FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Sometimes sports make evolutionary steps forward, and you might have watched one begin Friday night as Lionel Messi started his first MLS playoffs at Chase Stadium. Or maybe you simply watched the Messi-centric filter on TikTok.

However you prefer him, as international sports icon or dedicated social-media star, Messi is available to you.

There always was a joint ambition, futbol and business, to Messi joining Inter Miami. The 2-1 win against Atlanta in the opening game of their best-of-three, first-round series was just the start of what’s necessary to complete the dual ideas in the coming weeks.

Messi is more than Shaquille O’Neal coming to the Miami Heat in 2005 in that respect. He’s even more than LeBron James coming to the Heat in 2010. Messi comes with the burden of delivering a title to ratify the whole Messi Experience of coming to America.

“This is vital for the club’s growth,’’ he said of winning the championship before Friday’s game on Apple TV. “We knew that.”

His Inter Miami salary of $20.44 million — more than 22 MLS teams’ payrolls — isn’t just for soccer, of course. That was evident by the TikTok venture, the “Bad Bunny & Messi” ads that popped up on the sideboard signage or simply the thousands of Messi jerseys in Friday’s stand that multiply his pay.

The only other league so built around one player is the WNBA with Caitlin Clark. Where she played, sellouts happened. When she was knocked out of the playoffs, so was half the TV audience. It’s similar for the MLS and Messi — and so league and Apple TV executives had to be restless with a 1-1 game at halftime.

“The last 10 minutes of the first half, we lost control of the game,’’ Inter Miami coach Tata Martino said.

Everyone relaxed a bit when Messi’s pass and Jordi Alba’s rocket shot early in the second half gave Inter Miami the space they needed.

He’s delivered in plenty of ways since arriving last season. But age is a concern. He was a part-time player for Inter Miami this year, missing 10 weeks between playing for Argentina and getting injured in the Copa America. That translated to playing 19 of Inter Miami’s 34 games.

He still had 20 goals and 16 assists in those games — nearly two points a game. He tied second with teammates Luis Suarez among MLS goal scorers. (DC United’s Christian Benteke led the league with 23 goals in 30 games.)

Messi entered Friday on the kind of heater that defines what he can still do. He had two hat tricks in five days last week: the first with Argentina against Bolivia; the second in 11 minutes of Inter Miami’s regular-season finale against New England.

That didn’t prevent Friday from being a night of almosts for him. Messi’s upper-corner shot early on was stopped by a diving Atlanta goalie Brad Guzan. Messi then hit the post with a shot from the side. His direct kick from striking range fired just wide of the net.

Midway through the second half, his rebound slammed into Guzan’s outstretched left knee, then deflected off the goalie’s right heel just wide of the post. See how it went, one close call after another closer one?

He went in alone, in tight quarters, on Guzan in the final minutes and couldn’t push the ball home. He put his hands to his face in disbelief. Or frustration. Or whatever emotion comes to him when things don’t follow his script.

Atlanta stayed in the game because of Guzan’s play. But this playoff series should be Inter Miami’s appetizer. It didn’t just have the best record in the league this year. There’s also the unparalleled money spent on Messi and his Barcelona teammates.

Inter Miami’s $41 million payroll is double every team but Toronto ($31.8 million). So, they’re not just the Los Angeles Dodgers of the MLS throwing around money. They’re the Yankees and Dodgers combined.

Friday was the first step for Inter Miami, the necessary one toward Messi completing his deal. He has to win this title to confirm what this whole experience was about.

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