"The chance was too good to pass up, an opportunity to do some promotion for the company, to help old friends, to repatriate an athlete if only for a few months.

A website that bills itself as "the world's leading married dating service for discreet encounters" is trying to get Andrea Bargnani playing basketball in his native Italy.

And if it helps business, well, that's a nice little bonus for ashleymadison.com.

"This was a chance for some cross-promotion, to call the team Ashley Madison Roma," Noel Biderman, the chief executive officer of Avid Life Media, the company that owns the dating site targeting married people, said in a telephone interview from Italy, where he is trying to finalize the deal."