Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest ever to play basketball, and the Los Angeles Lakers legend owes the game of soccer for some of his incredible success.
Bryant brought a bit of soccer skill to the hardwood last Friday when he played a bounce pass through the legs of Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant. When asked after the game, Bryant explained his play, as "just soccer" which comes from his youth growing up in Italy.
“Most of the time, American basketball is only taught in twos: 1-2, pick and roll, or give and go, or something like that,” Bryant told reporters last week. “In playing soccer growing up, you really see the game in a combination of threes, sometimes fours—and how you play within triangles.
“You see things in multiple combinations,” Bryant continued. “And growing up playing [soccer], my eye and my brain became accustomed to seeing those combinations in threes and fours versus one and two.”
Last Friday's nutmeg of Durant wasn't the only time that Bryant brought his football flair to the basketball court. Earlier this year, he nutmegged surefire NBA Hall-of-Famer Kevin Durant during a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
