Steph Curry, Kobe Bryant, Neymar and Lionel Messi may each have legions of fans, but the superstars are big fans of each other, too. That all-star fandom was particularly evident this week when the group couldn’t stop complimenting each other on TV and social media.

The reason Bryant got a lot of love is obvious. After announcing his retirement on Sunday in a poem reminiscent of Michael Jordan’s famous retirement letter to basketball, athletes from all over thanked him for his contribution to the sport. Messi’s was one of the most high profile, and not only because he put it on Instagram where he has more than 30 million followers from around the world. It was also because he credited Bryant with getting him to love basketball.

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Speaking of Messi’s 30 million Instagram followers, Steph Curry had some compliments to dole out to the 28-year-old Argentine about that popularity on Thursday. In a short video, he also offered tickets to a game for Messi and held up an autographed jersey with the number 30 on it.

Curry’s hair looks nice, doesn’t it? Neymar sure thinks so! On Wednesday, he gushed over the Golden State Warriors star’s look and said his current hairstyle is modeled after the 27-year-old’s.

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“I hadn’t used that hairstyle since 2009,” Neymar told Brazil’s Globo (via CBS Sports). “Stephen Curry style.”

(Albert Gea/Reuters)

Eh, close enough. Much closer than the nearly 6,000 miles of land and ocean that separates Spain from California. Despite the distance, though, this chumminess between Spanish soccer and West Coast basketball has been going on for years. Need proof? Well then we might as well complete the circle and have Kobe show us.
That’s Neymar in the lower left. And who can forget this ad from 2013?

“I have been following the side for 10 years,” Bryant said this summer when Barcelona traveled to Los Angeles for an exhibition game, revealed during a meeting with the players at the StubHub Center in Los Angeles. “I love watching Messi, [Andres] Iniesta and the rest of the squad.”

Bryant said he hasn’t yet had a chance to watch Barca at their hometown stadium Camp Nou, but says it’s one of his lifelong dreams. Seems worthy of a post-retirement trip, right?