Maybe Patrick O'Bryant can find some hope in Gerald Green's story.

O'Bryant and Green's arrival and early NBA departure are intertwined along with their travels around the world for a little basketball soul searching.

They came into the league a year apart from each other as first round selections in 2005 (Green, 18th overall by Boston) and 2006 (O'Bryant, picked 9th by Golden State) and bounced around the league and D-League before taking their games overseas. And while Green officially made his return to the league this past week after signing a 10-day contract with the New Jersey Nets, O'Bryant was busy making moves of his own.

It's about 1,600 miles from Puerto Rico to New Jersey, but for O'Bryant this could be one more step closer to making his own NBA comeback.

Last week O'Bryant signed with Indios de Mayaguez in Puerto Rico's BSN (or National Superior Basketball League as it's also known) and became a bright spot in new additions to the league that have featured NBA vets Jerome James, Ricky Davis, Melvin Ely and Shavlik Randolph over the last month.

As players flock to Puerto Rico to collect another check and teams adjust their rosters bringing in out of work free agents, O'Bryant is one of a select few in the BSN who has a shot at signing back in the D-League by finishing out the season strong.

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It wasn't long ago that Xavier Silas, undrafted rookie and former star of the Northern Illinois basketball program had decided that he would wait out the NBA lockout to make good on a training camp invite from the Philadelphia 76ers. The beckoning of playing for a Euroleague team in France was apparently too much to pass up, however, as Silas has replaced Osiris Eldridge with BCM Gravelines.

Silas averaged 22.3 points on his way to earning All-MAC status before ultimately not hearing his name called on draft night while players like Chukwudibiere Maduabum, Targuy Ngomba and Ater Majok all were selected in the waning moments of the draft. Silas did receive some good news on draft night, however, as the Sixers called and asked him to skip any overseas offers because they were interested in bring him into camp.

"I didn't have time to be disappointed or upset," Silas told ESPN's Scott Powers. "Sacramento's 60th pick was still on the screen when Philly called me and wanted me 100 percent to come into camp. They said, ‘We don't want you to go to Europe. We want you to come in our training camp 100 percent because we need a '2'."

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Deron Williams opened the floodgates by agreeing to play in Turkey for Besiktas next season and, ever since, NBA players have been slowly deciding to take their talents to Europe to kill time until the NBA lockout is complete. I've already put together a list of NBA players overseas, but figured this morning it might be fun to take a look at it ... by the numbers (get it? Because that's what I titled this post?).

1: The number of American second round picks that have signed in Europe without an NBA-out in their contract (Jon Diebler of the Portland Trail Blazers).

2: The number of NBA players that will play for a longtime Phil Jackson disciple overseas. Denver Nuggets swingman Wilson Chandler and former Orlando Magic forward Earl Clark are both signed up to play for Zhejiang Guangsha, the team that hired former Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers assistant Jim Cleamons earlier in the offseason.

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Renaldo Balkman is playing for the Puerto Rico National Team while the NBA lockout keeps him away from his duties with the New York Knicks. Unfortunately Balkman was almost locked out of that job, too, after he and three teammates were unable to find their passports while traveling to Brazil to play in the Tuto Marchand Cup.

All was saved when a fellow by the name of Carlos Beltrán -- but not the Carlos Beltran, apparently -- convinced the Brazilian Embassy in Miami to look really hard for the documents.

"It was a terrible time," Beltrán told FIBA.com. "I asked them to double check because we were told in the mail the parcel was never sent to Puerto Rico."

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Benetton Treviso is a name plenty of American basketball fans have heard over the years. The team that sent Toni Kukoc, Bostjan Nachbar, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Andrea Bargnani and Donatas Motiejunas to the NBA will now be taking some of the NBA's cult figures as the Italian team's roster currently includes Brian Scalabrine, Jeff Adrien and E`Twaun Moore.

Scalabrine is actually just with the team for a tryout right now, as Sportando Basket brought to my attention, but there really shouldn't be any doubt that his ability to do everything he's been doing in the NBA will translate to Europe, therefore allowing him to make the team.

Interestingly enough, if Google Translate isn't totally wonky, it almost seems as if signing Scalabrine was a bit of a publicity stunt while reading the team's official press release.

In all the clubs where he played was the idol of the fans, with choirs and custom fan club that made him a true player "cult" in the NBA, so that there are no videos dedicated to him on You Tube and facebook pages: the more he clicked the tune of over 78,000 fans, while another page with more than 8,000 contacts, says that "Brian Scalabrine has more rings (the" badges "of the NBA) LeBron James."

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If my lovely readers answered the headline's question with "cool names," they would be right. However, Oleksiy Pecherov, Latavious Williams and Alonzo Gee are also three notable on-the-fringe NBA players that decided to sign in Europe on Tuesday with the NBA lockout still looming.

The fact that all three signed in Europe on Tuesday doesn't exactly mean much, but considering a decent amount of near-NBA players also decided to go abroad on Monday, it probably means that the European teams are working to put the finishing touches on their rosters. With this, we're probably also getting closer to having the overseas market dry up, a perilous outcome for the other NBA players still looking for work in light of the lockout.

The biggest name of the three is probably Pecherov, a Stewie Griffin doppelganger and first round pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. Pecherov didn't play in the NBA last season -- which I didn't realize before sitting down to write this post -- and won't play in the NBA next season, either, as he's signed on to play with Azovmash in Eurocup competition.

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