NBA star Dillon Brooks has claimed that he could easily defend Inter Miami captain Lionel Messi if he committed to soccer at a younger age.
The 28-year-old Houston Rockets small forward is regarded in the NBA as one of the villains of the league, with Brooks often baiting in opponents with antics both on and off the pitch.
And the Canadian has now extended his villainry into the world of soccer, with Brooks claiming that he could defend Messi if he had played soccer all his life.
Speaking to Mundo Deportivo, the Rockets star made the astonishing point that had he could man-mark Messi, a player almost every defender on the planet has failed to do over the Argentine’s career.
Brooks said if he would be good enough to stop Messi: “Could I stop Messi if I played soccer? Probably if I had been playing all my life I could.
“It’s just determination. In the end, you have to use your team-mates for special guys like Messi or Antetokounmpo, you need your team to defend them.”
Dillon Brooks wouldn’t last five seconds against Lionel Messi
At 6’6″, Brooks would have made for quite the central defender had the Mississauga-born basketball star opted to take up soccer rather than hoops.
Yet even if the Canadian went professional, there’s no way Brooks would have been good enough to mark Messi out of a game, such is the Inter Miami star’s once-in-a-generation quality.
Indeed, few players have ever kept Messi in a single soccer match, and Brooks is unaware of just how good the attacker can be on his day against opponents who continue to underestimate the Argentine.