Lang Whitaker Interviews Lon Babby and Jim Tanner

Following up on yesterday's DraftExpress interview of Olympiacos Assistant Coach Manos Manouselis, here's an interview of Josh Childress's agents, Lon Babby and Jim Tanner, conducted by Slam's Lang Whitaker. (HT: TrueHoop)

Tanner contradicts Manouselis's statement that Olympicaos were "offered the services of Josh Childress."

SLAM: Jim, about Josh Childress — had you guys considered Europe at all, or was that something that just kind of popped up from off the radar?

TANNER: We’d like to take credit for it, but Olympiacos contacted us. We got a call from the owner, and I think he was the one who identified Josh to the coaches and general manager...

The most interesting exchange (to me) implicitly reveals the level of Childress's desire to continue to play for the Hawks:

SLAM: I think it’s been very interesting. As a Hawks fan, and I wrote this last week, I can understand why Josh would not take the deal, and I can also understand why the Hawks wouldn’t match that deal.

BABBY: Nobody ever asked them to match it, by the way. That’s kind of a misnomer that I guess they suggested, that I insisted that they match. We never asked them that.