ESPN is reporting that Kobe Bryant has agreed to a $3 million deal with Italian club team Virtus Bologna. While the deal isn’t signed yet, Chris Broussard is reporting that it is 95 percent completed.
The deal would be for about 10 games and would allow Bryant to return to the Lakers immediately once a new collective bargaining agreement was reached.
“We have reached an economic deal,” Virtus Bologna president Claudio Sabatini said. “There’s still some things to arrange, but at this point I’m very optimistic. I would say it’s 95 percent done.”
Bryant spent the majority of his childhood growing up in Italy, and has expressed his interested on several occasions of playing there if the lockout continues. Bryant will wait to see if the labor negotiations taking place this weekend have any major impact on the lockout before officially signing the deal.
Now ProBasketballTalk.com reports that the Italian Basketball league has rejected the proposal which will basically kill the deal.