Kobe Bryant always wanted to be like Mike and when he faced him as an 18-year-old come game time, he was never star-struck
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Unlike LeBron James who came 7 years after him, late NBA great Kobe Bryant, never strike most as ‘The Chosen One’ before coming into the league in 1996.
Having the advantage of not living up to the expectations of being a GOAT, the 18-year-old came in as the 13th pick of one of the best Drafts of all time working to his advantage to follow the footsteps of his idol, Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
He found himself in the Lakers team led by Shaquille O’Neal and countless veterans in a team which was looking to compete for a championship and didn’t see him as a guard who could start over Eddie Jones or Nick Van Exel.
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It didn’t take them more than a year to realize it though, and by year three Bryant was the starting shooting guard of one of the best teams in the NBA ready to achieve what even his idol hadn’t at that age.
A young Kobe Bryant was looking better than Michael Jordan even to Clyde Drexler
With all his physical similarities and mimicking Jordan’s style of play, 6’6 Bryant somehow did the 6x Champ better when the help of Shaquille O’Neal. And it was clearly predicted by one of MJ’s casualties, Clyde Drexler, in Bryant’s second year.
At 22 years of age and in his 4th year in the league Kobe alongside Shaq started winning championships for the Lakers one after another which Jordan had done after he turned 27 and was in his seventh year in the league.
So, definitely, his successor came into the league while he was still around playing in the league, and even got a better start to his career than His Airness. The future 18x All-Star had had his three-peat when he was 25, still two years younger than when MJ won his first title.
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But his back and forth with O’Neal, who was a 3x Finals MVP while winning those three championships, led to the team breaking up. It then took Kobe 7 years to win his 4th and 5th.
In his 20-year career, five more than MJ, Kobe couldn’t complete his trophy cabinet with six championships like Jordan, however, the 18x All-Star caught up to him or even surpassed him in most other career accomplishments.
