Italian basketball club Virtus Bologna finds sponsor to fund Kobe Bryant’s contact - NBA News
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has locked out its players over labour uproar with the Players Association and despite of the fact that many negotiations have taken place so far; no positive result has come out to resolve
the issue. Apart from many other disadvantages, this lockout is forcing many players to play overseas. Until now, there are plenty of NBA players, who have already signed with several international professional basketball clubs to play during the work stoppage
in the league. On the other hand, there are still many players who are willing to play overseas.
Among many, when Kobe Bryant also expressed his desire to play overseas during the lockout, many renowned international basketball clubs started pursuing him. They offered Bryant huge amount of money to make a deal but Bryant did
not show any interest. But recently in the last week, an Italian basketball club Virtus Bologna went beyond their financial capacity of their franchise and offered Bryant approximately $600,000 (exclusive off all taxes) per game.
Bologna’s owner Claudio Sabatini officially announced this offer in the Italian league.
No one knew who will sponsor this huge amount of money but Bologna’s management never seemed hesitant to show their determination to bring Kobe Bryant in-to their roster and now they are also claiming as they have found a sponsor
to fund Bryant’s contract.
According to Claudio Sabatini, "We have a sponsor supporting us. It's an Italian company that's known all over the world, we will soon have a meeting but I can't tell you anymore. It's a huge gamble but I want to try right to the
end. I'm an optimist even if there we're aiming very high,"
Virtus Bologna’s management was earlier interested to sign Bryant for a shorter period but the ongoing lockout in the NBA is provoking them to sign him for a whole season. Some reports have also suggested about the potential loss
of 2011-2012 NBA season, and if this happened, the Italian club is ready to offer Bryant $5 million for an entire season in Italy.
Bologna’s owner Sabatini also stated in the media that he has received some support from Kobe’s agent about this potential deal that is very encouraging for us.
Sabatini said, “I don't think we'll have any news within the next week, not least because to finalize the contract, which will be like a bible, you need several days,”
However, no official statement has come out from Kobe Bryant or his agent Rob Pelinka over this potential offer from Virtus Bologna but, the world media awaits the arrival of Bryant in Milan next week. He will be in Milan, Italy
for a campaign funded by his sponsor Nike while he will also be spending a day in Rome.
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