Josh Boone is one of the numerous basketball players who chose to take their careers overseas following success in the American market. Boone played four years with the New Jersey Nets from 2006 to 2010 and afterward traveled outside of the United States, where he has been on the rosters of Chinese, Philippine, Bahraini, Estonian, and Russian teams with NBA Development League stints in between.

This summer, Boone decided to participate in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a 64-team tournament featuring over 400 professional players, with the Talladega Knights, who competed in Philadelphia University's Northeast Regional on Saturday and Sunday. The Knights were knocked out of the competition on Sunday by top-seeded City of Gods, but Boone was still very willing to chat with VAVEL USA for a few minutes to discuss his career, the contrasting styles of NBA and overseas basketball, and the best path to a successful basketball career.

The interview

Zach Drapkin (ZD): You were drafted into the league after three years at UConn. What do you think about players now doing one-and-dones more often, getting drafted and playing in the league? What’s the best road to the NBA?

"College is a place where guys can get prepared, not just on the basketball level but on the life level."

Josh Boone (JB): It’s hard to get in the NBA. College is a place where guys can get prepared, not just on the basketball level but just on the life level. They live away from home, they’re on their own for the first time, they’ve got to have responsibilities. There’s a lot that can be said about going to college for more than one year and now you’re seeing there are a lot of guys coming into the NBA that are just not quite ready and it’s lowering the level of the game. Just my opinion, but that’s how I see it.

ZD: Do you ever regret not staying a fourth year?

JB: No, I should have left earlier. I should have left after my second year. I was ready after my second year but I stayed one year too long.

ZD: Can you talk about your four years with the Nets?

JB: Like any other career, it had it’s ups and downs. My first year was like any other rookie year, I had a really, really solid year my second year, and then the third year I got hurt early on and was never the same. That’s kinda just the way it goes. At the end of the day, I had opportunities to stay in the league, but I chose to go to China instead because I had a good contract on the table for that.

ZD: Do you have any regrets about not staying in the league with the Nets?

JB: No, I don’t have any regrets about leaving at that time.

ZD: What would you say about the basketball culture that’s rising in China?

JB: I haven’t seen it in four or five years, so I really can’t tell you. I know when I was there, it was on the way up. It wasn’t an overly well-known game but it was definitely becoming that and I think it’s going to be very big there in maybe six, seven, eight years.

ZD: What are your thoughts on the Nets moving to Brooklyn a few years ago?

JB: That was a planned move for a long time. It just took them a long time to do. It was supposed to happen while I was there and it got pushed back for several years after that.

ZD: While you were there, were they talking seriously about making plans for any given next year?

JB: Yeah. Absolutely. They were marketing that a couple years before I left.

"The thing that people don’t realize is that basketball doesn’t stop at the NBA. There’s a lot of incredibly good basketball players overseas."

ZD: What are the differences, pros, and cons between playing in the NBA and playing overseas as a player in terms of quality of basketball, contracts, and basketball culture?

JB: The biggest difference that I see is that it’s much more of a team game overseas, whereas it’s much more of an individual game in the NBA, it’s a lot more one-on-one. Over there, it’s all about team and team defense and sets.

ZD: Are there any specific teams you admire for that?

JB: The team that beat us, CSKA [Moscow], was a really well-coached, well-organized team. Everybody on that teams knows their role. They had a lot of weapons, a lot of guys that can hurt you, and they were the best team in Europe. They won Euroleague, they won BTB. They were far and away the best team in Europe.

ZD: Were there any players you saw there that could have played in the NBA?

JB: There are a lot of players over there that have played in the NBA. On any given team, if you look at my team or CSKA, there’s probably six or seven guys on each of those teams who are NBA-quality players. The thing that people don’t realize is that basketball doesn’t stop at the NBA. There’s a lot of incredibly good basketball players overseas. It just doesn’t get the kind of exposure here that it does in other places because all that people think about here is the NBA.

ZD: What are your thoughts on going to the D-League and waiting for your chance as opposed to just going overseas?

JB: For me personally? No, I won’t go to the D-League again. I wouldn’t do it again. I’ve done it a couple of times and it’s just not the best choice for me. For some other guys, maybe it is. For guys that are willing to wait and see if they’re going to get a call-up, then it’s probably a better decision for them. For me personally, it’s not.

ZD: What changes would you have wanted to see in the NBA; what would have made it more enticing to stay?

JB: My leaving wasn’t really a matter of wanting change in the NBA. It was for other reasons.

ZD: Thank you very much.