Report: Kobe resisted offer to play for Barcelona
Kobe Bryant chose starting to shape his post-basketball life over a shot at a Euroleague title.
The Lakers‘ five-time NBA champion guard was offered a contract by European club FC Barcelona last summer to extend his post-NBA career, but Bryant politely turned down the offer, according to a report in Spanish sports newspaper Mundo Deportivo.
Senior officials at the Catalan club ramped up their overtures toward Bryant after hearing the top scorer in Lakers history talk about ending his basketball career with Spanish big man Pau Gasol at the club that also doubles as his favorite soccer team, according to the report.
While on the Barcelona soccer team’s preseason tour of the U.S. last July, club officials said they were told by Kobe that he “would love to finish my career playing for Barca with Pau Gasol,” the former Lakers teammate with whom Bryant teamed for two NBA titles in 2009 and 2010.
Bryant spent his childhood in Europe and has often expressed his admiration for European players, but the then 36-year-old resisted last year’s Barcelona pursuit because, according to the report, he said he didn’t know if he could count on a rebound in his health and doubted he could stay mostly healthy for the entire grueling Euroleague season.
Mundo Deportivo said Bryant passed on an offer from the club to compete exclusively for Barcelona in the more high-profile Euroleague games, which pit up to 18 of the best basketball teams in Europe every season against each other.
Bryant subsequently announced in November that he would retire after this NBA season, ending his 20-year career with the Lakers. He is under contract with the Lakers as the NBA’s highest-paid player this season with a $25 million salary.
Bryant had no comment to ESPN on Thursday about Mundo Deportivo’s report, but he has spoken in the past to ESPN about planning to start his next career as a businessman.
Bryant, in an exclusive 2014 interview with ESPN, revealed that he had formed his own company called Kobe Inc., and was building a team around him to start new businesses and evaluate investing in others.
The two-time NBA Finals MVP’s last three seasons have ended early due to injuries, and he played in only 41 games over the previous two seasons. He has struggled significantly in the first 72 games of this season with mostly young teammates on a rebuilding roster, averaging 16.6 points a game and dealing with pain and exhaustion virtually every day.
Bryant, who lived in Europe for eight years and is an avid soccer fan, makes no secret of his love for UEFA Champions League champion FC Barcelona and he has made multiple previous visits to the Catalan city to watch Barcelona in action.
