The Turkish basketball club Besiktas has made an offer to Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant to play for its team during the N.B.A. lockout and is awaiting an answer from BryantÂ’s agent, Besiktas Coach Ergin Ataman said Friday.
Ataman, who already has a deal with the NetsÂ’ Deron Williams, said he expects to hear BryantÂ’s decision when he speaks to BryantÂ’s agent, Rob Pelinka, in the next day or so. Ataman said Pelinka had initiated the discussions by contacting the club this week.
“We are very serious,” Ataman said in a telephone interview Friday. “I don’t think they are joking with us. We showed we are serious with the Deron Williams transfer. We believe this will happen. We are optimistic that during the lockout Kobe and Deron Williams will play with our team.”
Ataman did not give details of the offer made to Bryant. WilliamsÂ’s deal is reportedly worth $200,000 to $350,000 a month, and Bryant would be asking for significantly more.
When Williams signed, Ataman said a sponsor would be paying WilliamsÂ’s salary. When Ataman first discussed BryantÂ’s interest, he said the club would seek another sponsor to pay Bryant. Ataman insisted Friday that the club had plenty of sponsors and plenty of money to pay Bryant, but that a sponsorship deal with Turkish Airlines was being discussed.
Bryant has a two-year endorsement deal with Turkish Airlines, although he said as recently as December that he had never been to Turkey.
Besiktas is trying to make the biggest splash in the business of luring locked-out N.B.A. players, which would come in contrast to the news in its soccer program. The deputy chairman of Besiktas, Serdal Adali, as well as its soccer coach are among 31 people jailed recently in Turkey in connection with a match-fixing scandal.
