news-record.com

Former UNCG basketball star Kyle Hines signed a one-year deal with an Italian professional team today, choosing the relative security of a foreign opportunity over the uncertainty of the NBA.

Prima Veroli, a second-division team based about 65 miles east of Rome, will pay the 6-foot-6 post player the equivalent of $180,000. The salary will be tax-exempt, which means Hines will take home an amount comparable to the NBA league minimum of $442,114, to which taxation is subjected.

“It was more of a guaranteed deal,” Hines said. “They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Even though I would have been in a position to get into (an NBA) camp, they weren’t offering me any guarantees.”

Hines, one of fewer than 100 players in documented NCAA Division I history with more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career, got onto the NBA’s radar in summer league action in Las Vegas earlier this month. He played for the Charlotte Bobcats entry but learned the team wasn’t prepared to promise him a chance to compete for a job.