Kobe Bryant reveals to Thierry Henry his love of AC Milan

LA Lakers and Arsenal star met to discuss AC Milan and Barcelona

(NBAE/Getty Images)

Retiring NBA star Kobe Bryant has revealed to football legend Thierry Henry that they both share a love of all things Marco van Basten.

The former Arsenal and Barcelona striker was interviewing Bryant, who is set to retire at the end of the season after 20 brilliant years with the Los Angeles Lakers.

However, a lesser known fact is that Bryant, 37, grew up in Italy (where his father played basketball) and became a huge AC Milan fan as a kid.

One of the best and most decorated players of all-time, Bryant is a five-time NBA champion, 18-time All-Star and third on the NBA's all-time scoring list with more than 33,000 points.

"I know that you like the game, our game," Henry says to Bryant. "And you lived in Milan.

"So my idol was Marco van Basten, he was, for me, the ultimate, just perfect. Exactly what a centre-forward should be. Did you have a football hero?"

Kobe responds: "Absolutely... it was Marco van Basten! I grew up a huge AC Milan fan that was my team.

"I was right there with Van Basten, [Frank] Rijkaard, [Ruud] Gullit, [Paolo] Maldini was just getting started and we had [Franco] Baresi. That was my team."

Henry also asked Bryant about whether he thought his former team, Barcelona, who play Arsenal in the Champions League second leg on Wednesday night, could retain their European crown.

"Do you think they can do the treble again and be the first team to retain the [the trophy in the Champions League era]?" says Henry.

"I think that they can do it, the style of play that they have is a difficult style to catch up to," responded Bryant.

"It's comparable to how [the LA Lakers] used to win championships using the triangle offence. It's how the Spurs win Championships. Where the ball movement and spacing is second to none.

"You see players in unison, where the doesn't have to be a play called or where 'you do this, you do that', it's everybody in sync. You can read a line-up and understand where the gaps are and fill those gaps and when that gap fills another team-mate knows how to adjust. When you have that kind of flexibility and the versatility of the players to execute that skill it becomes very, very difficult to stop.

"Barring injury or something like that it's going to be very, very tough to stop them."

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