Kobe Bryant: Playing in Italy Would ‘Be a Dream for Me’

Kobe Bryant continues to openly flirt with the idea of playing in Italy during the NBA lockout, but no one can quite gauge how serious he is about the possibility (or if the Italian club Virtus Bologna can even afford his services.) From the AP: “It’s very possible. It would be a dream for me,’ Kobe Bryant said of the contract off from Virtus Bologna, according to the Gazzetta dello Sport . Virtus Bologna has made numerous contract offers to the Los Angeles Lakers star. Bryant discussed the offer with the Gazzetta dello Sport during a sponsor’s appearance in Milan on Wednesday. Virtus told The Associated Press that the latest talks are centered on a $2.5 million offer for 10 games over 40 days from Oct. 9 to Nov. 16. That would come out to about $1.5 million after taxes. The deal would allow Bryant to return to the Lakers immediately if the lockout ends. The 33-year-old Bryant spent several years in Italy when his father, Joe Bryant, played on five teams from 1984-91. The elder Bryant, who once owned a small part of Olimpia Milano, now coaches the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA. ‘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.'”