Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds, the first AP All-American to go undrafted since the ABA-NBA merger, will apparently play next season in Italy.
Reynolds played for the Phoenix Suns' Summer League team, but was limited early by an Achilles injury that kept him out of the team's first two games. Still, the undersized shooting guard ran the point and ended up with respectable averages of 10.3 points and 4.7 assists while hitting 48% of his attempts from the field. That injury-shortened performance, though, was enough to secure Reynolds a training camp invite with the Suns.
Rather than fight it out in training camp with Zabian Dowdell, Reynolds becomes the second (reported) player to take the European route instead of trying his luck with the NBA.
Though it was originally reported that Reynolds will play for Prima Verdi, the team Reynolds has signed with is actually Prima Veroli in Italy's second division.
And he's apparently getting paid for it.
Reynolds' contract was reportedly negotiated by NBA super agent Arn Tellem and former Duke forward Lee Melchionni.
"We've been working on this for a while," Melchionni told the Philadelphia Daily News. "The offer is something that blew us out of the water."
While Italy's second division is still better than a lot of European basketball leagues as far as I can tell, it makes one wonder why one of the five best players in college basketball (judging from his All-American status) last season that had a legitimate chance at making the roster of a team in the best basketball league on Earth has instead chosen to play abroad in a country's second division.
As noted theorist Deion Sanders brilliantly surmised, it must be the money. Rapper Nelly later seemed to co-sign this statement with his hit classic Ride Wit Me.
Last, since I'm quoting famous people, I'd like to include a quote from "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase:
"Money isn't everything, it's the only thing."
While it may not be the only thing Reynolds is interested in, It has been interesting to see where some player's priorities lie this Summer. No knock against making good money playing in Europe, but passing up legitimate opportunities in the NBA will always confound me.
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