Just before the NBA meetings this past weekend, NBA commissioner David Stern starting making threats that he would cancel the entire 2011-12 NBA season if there wasn't considerable progress made in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations. Even though there have been no reports of progress in the talks between NBA players and and owners after the most recent meetings, the commissioner hasn't made any statements about whether or not the season will be cancelled which makes some people believe that Stern's warning was nothing more than a bluff.
With the NBA lockout still underway, NBA superstars are becoming more and more convinced that they need to find work overseas and the one big-name player (besides Deron Williams) that has made the most progress in getting a deal done with a team overseas is none other than Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Since Kobe has some ties in Italy due to a childhood watching his father play professional basketball in that country, Italian have had an edge in signing the NBA superstar for the duration of the NBA lockout. The one team that has been pursuing Kobe Bryant is Virtus Bologna and it seems as though that team is very close to signing the Lakers star.
Reportedly, Kobe Bryant's people and Virtus Bologna have been "working very intensely" in coming to terms with the five-time NBA champion. Apparently, Bologna president Claudio Sabatini has announced a deal with Kobe Bryant's agent Rob Pelinka on a 10-game contract worth over $3 million dollars.
One of the most crucial parts of this deal that will send Kobe to Italy is home games for Virtus Bologna. The Italian club wants Kobe Bryant to play in the biggest arenas in Italy to maximize the revenue for this 10-game contract. Unfortunately, the only way this can be done is the alter the schedules of other teams in the league which is becoming much more difficult than once thought for Virtus Bologna.
If this scheduling problem can be corrected, Virtus Bologna must have the deal signed by Kobe Bryant by the end of the week in order to have him registered for the first game against Roma this Sunday. With this kind of progress with Virtus Bologna, Kobe Bryant will almost certainly be on his way to Italy to play at least one game before the NBA lockout ends.
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