Kobe Bryant Wants to Play in Italy for $2.5M
With recent rumors swirling about Kobe Bryant taking his talents to Italy during the upcoming basketball season, the Los Angeles Lakers’ shooting guard is only fueling the fire with recent comments.
Bryant has received an offer from Virtus Bologna, a professional Italian basketball club, and was in Milan on Wednesday to speak about the possibility of him playing in the country.
“It’s very possible. It would be a dream for me,” Bryant said in Milan on Wednesday, according to USA Today. “There’s an opportunity that we’ve been discussing over the last few days. It’s very possible and that’s good news for me.”
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The Associated Press reported that the five time championship player is being offered $2.5 million to play in 10 games over a 40 day period between Oct. 9 and Nov 16. After taxes, Bryant would reportedly walk away with $1.5 million.
Although Italy is not the first country to express its interest in Bryant, the 33-year-old Laker has a different relationship with the land. Bryant’s father played on five Italian teams from 1984-91 and was the partial owner of the Italian team Olimpia Milano causing Kobe to live in the country.
“Italy is my home. It’s where my dream of playing in the NBA started. This is where I learned the fundamentals, learned to shoot, to pass and to (move) without the ball,” Kobe Bryant said, according to the Gazzetta. “All things that when I came back to America the players my age didn’t know how to do because they were only thinking about jumping and dunking.”
Bryant, who speaks in near-fluent Italian, told his audience in the country that although he did not know what would happen he would love the opportunity.
“It’s a huge honor for me to return to Italy. It’s home for me,” Bryant said in a video on the Gazzetta website. “It’s always been a dream for me to play in Italy. We’ve got to wait and see what happens.”
