Reports have confirmed that Gator basketball guard Nick Calathes will sign a contract with European basketball powerhouse and Greek champion Panathinaikos. He will forgo his junior and senior seasons at the University of Florida to become a professional basketball player. The contract will give Calathes 1.1 million dollars in salary, a car, housing, and also pays for his taxes. Calathes parents are from Greece and his brother Pat, former St. Joseph’s star, plays in the Greek league currently. Calathes also played as a part of Greece’s u-20 national team.

Panathinaikos has won the prestigious Euroleague championship two out of the last three years and has twenty nine Greek championships. Players such as Dominique Wilkins and Byron Scott have played for Panathinaikos. Think of them as the Lakers of Europe, they always have star players and have a rich tradition of winning.

The European leagues are full of American college basketball stars that played a year or two in the NBA and couldn’t latch on with a team. Former SEC stars like Alabama’s Winston Kennedy and South Carolina’s Chris Warren have found the niche overseas. Calathes could certainly play in the NBA and was projected to be a late first round pick. There is speculation that he could still get drafted because he has a clause in his contract that after one year he can leave for the NBA. An NBA team could draft him this year and hold on to his rights while he plays a year in Greece.

Calathes may not break in to the starting lineup right away with proven pros such as sharp-shooter Sarunas Jasikevicius (former Indiana Pacer) and the Euroleague MVP Vassilis Spanoulis on the roster. Calathes needs to get stronger and more consistent on defense. Calathes is a brilliant passer who can shoot lights out, but he struggled in crunch time at the end of last year. His shooting became inconsistent and he wasn’t the leader he seemed to be at the start of the year. If he uses this year to improve his consistency and to catch up to the speed of the pro game he could become a European star or a solid NBA player.   

Calathes was Florida’s go to player the last two years, and averaged over 16 points per game over his career. In his two seasons the Gators won over 20 games in each season, but were never able to reach the NCAA tournament. Although he averaged over 6 assists for his career, the best of any gator in recent memory, his career has to be considered a disappointment. He was a consensus top-5 national recruit and he lived up to the hype, but he never had the players around him to lead the Gators to any significant wins. But for Nick this seems like the right choice and you can never blame a kid for taking the money.

Ben Pettito is a columnist for GatorTailgating.com.