OK, so maybe Kobe Bryant wasn’t JOKING when he mentioned he would considering signing on with a European team for $50 million when his contract runs out.
The Lakers star told Yahoo! Sports on Saturday that he won’t sign a contract extension until he has tested the global market. Asked whether he plans to solicit overseas offers before signing an extension, Bryant flatly said yes.
Bryant, in Beijing for the Olympics, could leave for Europe as early as next summer, when he can opt out of after next season. Bryant is signed through the 2010-11 season. Talk about an international bidding war.
Talk about an ego.
“As players, the business of the game (is) evolving,” Bryant said before a Team USA practice at Beijing Normal University. “I think free agency now is becoming a global thing …. When players become free agents, the team they’re currently with – their competition is no longer the rest of the teams in the NBA. But it’s global. So, the market’s opened up. So we’ll just have to see how the league responds to it.”
Bryant spent much of childhood in Italy and loves it there. Seven years ago, he bought an ownership stake in Olimpia Milano of the Italian league for his father Joe to run. When Bryant was asked whether he held intrigue with owning and playing on a team together, he said, “Absolutely.”
Yahoo reported that some basketball executives believe Bryant’s ultimate ambition might be to have a majority ownership with a powerhouse Italian team while serving as its superstar. What’s more, Bryant, 29, insists that it wouldn’t be such a leap of faith for him to leave the NBA.
“I think people kind of make it out to be a little more than what it is,” he said.
