Kobe Bryant’s Italian job could just be for a single game – NBA Update
Kobe Bryant overseas saga has taken another twist.
The Los Angeles Lakers super star, who was believed to be on the verge of a 40 day deal with the Italian club Virtus Bologna might just go to his childhood country for just one game.
Bolgna president Claudio Sabatini has revealed that the Kobe’s stay with his side could be brief, encasing just a single game.
“Last night we had another conference call with Bryant’s agent. Now we just have to wait the contract. We accepted his financial request and we submitted him two different proposals, for one game or for 40 days. Now the decision
is up to him. We thought about the one game option to speed up the negotiations.” said Sabatini, as reported by Bolognabasket.it.
Bologna have been pulling out all the stops for the last month or so to make the deal happen, because the attention and brand recognition, Lakers guard Bryant would bring to the team is pretty much invaluable. They started out
by proposing a season long deal and were working on a 40-day, 10 game deal last week. Even the Italian league had intervened to help rearrange Bologna’s schedule so that Bryant could be accommodated, but new issues have arisen and it seems like the one game
option is now at the fore front.
Sabatini explained that Bryant’s commitments with sponsors in the United States meant that the player cannot stay in Italy for more than two weeks. That has significantly complicated matters for the Italian team, who now hope that
Bryant can come over on Sunday and appear in a game on Wednesday. Sabatini though did leave the door open for a longer stay, but conceded that would be totally up to Kobe.
“People who don’t agree about the idea to have Kobe for just one game, have to understand that we all hope he can stay longer. Furthermore, Kobe has to be back to States in two weeks because of his sponsor. Now we are waiting for
his final answer.”
Kobe Bryant is the biggest basketball super star in the world at present, and the recent downturn in LeBron James public image has contributed to Kobe becoming even more valuable from a marketing perspective.
When the NBA locked out its players on July 1st, many players, including Bryant, threatened to play overseas if a new CBA was not agreed between the league and the NBPA.
Bryant has since been flirting with move to many different foreign teams, the Italian saga being just the latest in a long line. He reportedly had offers from other European sides, as well as some interest from China. The longest
running saga though was the one involving Besiktas, the Turkish club currently employing Deron Williams.
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