As Michael Jordan’s career was coming to an end in 2003 for the final time, the basketball community was expecting a 17-year-old coming into the league that very year as The Chosen One to carry forward his legacy.
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The 6ft 9” forward from Akron, Ohio, coming straight out of high school, LeBron James, never asked for any of it. Meanwhile, there was a 24-year-old Kobe Bryant who wanted it all.
A 3x NBA champion while playing second fiddle to Shaquille O’Neal, Bryant was already halfway as good as Jordan was by then but wanted to be him or better.
The young Mamba’s desire and the expectations of The Chosen made them two of the biggest names in the league in the latter half of the 2000s, and naturally, it was everyone’s wish to see the Lakers and Cavaliers clash in the Finals so that they could see the first-ever Kobe vs. LeBron in the Playoffs.
It almost happened if James held his end in the 2008-09 season.
When LeBron James came forward with his regret of not being able to feature in an NBA Final against Kobe Bryant
As good a team as he has had over the years, LeBron James surprisingly led his side to the most victories in the 2008-09 season (66-15). The same year when he won his first of four MVPs and Kobe would his first of two Finals MVPs.
But the recipients of the biggest individual awards didn’t face each other in the Finals that year, despite the entire NBA community rooting for it to happen. James finally addressed it in 2015, the season that would be Bryant’s last year in the NBA.
“I know the world wanted to see it. I wanted it, we wanted it, he held up his end and I didn’t hold up my end, and I hate that. I hate that that didn’t happen,” LeBron said in an interview with ESPN.
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How did a LeBron-Kobe Finals never transpire?
When LeBron James led his side to the first-ever NBA Finals in 2007, Bryant failed to get his side past the first round against Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire led Suns.
The following season, Kobe reached the Finals but James and Co. lost to the eventual Champions, the Boston Celtics in Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, and then again in 2010 ECSF following which Bryant defeated KG and Paul Pierce led Celtics in the Finals.
When Finally the King reached another Finals in 2011, the eventual Champions Dallas Mavericks, led by Dirk Nowitzki, beat Kobe’s Lakers and finally put a full stop to the expectations of the fans.
