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Hawks Lose Childress To Greek TeamPOSTED: 1:58 pm PDT July 23,
2008 Atlanta, GA -- (Sports Network) - The Atlanta Hawks lost the services of Josh Childress when the swingman signed with the Greek franchise Olympiakos on Wednesday."We were informed this morning [Wednesday] by Josh Childress representatives that he has signed with Olympiakos in Greece, and we want to wish him the absolute best with his future career in FIBA," Hawks general manager Rick Sund said. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday that Childress, 25, turned down a five-year, $33 million offer from the Hawks to sign a three-year deal overseas. The paper did not have the exact terms of the deal, but did say that it is worth much more than the $20 million that was initially reported. "We feel we presented a very fair and competitive offer to keep him in Atlanta, and we will now move forward with the options we have to improve our roster," Sund said. The deal is the richest in Euroleague history, according to the paper, and will leave the Hawks without their sixth man. The Stanford product averaged 11.8 points and 4.9 rebounds in 29.9 minutes per game for the Hawks last season, and has averages of 11.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in four seasons with the club. Childress was a restricted free agent, which gave the Hawks the right to match any contract offer by another NBA team, but has no such guarantees with contract offers from other leagues. There is no salary cap for European teams. According to the paper, Childress, drafted sixth overall by the Hawks in 2004, has the right to opt out after each year of his deal, allowing him to leave and return to the NBA. Copyright 2008 Courtesy of The Sports Network. More Sports | Sports E-News |