Can anybody claim to not be surprised? At the beginning of the free agency period, no blogger, American fan, or NBA executive would have listed Olympiakos as Josh Childress‘ number one option — it wouldn’t have even been on the list.

Now, Houston Rockets big man Carl Landry has a nice bargaining chip considering nobody would have taken Landry’s remarks about playing overseas serious.

With Childress, Landry, and the straight-to-Europe Brandon Jennings — not to mention USA Basketball preparing for the Olympics — all of the attention is about how the NBA will attempt to remain at the top of professional basketball world.

Kind of crazy, isn’t it? In fact, quite ridiculous. The NBA (temporarily) loses out on a skilled rotation player, a  future draft pick, and a mediocre big man.

Not to discredit their value to their (future) NBA teams, but these players aren’t going to start a revolution. We’re not talking about LeBron James here, or even an aged Shaquille O’Neal (pity we see a competitive “former Legends” team touring through Europe). It’s expected that both Childress and Jennings will be back to the NBA within the next couple seasons — possibly next year.

Don’t worry. The NBA will continue to be in the international limelight as they coast to a Lebron-guaranteed Olympic gold medal. And don’t be surprised to see foreign-born players turn down larger NBA contracts to head back home. Just don’t think that the NBA will collapse, downsize, or even begin to suffer by loaning Childress to Olympiakos.

What impact does Josh Childress leave on the NBA? One positive aspect is that it lets the NBA know that players would be open to an international expansion league, with NBA players possibly signing and playing for international NBA teams.

However, aside from the potential of a legitimate NBA expansion, expect American-born players heading overseas to be about as successful as the NBA’s synthetic basketball. (You forgot about that hype too, didn’t you?)