Nicolas Batum is staying in France to get some burn should the lockout mean no NBA games.

What counts as news in these early days of what might be a season-killing work stoppage? A lawsuit filed by the NBA in federal court in order to head-off potential anti-trust litigation by the NBA player’s association—a lawsuit that named Jimmer Fredette who happens to be a professional in name only? How about whispers and speculation of this superstar or that All-Star taking their game to Turkey, or Isreal, or China? What about Kevin Durant torching a bunch of streetballers at Rucker Park, and the debate that video sparked as to whether or not a guy can establish his street cred on jump shots alone or if it’s dunks that will win the hearts and minds of the schoolyard legends?

Well, lucky for us, in one way or another all of those things are news. Say what you will about the NBA running itself into the ground, NBA writers haven’t gone away just because the game has.

I’ve kept out of it up until now for a couple of reasons, which I have enumerated in my previous post. And since current Blazers have stayed mostly out of sight thus far during the lockout, save for Brandon Roy making brief headlines for hosting but skipping a charity game at the NBA starved Key Arena and some Twitter-based video footage of an absolutely jacked LaMarcus Aldridge flipping tractor tires, there still hasn’t been a lot on which to comment.

That changed today. In something of a rash of player-movement related news today, it has been made official that two Trail Blazers will be playing professional basketball in the upcoming months. They just won’t be doing it on this continent.

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