Michael, LeBron and Kobe

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BEIJING -- Dream believer.

The Dream Team wanted to meet one Michael Phelps. He wanted to meet the Dream Team. To call him the Dream Swimmer after one gold medal might be a tad presumptuous. Maybe it merits worth waiting until he has seven or eight.

You always wonder how famous people meet one another. But this was quite easy, apparently. Phelps ended up chatting with some of the American basketball players in the athletes’ village last week.

‘It was cool,’ he said Sunday night. ‘We were in the village maybe two days before we started competing, LeBron, Kobe, D-Wade. The names were endless. They were all there. It was pretty cool.

‘I’ve talked to LeBron a few times, and it’s pretty cool those guys are excited to meet us. Our whole team was extremely fired up. I actually got a text from one of my friends. One of the coaches on the basketball team texted me and said LeBron was fired up after my morning swim.’

And what did Kobe say?

‘He just said, ‘Good luck,’ ‘ Phelps said.

And it was like an ESPN commercial coming to life.

-- Lisa Dillman

Kay Nietfeld / EPA