sportsjabber.net

Los Angeles Lakers super star Kobe Bryant has received a bumper contact offer to play in Italy next season. Italian side Virtus Bologna is willing to offer up to $6.7 million for a stint during the lockout.

Bryant, of course, spent a part of his childhood in Italy. His father Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, who is now a head coach in WNBA, played in Italy from 1984 to 1991 with many teams including Rieti, Reggio Calabria, Pistoia and Reggiana.

Bryant knows Italian and even played in the youth circuits there and Bologna are hoping that the shooting guards’ ties with Italy will prove decisive in getting him on the team roster.

“I think the fact that he’s lived in Italy makes this appealing to him,” General Manger Massimo Faraoni said recently.

The move to get Bryant reportedly involves Canadian Solar, the company believed to be sponsoring the deal. There have been reports that Kobe’s agent Rob Pelinka has been working on the contract with Faraoni, Bologna President Claudio Sabatini and Canadian Solar. The company however denied any such involvement in a press release.

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