| 20 October 2011
If Italian team Virtus Bologna owner Claudio Sabatini needed a bigger hint that Kobe Bryant has zero interest in playing professionally outside the NBA, here it is. Reports from Bryant's camp say that the 5-time champion has agreed to participate in the semi-charity basketball world tour featuring most of the NBA's biggest names.
That includes: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Amare Stoudemire, Chris Bosh, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook, Carlos Boozer, Paul Pierce, Kevin Love, Blake Griffin and Tyson Chandler. The Thunder's Kevin Durant and the Celtics' Kevin Garnett are also thinking of participating.
The tour is scheduled to begin on Oct. 30th all the way through Nov. 8th. and is being organized and funded by Calvin Darden, chairman of an Atlanta-based real estate development company Darden Development Group, LLC.
Although the tour hasn't been officially finalized, Darden has already received signed contracts from Bryant, Wade, Bosh, Griffin, Rondo and Pierce and is waiting for the rest of the All-Star players to turn in theirs.
According to ESPN's Chris Broussard, the players will be compensated in the ballpark range of thousands to $1 million with a portion of the entire tour's proceeds going to charity.
The tour is set to make stops in Puerto Rico, London, Macau and Australia with 2 games scheduled in London. Darden also plans on getting the games televised both internationally and in the U.S.
However, according to Darden, it's still too early to even guarantee that this proposed tour will occur because of several factors that need to be straightened out first.
Obviously, insurance for the players will be one of those agendas Darden needs to take care of before everything else falls into place. But if everything works out, this is a great way of keeping the NBA brand in the positive side of the lockout while helping a lot of the biggest ticket sellers in basketball shape.
The turnout is expected to be enormous in every country and city they plan on holding the games, and I don't see why anyone would say no to televising the games anywhere in the world.
But with the lockout frustrating even the die-hards, I'm not sure how many actual NBA fans would be willing to shell out money to watch the 2-week tour, which I expect will head towards the pay-per-view category and/or NBA-TV.
Aside from all the travelling, the tour should not be so taxing on Kobe's body since, unlike playing for Virtus Bologna, it will not require players to log heavy minutes, workout (at least as they normally do in the NBA) or practice in-between games.
The lockout and his commitment to the Nike branding tour have been a tricky proposition for Kobe as there aren't enough opportunities that he could take advantage of keeping himself in top physical and mental shape without interfering with his obligations to Nike and all the other prior engagements on top of not having to worry about insurance.
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