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"&lt;strong&gt;&lt;img alt=\"Basketball Wives wants Vanessa Bryant\" src=\"http://ll-media.tmz.com/2012/01/20/0120-vanessa-bryant-ex-01.jpg\" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Vanessa Bryant&lt;/strong&gt; has become the Holy Grail for \"&lt;strong&gt;Basketball Wives&lt;/strong&gt;\" producers ... and TMZ has learned, the people behind the VH1 show are prepping to make her an offer she can't refuse.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Multiple sources close to the production tell us, producers are putting together \"an extremely lucrative pitch for Vanessa\" ... for her to become a recurring character.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As one source put it, &amp;#8220;Vanessa has more than enough storyline and would bring the show to another level.&amp;#8221;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As for the timing -- we're told producers never dreamed of approaching Vanessa while she was married to Kobe ... and our sources say Vanessa would NOT have been receptive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Budget constraints were also an issue when the show was in its infant stages -- because producers knew Vanessa would be very expensive -- but now that BW's one of the highest rated shows on the network, producers have lots more to spend on talent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If Vanessa accepts, we're told producers would instantly make her a LEAD on the LA edition of the show.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://photos.toofab.com/galleries/nba_all_star_weekend_wives_photo_gallery#tab=fab_photos\"&gt;&lt;img alt=\"0123_bball_foote\" src=\"http://ll-media.tmz.com/2012/01/23/0123-bball-foote.jpg\" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.tmz.com/2012/01/23/basketball-wives-vanessa-bryant/1/>