There is a 12-year-old boy in Serbia whose 6-foot-11 frame has European scouts beside themselves, itching to sign him to a professional contract. The hope is not that he will one day blossom into a dominant player overseas but that in six or seven years the N.B.A. will come calling, leading to a financial boon worth millions for whatever club has his rights.

Over the past few years, the selling of international players to teams in the National Basketball Association has become big business, and some agents and officials of N.B.A. teams believe it is becoming a big scandal, one in which international clubs are signing teenagers to long-term, relatively low-paying deals, then demanding buyouts worth significantly more than the original contract when they are drafted by an N.B.A. team.

With international players becoming increasingly prominent in the N.B.A. draft and with buyout amounts escalating, there is a growing sense that FIBA, the sport's international governing body, and the N.B.A. should revamp the system. Some American agents likened it to a form of indentured servitude because N.B.A. rules forbid teams to pay more than $350,000 for an overseas buyout, so the player ends up paying the bulk of the money.

"There has to be a committee formed by FIBA, the N.B.A. and all the governing bodies of basketball around the world because it's getting out of hand," said Tony Ronzone, the Detroit Pistons' director of international scouting. "Teams are now seeing the rewards they can get and they're looking for kids younger and younger, 12 and 13 years old, with the intention of signing them to contracts. It hasn't been done yet, but it's coming. It's going to come to a head sooner or later. In two years, something will have to be done."

Two recent situations illustrate Ronzone's point. Maciej Lampe, the Knicks' second-round draft pick from Poland, made about $50,000 last year on a contract with Real Madrid that was to run through 2008. But the buyout clause in the contract was for $2.2 million, though the Knicks were able to whittle it to $900,000.

And last week, Detroit completed a long, complicated negotiation with Hemofarm Vrsac for the rights to Darko Milicic, its first-round pick from Serbia and Montenegro. After telling Milicic's agent, Marc Cornstein, in February that it would take $15 million to buy him out of a nine-year contract that paid Milicic less than $100,000 last season, Hemofarm asked for $8 million to $10 million when approached by the Pistons after the draft.

On Friday, the Pistons signed Milicic to a contract after agreeing to a buyout that was worth $3 million, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.

"It's been quite a roller coaster to get to this day," Joe Dumars, the Pistons' president for basketball operations, said at Friday's news conference.

Earlier, responding to a question sent via e-mail, Dumars said he believed the current system of transferring an international player's rights to the N.B.A. would "have to be addressed."