Virtus Bologna seek Barrack Obama’s help in recruiting L.A. Lakers star Kobe Bryant: NBA News
Italian basketball club Virtus Bologna have been on the trail of Los Angeles Lakers super star Kobe Bryant for quite a while now and have been faced by one problem after another in the process.
Now, seemingly after running out of other options, the team has made Kobe an offer to play in a solitary game and as a mark of desperation, they have asked President Barrack Obama to help them in getting the deal done.
"Dear Mr. President, we have a dream: to see Kobe Bryant playing for our Team Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, the Italian town well known in the world as basket City," read the start of the letter which was sent to the President of the United States of America. The letter was also published on the team’s official website.
In it, the Italians have pleaded with Obama to “let us have the chance to see at least for one game the great Kobe Bryant playing with our black and white jersey and be part of our history."
The drastic move came after Bologna faced frustrating setbacks in their project of bringing Kobe to the city. Issues ranging from sponsorship deals, TV rights and even the schedule of the Italian league have stood in the way of a proposed move, leaving Bologna clutching at straws to find a solution.
Kobe’s move to Bologna was first built up as a season long affair, but soon it became clear that due to matters out of Bologna’s control, that just wasn’t feasible. Afterwards the team tried to lure Bryant for a 10 game stint, even going as far as adjusting their schedule to accommodate the legendary shooting guard.
Finally, they came down to just one league game before offering Kobe somewhere between $1-2 million for the exhibition game.
"Negotiations with Mr. Kobe Bryant have been very difficult," said Vicenzo Di Schiavia, the team's communications manager. "We will not make any comment for now."
Bologna have now decided to host an exhibition game, which would not have an official status. The lesser restrictions would mean Bologna could milk the publicity cow as much as they want, with no pre arranged TV deal blocking their path to a global audience.
"I had to make this decision because it was the only way to be able to show 'The Tribute to Kobe' to the whole world," Sabatini said last week, according to il Resto del Carlino. "If we had done a league game, we would have had problems trying to show it also in Italy."
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