Kobe Bryant Keeps Hopes of Playing in Italy Alive

Sure, there isn’t much to discuss these days in Laker land what with the lockout looking more and more likely to threaten the entire season. Yet when it comes to all this talk of Kobe Bryant balling overseas I’m about at that point where you can wake me up when KB24 has his work visa.

After weeks of speculation, it would appear as if any hopes of Virtus Bologna landing Bryant for any period of time are as dead as the chances of the NBA season getting started before December. We could go through the entire timeline of Bryant to Bologna but about all you need to know is the last effort made as a plea for President Obama to aid in completing the deal.

From that ridiculous notion now comes one a little less ridiculous yet none the less unlikely.

Apparently Kobe’s agent is trying to put together a 3 game exhibition tour of Italy tentatively titled the “Kobe Cup”.  In said sporting competition, Bryant would travel through Bologna, Roma and Milano to participate in three 24-minute contests.

As you might expect Virtus Bologna owner Claudio Sabatini is trying to get a piece of this action. The outspoken owner is still doing all he can to profit on Bryant’s presence in Italy. Sabatini is reported to be interested in involving a “foreign team” as well in order to sell the rights to broadcast the contests.

Good luck with all of that.

We’ve been down this road and while it’s not a dead end usually there comes a point when the road simply runs out.  Again, I’ll take this a little more seriously when Bryant is in uniform on an Italian court or the NBA cancels the entire season.