Things are looking iffy on this side of the pond and NBA superstar Kobe Bryant officially has options now. Earlier this summer, he may or may not have flirted with the idea of joining Deron Williams in Turkey and Chinese teams would love to have him as well. Now reports are coming in that Italian club Virtus Bologna has four different offers on the table for Kobe, who speaks fluent Italian and lived there for several years in his childhood while his father played for four clubs.
ESPN has more details:
Virtus Bologna general manager Massimo Faraoni tells The Associated Press he’s been on conference calls with Bryant’s agent, Rob Pelinka, Bologna president Claudio Sabatini and main sponsor Canadian Solar, which would provide the cash for such a deal.
“I think the fact that he’s lived in Italy makes this appealing to him,” Faraoni said.
Virtus has given Bryant four contract options, stretching from the one-year deal to two-month and one-month options, and a per-game deal that would come out to $739,640 per home game.
Kobe was the top earner last season in the NBA with $25,244,000 in earnings which comes out to $307,853 per regular season game, not counting postseason games such as the four game sweep at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks. So this isn’t chump change at all. A nice boost to his image in the lucrative international market is a really sweet bonus on top of that. Did I mention he has an opt-out clause should the NBA start up again?
No word yet on what Kobe is planning but it would be wise for him to consider following in his father’s footsteps career-wise, if not now then perhaps in the twilight of his career where he could make some serious Euros and lock it away in a Swiss bank.
