LA Lakers: Kobe Bryant to Play “Tribute to Kobe” Game for Virtus Bologna?

Rome's professional basketball team Virtus Bologna has offered a multi-million dollar one-game contract to get the NBA's greater star, Kobe Bryant, to play a tribute game in his own honor.

The deal implies many things when it comes to both the future of the Lakers star and the NBA as a whole.

Long known as the game's greatest stage and platform for players to both join the entertainment world and model their blacktop skills, the NBA seemingly is losing its footing from the Macro sense of things.

Multiple trends are engaging this proposition, evolving the professional experience for the American and international hoops star, and recreating the overall experience of professional basketball. 

A league that long held its world grandeur by dangling mega guaranteed contracts, ultimately shot itself in the foot, endorsing poor performance in the regular season and distancing the athlete from the everyday fan.

This distance monetarily (the lack of need to earn a paycheck) has metaphorically created a class structure in the billion dollar industry... the player whom assumed his role as king; and the fan, the mediocre serfdom.

As the lockout wanes and the average fan loses regular season games and possibly the season as a whole, most NBA players are happily going about their lives atop a mountain of cushy livelihood.

To think many of the NBA stars can benefit from the lockout while the fan misses his or her favorite sport is a perfect sign of the times.



While the NBA wilts under the pressure of a two-sided Cold War, the rest of the world continues, hoping to upend the current worldwide favorite by manifesting its own million-dollar packages.

The money proposed by Virtus Bologne, is more money than Bryant has ever seen in the NBA.

Had he earned this type of money per game in a regular season schedule, the star would e...

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