When Josh Childress decided to abandon the NBA for Europe, he may have made one of the most important, and unfortunate decisions by a player in recent history. This is not a European bench player who would rather play back home, this is not a guy tired of battling to make an NBA roster, this is an established American NBA player, a starter caliber contributor deciding to turn his back on the best league in the world, for a little extra cash, and a chance to be the main man somewhere. This is unprecedented, and although it may not seem like much, it suddenly provides NBA free agents unhappy with their teams, or their own value in the NBA market, new leverage, the threat of walking a across the pond in exchange for a fatter wallet. And as sad as it is, this threat could be very real. There is a good chance the Childress will not be the last American NBA player to choose Euro money over the NBA. He unknowingly opened the door for middle of the line NBA players to earn superstar money in Europe, and there will be some who will jump at the chance. But Childress's signing has another significant effect on the NBA. Childress further exposed the problem that is restricted free agency. THis policy forces teams to greatly overpay players they value in fear the other team will match their offer sheet and land the player they are seeking. Meanwhile the team that owns the players rights is forced to make the decision to either vastly overpay the player or let him go. It doesn't work for the player either, because it greatly effects their rights as "free" agents, because they essentially have no say in whether they can go to their chosen or the team that owns their rights gets to keep them. This system creates unnecessary problems to occur, and when a players contract is up he should become an unrestricted free agent, this system needs to go. It defeats the purpose of free agency, and could be a big reason why we should expect more NBA players to bolt for Europe.