Messi and basketball

Football is obviously Messi's main sport, but he has shown interest in basketball on some occasions, as I will show in this entry.

The main footage to back Messi's interest in basketball is the following, where he can be seen sinking 3 shots in a row, with some amazement by the rest watching. Considering that from the distance Messi was shooting the average to sink a shot is 40%, Messi had around a 6.4% chance of sinking all three shots, or maybe he just has skill in the sport.

On October 20th, 2013, he apparently had a 1v1 match against Pepe Costa, a very good friend of Messi's. He posted it to his Instagram, seeming to be proud of his achievement and making a little fun out of the situation.

There was also a time that Messi, alongside the rest of the national team, saw an NBA game. Specifically the Pacers vs Wizards game played on March 25th, 2015.

He also witnessed a game in the ACB League (the Spanish basketball league) between AXA FC Barcelona and Ricoh Manresa back in the 2007/08 season, even posing with the cheerleaders for a photo.

Then there's football-basketball, where Messi shoots a ball with his feet to the hoop. He did it in 2016 as a challenge, increasing his shot from 5 meters away to 10 then 15, sinking all three shots. And in a training in 2016 as well, he sank a chip shot, something he only tried once before the footage was cut.

And for last, there's his ad sponsored by Herbalife from March 2012. In it you can see Messi playing 1v1 against someone who seems to be a professional basketball player. Although, of course, this should be taken with a pinch of salt.

It seems that Messi's love for sports doesn't end with football, but it extends to basketball as well, and he doesn't seem to be bad at it at all.