Dubious Rumor of the Day: Kobe to Greece?

It was just this weekend that Panayiotis Angelopoulos, the Greek billionaire and co-owner of the Euroleague powerhouse Olympiacos, declared in an interview with the New York Times that he would continue to aggressively court NBA free agents. He signed Josh Childress this summer, and he let it be known he had his sights on bigger fish, as well:

"I think we'll see a day when a superstar player comes to Europe, but to Olympiacos, not to another team," he said. "That is my answer. Maybe it will be very soon. Maybe then you realize what I'm telling you is serious."

Lo and behold, it took all of three days for the rumor mill to start churning. So what did it spit out? The SPORTSbyBROOKS headline says it all: Greek team to offer Kobe three year $83 million deal.

Before we get too excited, let's trace our sources: SbB references The Hoop, which references the Italian site BasketballCentral.it, which references TalkBasket.net. And now you're reading about it here, which means this has already gone through four filters, including one trip through Google Translate. What did the original rumor actually say?

The multi-billionaire owners of the Greek Euroleague colossus Olympiacos Piraeus, the Angelopoulos brothers, are preparing to make a serious run at Los Angeles Lakers' shooting guard Kobe Bryant in the 2009 off-season. Club sources with intimate knowledge of the Angelopoulos brothers' plans that will remain anonymous as requested, have confirmed upon query. The club is prepared to offer Bryant a 3 year $60 million contract.

It goes on to name a laundry list of other perks (a villa, a yacht, a butler, etc), but let's stop for a moment: three years, $60 million? Right now that's a red flag -- it's $23 million less than SbB's rumor. Where's the discrepancy? SbB interpeted it to mean 60 million Euros and converted the figure to dollars, but that doesn't appear to be the case given the context of the original post. So that's a lot less lucrative right off the bat.

Secondly (really, this should be first), what kind of sources does TalkBasket.net have? As far as I'm aware, this is the first I've ever heard of it. It seems to be focused on Euro basketball, but until someone I trust vouches for it, I have no reason to believe it has any sources. For the sake of argument, though, let's pretend they do ...

Even if Olympiacos is planning on making a run at Kobe, they can't do so unless he opts out of his current contract at the end of the season, and considering he'll average $24 million a season in '09-10 and '10-11 if he stays put, that's hardly a given. So even if Olympiacos wants to offer Kobe the sun and the moon, they may never have that chance.

Near the end of Childress' interview with the NY Times this past weekend, he was asked the Kobe question:

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT KOBE BRYANT OR SOMEONE LIKE THAT COMING HERE SOMEDAY?

There is a chance. If it did happen, that's a big-time earth shaker. I see Kobe as a guy who likes control. If they allow him the power to build his own team, I could see him doing it. If he had a chance to build his own team, I could see him doing it easily.

I don't know him. I've met him a few times. In my interactions with him and hearing about him, if he got a chance to do his own thing and build his own team and go from the ground up, I think he would do it. It seems like his personality.

Of course, Childress' opinion on the matter is pure hearsay, but at least he admits as much. Would Olympiacos truly be willing to hand over the keys and let Kobe run the team as he saw fit? I have absolutely no idea. But I agree completely with Childress in regards to what it would take. And that's a much bigger commitment that simply throwing comparable money to what he'd make in the NBA along with a villa, a yacht, a butler and other luxury items he probably already owns.

In the meantime, take anything you hear now with a grain huge mountain of salt. If this rumor gets any legs, it's only because media outlets are desperate for ratings and/or page views -- there's no reason to think there's anything here.