Soccer legend Thierry Henry interviews Kobe Bryant
Two of sports' very best came face-to-face recently, as soccer great Thierry Henry interviewed Kobe Bryant and talked about retirement, changing teams during a storied career and the proudest moment in Bryant's 20-year Lakers career.
It wasn't quite the one-on-one we'd like to see from these two, but this four-minute video is definitely worth your time:
On the subject of comparisons between Stephen Curry and Lionel Messi, Henry asks Bryant who his soccer equal would be. To the surprise of absolutely no one, Bryant points right back to Henry, crediting the Frenchman for a similar "killer instinct" and aggressive mentality.
From there, Henry tries to ask Bryant a tough question -- did Kobe ever consider switching teams, as the soccer legend did during his career? But Bryant sidesteps the inquiry by talking about the city of Los Angeles, conveniently ignoring that one time he publicly angled for a trade.
The best question and response of them all came when Henry asked Bryant to reflect on his proudest moment with the Lakers. Where previously the future basketball Hall of Famer has spoken in general terms, he gave a precise answer this time:
“I would say winning Game 7 against the Celtics [in 2010]. That was the hardest one to get. It seemed like we had no hope in that series and no hope for that particular game. We kept battling and battling, and wound up winning it. We gave absolutely everything to that series. We had nothing left. No more energy left. Everything was gone. So that has to be the proudest moment.”
Finally, the two exchanged autographed jerseys in true soccer style. With Henry having a much larger number of uniforms to share, we kind of think Bryant got the best of this one:
