"I haven't spoken to Besiktas in weeks" Kobe Bryant

[magicbalala245]

The odds of Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant joining New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams in signing with Turkish team Besiktas appear to have diminished.

 

"I haven't spoken to Besiktas in weeks," Bryant said at a news conference Sunday in Washington, where he spent the weekend attending the World Football Challenge on Saturday and the Mia Hamm-Nomar Garciaparra Celebrity Soccer Challenge on Sunday. Both events were presented by Turkish Airlines, for which Bryant serves as a pitchman.

 

According to an NBA.com report, a source involved in the negotiations between the 13-time All-Star and the Turkish club placed the chance of Bryant playing there as of Sunday at "zero percent." That would contradict a statement made earlier in the week by Seref Yalcin, the head of basketball operations for Besiktas, who said there was a "50 percent" chance that Bryant would come to Turkey, according to a Reuters report.

 

Yalcin also said in the report that Bryant and Besiktas officials were set to meet on July 30th, but Bryant's statement would appear to indicate that meeting did not occur.