"I would rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston phone book than by the entire Harvard faculty". There's no need to be a rocket scientist to make Childress' decision, I think. He'll be making more money and will be able to return to the NBA as an unrestricted free-agent because Atlanta will eventually renounce to his rights because the cap hold will be screwing them. There are tons of Americans living in Europe who are not Ivy Leaguers, I know a few of them. The Stanford thing is pure snobbery.
He'll be playing in a good team, has a good chance of improving his game, because the coaching staff is good, his teammates are not exactly scrubs and there is lot of time to practice and English is the official language in every good basketball team in Europe, Giannakis is not going to speak greek during the time-outs.
p.s. - Kobe's offer is rumored to be $83 million (net salary) for 3 years, but it's BS. Although it would be funny to watch Kobe playing weekly in gymns with 2.000 fans in the attendance.