NBA great Kobe Bryant recalled his first meeting with Lionel Messi after Ronaldinho predicted the Barcelona star would become the "greatest player who ever lived".
Speaking about his introduction to an emerging Messi thanks to Ronaldinho, Bryant told ESPN: "I'll tell you a story. A long time ago, Barcelona came to Los Angeles."
"Ronaldinho, who was a good friend, I was talking with him and he told me: 'Kobe, look I'm going to introduce you to the guy who is going to be the greatest player of all time."
"I said: 'You what? You are the best.' But he said: 'No, no. This kid right here is going to be the best.' And that guy was Lionel Messi, who was only 17."
The rest, as they say, is history.
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HalaMadridbestfun
406
when you play for one of the best team in the world but play under the worst manager
Desmondeyum
187
"If Messi was the captain of Titanic, he probably would have nutmegged the iceberg."
Christopher_Robin
133
'Don't worry Kobe. I'm about to destroy this man's career'
prageshadhikari10
67
But what after this?? sad
raynknight
59
Then Tell Me a Footballer with More Vision stats Than Ronaldinho and I'll wait........ ............... ...........................I'm still Waiting !!
XEXE73
19
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I can't finish laughing. Ronaldinho being regarded as the best to bring skills to the game as he makes the game look simple and fun saying this about an argentine knew what was on the way coming. The whole wide world knows quite well that argentines and brazillians don't agree in terms of football just because of pele and Maradona issues. Brazillians have pele whom the world praised as the best but they seeing Messi realised that, no! The best has arrived now . It's like John the Baptist telling the world that hey! The right messiah is yet to come..He who doubt should check and he'll realize that about 90% of brazillians support Messi despite his recent comments. If SUPER COMPUTER is rating Messi way above all with no exception then it's obvious and likely Messi will never be visible to normal computer.Do we think scientists will just come out to say they'd like to clone him for just fun? They're seeing what the ordinary and bet stakers are not seeing. Ask marcelo and Jerome boateng and you'll catch the feeling.