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Chris Sheridan's excellent Josh Childress story includes this little "whoa" moment:

... one prominent player agent told ESPN.com that he does not believe the Childress signing will become a trend because there are not enough European clubs willing to spend money on an NBA level. Olympiacos is one of them, having offered Chris Webber a two-year contract that would have netted him around $10-12 million, and a source told ESPN.com that representatives of a Greek club made calls last season wanting to know what it would cost to buy Leandro Barbosa out of his contract with the Phoenix Suns.

An overseas team would just buy out a current NBA player under contract. Bold!

But not as bold as this e-mail I got from TrueHoop reader Frank:

I have a question about something that I have been wondering for a while now, and with the Childress signing in Europe a fact, could be an interesting option. Is there anything in the CBA or in NBA foundation legislation (or whatever that is called) that forbids trades between NBA and non-NBA teams? Would it be possible for CSKA Moscow to trade Trajan Langdon to the Knicks in exchange for Jared Jaffries for example?

And if there is such a prohibitation, is that not illegal?

In soccer, players can sign and get traded all over the world. Or has it to do with the fact that the FIBA and NBA are two different organizations. And if that is the case, how come NBA players are participating in FIBA events? Should that not be a legal precedent for interaction between FIBA and NBA clubs?

I admit that my first response to this question was to kind of shake my head and think something along the lines of: "Silly Frank, that is not at all how things happen. The NBA is one business entity and its agreements could not extend to allow trades to other entities."

My second thought was: "Man, Knick fans are thinking hard about ways to improve that roster."

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that a flock of high-priced attorneys might be able to make that happen.

Who would lose if the Hawks did a sign-and-trade with Olympiacos, and had at least the possibility of getting a player back in exchange for Josh Childress?

I have an issue with trading in general. It just strikes me as extremely bizarre to trade one human being for another, in many cases against their will. Think about that. And that seems more egregious when they could, in fact, be traded to another continent.

(I know, players aren't purely victims here -- they willingly sign away those kinds of rights with those big contracts.)

But we're well past that point. Which makes me wonder -- is there a lawyer in the house who knows about this stuff? Is it conceivable we could one day have interleague dealings between teams?

UPDATES GALORE:

An attorney who writes anonymously because his firm doesn't like lawyers speaking publicly e-mails:

Because the obligation in an NBA contract involves human labor, the law will not require specific performance of the contract against the player's will. The team may be entitled to monetary damages for the failure to perform, and the player won't get any money owed under the contract, but you can't force him to play. When a player is traded from one team to another, the acquiring team simply acquires the rights to the player's contract. This is called assigning a contract. If at any point the player wants to stop performing, he may. If he does so, the law won't force him to play, but it might prohibit him from engaging in similar work for another team. If Lebron wanted to quit his job and try his hand at investment banking, he could probably do that tomorrow. If FC Barcelona offered Kobe Bryant a contract to play in Spain, they would be interfering with the contractual relationship between the Lakers and Bryant, and international labor law would likely prevent them from enforcing such a contract. Depending on how they approach it and the nuances in the laws, if they tried to buy him out, they could also face a fine. In Europe, when a team wants to acquire a player from another country, they must come to agreement with both the player and the team before a deal can be reached. This is similar to what happened for Dice-K a few years ago. Boston paid the Japanese team 50 million just for the right to talk to the guy. You're likely to see a lot more of this in the future.

And another attorney (it's attorney day!) e-mails:

Each NBA player signs a standard contract in a form specified by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. You can see the form of the contract here. As you can see on a quick glance, this contract contains many NBA-specific provisions. For example, the player is required to report to NBA training camp, to the NBA all-star game, and the NBA playoffs. And the player agrees to abide by the decisions of David Stern as to his conduct, see section 5. The contract simply cannot be readily transferred to a European league. Now go to section 10, "Assignment." You will see here the clause that gives an NBA team the right to "assign this Contract" -- i.e., to trade it -- to "any other NBA team." The player agrees to accept this assignment and carry out his duties with his new team. This is why an NBA player can be traded -- he has contractually agreed to this provision. An NBA player has not agreed to allow the assignment of his rights to anyone other than another NBA team. Quite simply, his contract does not require him to perform for a European team. And that's why an NBA team can't trade a player to Europe.

By that interpretation, though, it would certainly seem like an NBA player could sign a document agreeing to be assigned to a non-NBA team. I wonder if such a thing would pass legal and league muster.

As I was contemplating that, I learned a shocking piece of news: There apparently has been at least one trade between an NBA team and a European team. John Hollinger somehow remembered this, and I was able to find some details. (More, hopefully, to come.) In 1988, the Utah Jazz apparently traded an overweight Mel Turpin to the Spanish team in Zaragoza for Jose Ortiz.

UPDATE: Another anonymous lawyer, saying a player likely could not give himself permission to be traded overseas:

You write: "By that interpretation, though, it would certainly seem like an NBA player could sign a document agreeing to be assigned to a non-NBA team. I wonder if such a thing would pass legal and league muster."

I think the answer is no. The form of player contract is mandated by the CBA. Under Article II, a player and team are not permitted to vary the form of player contract except in certain enumerated ways. The permitted ways that players and teams may vary the uniform player contract do not include any variation in the section of the player contract that states that the team may assign the player contract to another NBA team (although it is permitted to restrict the assignment of the contract through a no-trade clause, in certain circumstances).

Accordingly, I do not think that the CBA would permit the team and player to sign a contract that permitted assignment to non-NBA teams.