Called for Traveling: Jason Rowe sees the world
Former Traditional star pursues his dream of playing basketball for a living
To the untrained eye the euro, the single currency for more than 320 million Europeans, is similar in appearance to Monopoly money. It’s thicker, fatter and more colorful than United States currency and one day Jason Rowe had a garbage bag full of it plopped in front of his apartment door.
He was playing for a team in France whose deadline for paying its basketball players was a moving target and Rowe got fed up. Within two hours, a man knocked on his door. If he wore dark glasses, a Fedora pulled over his eyes and trench coat, it would have been like a scene straight out of a gangster movie. Rowe opened the bag and smiled.
“Bonjour, Jason,” said the man as he strolled away. It wasn’t the first, and perhaps not the last, of unconventional business transactions for Rowe. “I’ve had money delivered to me in duffel bags, garbage bags, brown paper bags,” said Rowe, the former Traditional and Loyola (Md.) guard. “You name it, if it’s a bag I’ve had it delivered.”
This is life of the average American basketball player trying to carve a career playing hoops overseas. Since his college days at Loyola in 2000, Rowe’s basketball career has taken him to Cyprus, Israel, Hungary, Poland, Argentina, France, Italy, and Greece.
His European scouting report reads like a top-level player: “In almost every way, Jason Rowe is the personification of what the prototypical point guard has become in the ’90s . . . A solid understanding of basketball’s nuances. . . . Anytime, from anywhere, if the offense breaks down, he can take his man to the bucket with a lightning-quick crossover dribble. Or he can pop into the lane and soar over his defender for a high-percentage jump shot.”
Money transactions notwithstanding, it’s a life Rowe cherishes.
“I’ve always said it’s a blessing,” said Rowe, 30, who played last season in France and Greece. “I get paid to do what I love, I see the world, I travel, I learned different languages, different cultures. I’ve always had dreams to play in the NBA, but I’m still doing what I love.”
But it’s a life that will challenge your sanity. He had a clause in his contract from a team in France where they could release him if he couldn’t play because of a lingering back injury. So they paid him in cash after each home game.
“We played on Saturday nights so we had a deal that on Sunday morning they would knock on my door, hand me my money in a big envelope and go back to the office,” he said. “I was getting paid, all in cash. I’d take my money, count it and continue on with my day.”
Another time, he wasn’t getting paid and threatened to walk and the next day, there was a knock on his door.
“Slide my money under the door,” Rowe told the team official.
It was a check, not as pretty as the euro, but it could be spent just the same. Shortly thereafter he signed with TDShop. It Livorno in Italy and its professionalism caught him off guard.
“How do you want to get paid?” “Uh, what do you mean?”
“Do you want to open an account here? Do you want us to wire all your money to the States? Do you want us to give you all of your money in cash? Do you want us to Western Union the money to you? Do you . . .”
Rowe smiles: “All I had to do was get an invoice from the bank and worry about playing basketball.”
Then there was the time when he played for Spojnia Stargard Szczecinski in Poland for a month without getting paid.
“I got $1,500 when I got off the plane,” Rowe said. “The first couple of games in the preseason they were pretty excited and then the season starts and we were 0-5. All of the sudden a major sponsor pulls out. . . . I never got paid. Never got more than the $1,500.”
He then signed a deal with Independiente General Pico in Argentina during the heart of that country’s economic crisis.
“The situation was slightly different because the entire country went bankrupt,” Rowe said. “I went from May to December without a check. Everything I saved up from my first year I used to cover my bill, cover my expenses in Buffalo and in Europe.”
That’s the chance players take with the unpredictable life overseas.
“Your contract says he gets paid on the 15th or 30th and you’re expecting your money on the 15th or 30 and your team comes to you on the 14th, sometimes, and tells you, ‘Well, we can’t pay you, we can’t pay you anything but come play for us,’ ” Rowe said. “I had a situation in Greece this year where the team was having financial troubles and they still expected the players to play.”
To sidestep some of these issues, some American players network with each other. One person in Rowe’s network is former St. Bonaventure point guard Marques Green.
“When we speak it’s like, ‘OK, I’m signing with this team,’ and I might say, ‘Well, I heard they don’t pay,’ ” Rowe said. “He might say, ‘OK, I’m not signing with that team.’ That’s how it works. But once you get going and find the right market, you’ll have a beautiful time.”
This past season was bittersweet for Rowe. His French team, Hyeres-Toulon, circulated a rumor that said Rowe’s back was injured and that his career was finished. He signed a six-week contract with Dijon Bourgogne, who cut former Florida guard Lee Humphrey to make room for Rowe.
“They took a chance on me,” he said. “They told me they would nurse me back to health. But at the time that I got there they were in last place. I hadn’t played basketball in two months and I was trying to get a last-place team out of the basement and they put all the pressure on me.”
He played six games, averaging 9 points and 6.5 assists per game. Dijon went 1-5, made Rowe the scapegoat and cut him.
“I guess I was the reason we went 1-5,” he said. “But it was good I was able to get back on the court and play.”
Things didn’t improve when Rowe signed in Greece with PAOK Marfin Thessaloniki, the former team of Trevor Ruffin, the ex-Bennett guard, and New Orleans Hornets forward Peja Stojakovic. In 12 games there he averaged 9.6 points and 3.8 assists. By March, he was replaced by Michael Jordan. No, not that Michael Jordan, but the former Penn guard.
“The money started rolling in, politics started getting involved, things changed and it’s the American’s fault all over again,” Rowe said. “When you’re winning, they love you when you’re losing you’re the worst player they’ve ever seen in their life. If you’re a new guy and you score 40, they expect you to score 40 every night.”
Still, it’s a life that isn’t likely to end anytime soon.
“I’m going to play until I can’t anymore,” said Rowe, who hopes to play in either Italy or Spain. “It’s an addiction. I’m a fiend for it. I don’t want to leave it alone.”
