By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Olimpia Milano coach Ettore Messina was asked to comment on Kobe Bryant following the latter’s death. Messina was a part of the Lakers coaching staff as consultant in 2011-2012.
“You don’t coach Kobe Bryant. You stay in the gym with Kobe Bryant. Which is different,” Messina said when asked if he remembers something from when he coached the late NBA legend.
‘There are a lot of stories and everybody has talked a lot these days,” Messina added. “There is nothing special that I can add. Just the respect that everybody has for him and the sense of having lost something very important in your life I think is common to all basketball fans right now.”
Messina, a four-time EuroLeague champion, joined the Lakers after his stint as head coach of Real Madrid in 2009-2011. It was his first job in the NBA. After two seasons (2012-2014) with CSKA Moscow, the Italian coach became assistant to Gregg Popovich on the San Antonio Spurs, where he stayed until 2019.
Photo: Olimpia Milano