Stone struggling to get out of Italian contract despite Hornets' interest

The Charlotte Hornets have an interest in signing free-agent guard Julyan Stone. There's a problem, however.

Stone signed with Italian club Reyer Venezia recently and apparently doesn't have an opt-out clause in his contract. To make matters worse, his father is in intensive hospital care stateside.

According to a post on his Instagram account, the Italian team is now ignoring calls from he and his agent.

First and foremost my father is "just"not sick he doesn't have a cold, he is not sneezing, he is not coughing. My father is in CCU for a collapsed lung, Failed heart that is pumping at 10% . His kidneys do not work. All three in which the doctor told us he will need transplants. He cant breathe on his own, and has had tracheotomy, and is on dialysis.My father is fighting to live and as his son I feel it's not only his fight but mine as well. My family and I have been praying for my father and an opportunity to help him. During this time an opportunity presented itself that would help me provide for my father and his healthcare.As well as being close enough to be with him. This opportunity alone will allow my father to have the proper insurance that will give him the best chance to continue to fight for his life. After immediately contacting Venice about the situation that I and my family now find ourselves in, they began to not only ignore my calls, emails and whatapps. They also ignored those from my agent, my mother, and the hospital as well. What is bothersome to me is the lack of respect and dignity they have shown my family and I. They have downplayed the severity of my father's health and made it more about basketball t. I've sent numerous proposals to the team in order to provide a resolution that can benefits everyone.My love for the city and the fans makes this difficult. The last thing I want is the fans not to have a winning team. I've help to build a culture of winning and gave the organization all I had. I made sure to play for the people of the city and play with as much passion and fire that the fans showed. It became more than just basketball for me in Venice it became about family and the close relationships that I built there. You the fans and the people embraced me as a second son and allowed myself to grow as the city and organization grew. I was happy to have felt I found an extended family within the people and organization. But I found the loyalty from the organization was not what it appeared to be. It's really upsetting to me that they would use the media to save face and persuade the ppl to believe false truth.

A post shared by Julyan Stone (@julyan_stone2) on Aug 4, 2017 at 10:28am PDT

"The Hornets have been super supportive," Stone's agent, Giovanni Funiciello, told the Charlotte Observer's Rick Bonnell. "Unfortunately, (Stone's father is) extremely ill. The last thing we wanted to do was get this out there in the public."

The Hornets are in the market for a third point guard behind Kemba Walker and Michael Carter-Williams, and likely want to take the minimum-contract route, given their salary-cap commitments. The 28-year-old Stone hasn't played in the NBA since 2013-14 with the Toronto Raptors.

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Stone struggling to get out of Italian contract despite Hornets' interest

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