, 2008 when the Cleveland Cavaliers signed him to a ten-day contract, making him the first legally deaf player in NBA history.

However, the majority of Allred’s basketball career has been spent far from the NBA and taken him to such exotic locales as France, Spain, Italy, New Zealand and Greece.

These days he’s offering up some unsolicited advice to a host of NBA players who think they are about to pocket a few extra bucks by playing overseas during the lockout.

"NBA players are so used to a posh lifestyle — four-star hotels, traveling accommodations, unlimited towels, Gatorade and everything," Allred recently told the Salt Lake Tribune. "You’re so used to the comforts of a nice shower, and masseuses. Every European locker room I’ve ever been in doesn’t even live up to my college locker rooms. There’s grease-stained floors, cockroaches, showerheads that don’t work."

And the money?

Well, that’s not so cut and dry either.

When Allred read that Nets All-Star guard Deron Williams was going to Turkey for $200,000 a month, he laughed.

"Deron could be above the fray with that sort of high-profile signing." he said. "That team might not want to have the reputation of not paying him, but that increases the chances that the other players will leave. If Deron gets his money, a lot of other people on that team aren’t going to get theirs."

Allred claims he’s asked a lot of Americans playing overseas about their pay.

"They’re averaging about half of what they were guaranteed to make," the big man said.

A few years ago, Allred himself claims he inked a deal with NSB Napoli in Italy for $160,000 and was stiffed.

"I didn’t receive a dime of it, even though it was FIBA-guaranteed," Allred said. "The team folded two months later. It’s such a crapshoot."

This past season, Allred spent training camp with the Indiana Pacers before giving Europe yet another try with Maroussi in Greece. He played three games before booking a flight home after once again not being paid.

Critics claim Allred has always been a troublemaker. One scout when hearing about his latest complaints said during every step of his career, its always been someone else’s fault.

In fact, advocates of overseas basketball say Allred is on the wrong side of 30, has a terrible reputation in Europe and is trying to garner some notoriety to cash in on his latest book, a self-published effort entitled "Basketball Gods: The Transformation of the Enlightened Jock."

For what it’s worth, Allred admits that he’s different.

"I naturally make people uncomfortable," Allred told The Sports Network back in June of 2009 when promoting his previous book. "I don’t mean too, but I am not the typical jock. Emotional self doubt is my weakness. I’ve always been far too analytical and I have had to learn to be at ease with myself."

Of course, whistle blowers are rarely popular. But that doesn’t mean they are by definition wrong — see Jose Canseco.

Allred is far from the only player that has claimed they haven’t been paid what they were promised while overseas.

Tate George, a former first-round draft pick that toiled with a few NBA teams as well as several European professional teams, teamed up with New York Congressman Peter King, in hopes of shining a light on overseas teams failing to live up to contracts back in 2009 after a U.S. court ordered Greek powerhouse Olympiakos to pay $1.1 million to former NBA player Chris Morris and several others, including former Notre Dame star and NBA veteran David Rivers.

Allred is simply offering up a cautionary tale, especially to lesser NBA players who may regard overseas basketball as an insurance policy.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sns-tsn-acn-mcmullen-column-20110720,0,7191848.story