On May 30, 1984, Liverpool beat A.S. Roma in a penalty shootout at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome to capture the European Cup, the precursor to soccer’s prestigious Champions League. At the time, Kevin Garnett was an 8-year-old in South Carolina and LeBron James had not been born. But when the same two soccer clubs meet July 28 at Fenway Park as part of their United States summer tours, James and Garnett are likely to be there as minority owners, James for Liverpool and Garnett for Roma.  Neither club will play in the Champions League next season after both had disappointing campaigns, with Roma finishing seventh in Serie A, Italy’s top league, and Liverpool finishing eighth in the Premier League, England’s elite level.  But both teams remain prominent in the world of soccer and, in a subtle and quirky way, help enhance the already vibrant rivalry between James and Garnett and their N.B.A. teams, the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics.  It was the Celtics and Garnett who eliminated James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2008 Eastern Conference semifinals on their way to an N.B.A. title. It is James and the Heat who now hold a two-games-to-one lead over Garnett and the Celtics in this season’s Eastern Conference finals. That Garnett and James both have a link to professional soccer reflects an era in which the sport, particularly the European version, continues to gain exposure and prominence in the United States. Since basketball and soccer are two of the world’s most global sports, it makes sense that there would be increasing evidence of cross-pollination.  Garnett and James are two examples. A more telling one is probably Steve Nash, the longtime N.B.A. star who is famous for his love of soccer and plays it every off-season, often in Manhattan.  Each summer beginning in 2008, Nash, whose father played soccer professionally in South Africa and whose brother played for the Canadian national team, has staged the Showdown in Chinatown, a charity event that puts N.B.A. players and professional soccer stars on the same field in front of gawking spectators.  As for James and Garnett, their connection to European soccer teams runs through Boston even though James does not play there. Liverpool is owned by Fenway Sports Group, which also owns the Boston Red Sox. Fenway Sports has linked up with James’s marketing company in a deal to be his exclusive representative. And Garnett was brought into the fold at Roma by a Celtics minority owner, James Pallotta, one of four Boston-area businessmen who bought a significant stake in the Italian club.  Garnett told ESPN that one of his best friends got him hooked on soccer by showing him clips of Ronaldinho, the Brazilian who was once considered one of the top players in the world.  James, meanwhile, is widely known to be a Yankees fan, but there he was last fall at Anfield, Liverpool’s fabled home ground, watching the home club draw, 1-1, against rival Manchester United, wearing the team scarf and saying on Twitter what a good time he was having.  With the Olympics to take place this summer in London, and James scheduled to be there as a member of the United States basketball team, he may soon have another opportunity to reach out to Liverpool fans. Or at least talk soccer with whatever local folks he encounters. He has already made a cameo in a Nike soccer ad previewing the 2012 European Championships. In it, James saves a shot by Javier Hernandez, Manchester United’s striker, an appropriate notion considering James’s reputation as a defender in the N.B.A.  Then there is an Adidas video from a few years ago that features Garnett and one of his favorite players, David Beckham, in which the two try to kick a soccer ball into a basketball hoop. It is not surprising who succeeds.  Garnett’s personal connection to Rome began when the Celtics took a trip to the Italian capital before their championship season. After the Celtics were crowned, the trip was cited by many in the organization as essential in building team chemistry. One of Roma’s nicknames is i Lupi, or the Wolves; when Garnett arrived in Rome in the fall of 2007, he had recently been traded from the Timberwolves to the Celtics. Pairing Garnett with a team from Rome fits thematically, as Rome is the city of the Coliseum, where gladiators used to do battle, and few N.B.A. players embody the idea of basketball as war the way Garnett does.  Chelsea was Garnett’s favorite team before he bought a stake in Roma. Led by Garnett’s friend Didier Drogba, Chelsea upset Bayern Munich, in Munich, on penalty shots to win this year’s Champions League title.  Which brings us to the last team to lose a European final in its home city and stadium on penalty kicks. That would be Roma in 1984, against Liverpool. Maybe James, increasingly soccer savvy, will remind Garnett of that during a bit of trash-talking in Game 4. Or maybe not. But bit by bit, the two sports are crossing over.
LeBron James of the Heat and Kevin Garnett of the Celtics both own interests in European soccer teams: James in Liverpool and Garnett in A.S. Roma.