Sabatini's next contract target?
As the basketball world awaited the well-publicized ultimate conference call between Virtus president Claudio Sabatini and Bryant’s representation, well … nothing much happened, and then happened some more. As it turns out, no call came to Sabatini’s office at all.
To tell the truth, BallinEurope isn’t too certain as to how to interpret Sabatini’s next move, which was to write U.S. president Barack Obama.
Sabatini and his staff reportedly believed that Obama’s public statement of yesterday regarding the NBA lockout was connected with the movement of NBA players to Europe.
“To avoid any misunderstanding,” Sabatini explained to La Gazzetta, “I have written to the White House that it is not my intention to cast a shadow on the NBA by stealing their most important player. It is just that I would like to give Bologna and all of Italian basketball the opportunity to enjoy the talent of this world-famous superstar.”
No reply from the president has been received by Sabatini.
Tags: Barack Obama, Claudio Sabatini, Kobe Bryant, NBA lockout, Virtus Bologna
[...] Stood-up Claudio Sabatini writes Barack Obama re: Kobe, NBA lockoutBallinEuropeItaly-based Gazzetto dello Sport reports on a couple of developments ? or perhaps more appropriately ?non-developments? ? in the Kobe-to-Bologna soap opera. The first bit is easy to define: Kobe Bryant, it appears, won't be playing for Virtus Bologna …and more » [...]
ORIGINAL TEXT (Source Virtus Bologna offical website)
Dear Mr. President,
We have a dream: to see Kobe Bryant playing for our Team Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, the Italian town wellknown in the world as basket City.
According to your wishes we hope that the NBA lockout will shortly stop but in the meanwhile let us have the chance to see at least for one game the great Kobe Bryant playing with our black and white jersey and be part of our history
[...] seams. But that won’t stop the president of Virtus Bologna from continuing with his public, maniacally hilarious pursuit of the Laker superstar. Here’s the latest, via Ball in Europe: “As the basketball world [...]
[...] Virtus Bologna owner Claudio Sabatini’s pursuit of Kobe Bryant may be crossing over from eagerness to NBA groupie at all-star weekend levels (trust me, that isn’t a pretty sight). Apparently with talks between the team and Kobe’s representation stalling, Sabatini wrote President Barack Obama in an effort to help out: [...]
Claudio’s letter to the president might be a more proactive move than anything the NBA owners are currently doing. As everyone knows, talks broke down the other night, resulting in a slew of unhappy posts from bloggers everywhere. http://tinyurl.com/62wn6nr
Perhaps the announced appointment of a mediator, will help.
Sabatini does and says lots of crazy things on a daily basis, but this might be the top of them all!
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop
By Henry Abbott
ESPN.com
Archive
Damage to the NBA brand
A couple days ago on Twitter, David Thorpe asked: “How’s it gonna look when NBA players playing overseas get sent home because they are just not worth what they were being paid?”
Since then, DeJuan Blair — a starter on one of the league’s best teams in San Antonio — was let go by his Russian team.
It’s not that Blair didn’t play well. His numbers were solid. It’s also not that he has a big attitude — quite the opposite.
The problem appears to have been simply that they could get similar production for less from any number of other players. He was good, but the amount they paid him, in that league, is reserved for greatness.
Thorpe has long maintained that the very best NBA players are in a class by themselves. No other league in the world has players like Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. But after those top stars, whether that’s 30 or 40 players, he says it’s very hard to tell anyone apart. The non-star NBA players, he says, are interchangeable with professionals all over the globe, which he sees in his own gym every summer, where, for instance, Italian Serie A starters hang comfortably with NBA rotation players.
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American coach Thorpe says right there that NBA players are overrated and are not as good as people think they are, and that European players are just as good as they are.
[...] during a seams. But that won’t stop a boss of Virtus Bologna from stability with his public, maniacally waggish pursuit of a Laker superstar. Here’s a latest, around Ball in Europe: “As a basketball universe awaited [...]
[...] Stories of single-game, three-game and flex contracts were touted regularly – with the occasional talk of eschewing Bryant for Manu Ginobili – to the point where Sabatini promised he’d be talking to Kobe’s representatives by phone to finalize *something* to get Bryant suited up for Bologna: A phone call that never came. [...]
[...] Monday, May 21. The series goes back to Bologna for game 3 with Sassari leading 2-0. Virtus Bologna discloses that the trip back to Sassari for the still-hypothetical game 5 has already been scheduled and organized. (Think this is an overconfident – not to say cocky – move? Always bear in mind that Virtus president Claudio Sabatini tried to bring Kobe Bryant to Bologna seeking intercession by the White House in a letter Sabatini wrote to US president Barack Obama. [...]