|
LOS ANGELES: An amateur video of Kobe Bryant
badmouthing the Los Angeles Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak and teammate
Andrew Bynum is being made available to Internet users on a
pay-per-view basis.
The 24-second profanity-laced
clip is attracting widespread interest say its creators who are
remaining anonymous and won’t release it for viewing until they
say they have presold 50,000 copies online, the Los Angeles Daily
News reported Tuesday.
John Black, Lakers spokesman,
told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that the makers of the video
tried unsuccessfully to sell it to the National Basketball
Association team.
“We are aware of the video and
they contacted us a month ago and we told them we had no interest in
buying it,” Black said.
The amateur videographers say
they were also offered $100,000 for the rights by a Laker fan that
wanted to prevent it from being shown to the public.
They decided instead to make it
available for purchase on a website at a cost of $1.99.
The video, in which Bryant is
wearing sunglasses and a red shirt, was apparently shot by a
“group of friends” in the parking lot of a shopping center in
Newport Beach where Bryant lives.
They said they do not believe
Bryant was aware he was being filmed at the time.
The two-time National Basketball
Association scoring champion has become increasingly upset over the
direction of the Lakers.
Bryant said told American
newspapers earlier this month that he is fed up with empty promises
from Lakers’ management and now it is time to move on via the
trade route.
Bryant, who joined the Lakers in
1996, has four years left on his contract, which also includes a
no-trade clause, which he would have to waive.
|
