Kobe Bryant… should have been on the Men’s National Team?
By: jetski
When Kobe Bryant’s father moved his family to Italy where he was playing pro basketball, then 6-year-old Kobe was introduced to soccer and the culture that came with it. Bryant often went to the parks in Italy to play basketball and would jump in on a game of soccer before hitting the basketball court.
“I wasn’t anything spectacular,” Bryant said. “I would have moments of doing something crazy that really wasn’t done on purpose. I’d pull off a nice move that was unintentional.
“I started out at goalkeeper because my arms were so long and I didn’t really have a good feel at handling the ball. As I practiced and progressed, they moved me to midfield.”
The Bryants moved back to the United States in 1991. With few kids playing soccer in his Philadelphia neighborhood, Bryant turned his sports attention strictly to basketball. Bryant never played high school soccer, but he credits his playing days in Italy for helping his basketball game.
“I’m comfortable (with basketball) footwork because I played soccer,” said Bryant. “From changing up rhythms to foot speed, to being comfortable with having my right foot as my pivot foot and my left foot as my pivot foot.”
Bryant entered the NBA straight from high school and has won four titles with the Los Angeles Lakers. What would have happened if he had stayed in Italy?
“I would have kept playing (soccer) – that’s for sure,” Bryant said. “I loved basketball so much, but I also wanted to play for AC Milan. That was my team growing up.”
Following AC Milan these days has been a challenge for Bryant with his schedule, but he says it’s getting easier with the increase in Internet coverage and soccer channels. Bryant attended the Brazil vs. Japan World Cup match in Germany 2006 with his wife, and hopes to catch an AC Milan game one day.
“To this day, I’ve never seen my team, AC Milan, play in person,” Bryant said. “My mother never let me go to games in Europe. She’d say, `No, it’s too violent. What happens if the fans go crazy and (you get) squished up against the fence?’”
What does Kobe think would happen if more U.S. athletes focused more on soccer?
“If myself, Tracy McGrady, and LeBron James had a soccer ball at our feet instead of a basketball at 2 years old, with our size, it could have been something,” Bryant said. “If we had played soccer all our lives, I think (the U.S. soccer team) would have been pretty potent.”
Definitely worth thinking about…
http://www.thefinalthird.com/2010/03/18/kobe-bryant-should-have-been-on-the-mens-national-team/
well spotted
