If there’s one thing Kobe Bryant is known for, it’s his competitive nature. Whether it was through the battles with himself in practice or on court face-offs with other legends, that fire to win was always evident in Bryant’s play. Beyond that fire, there are also the obvious comparisons to Michael Jordan, the player Kobe tried to imitate throughout his whole career.
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A major reason why Bryant doesn’t get put into GOAT debates is because of those similarities. How could he be the greatest of all time when he’s just a worse version of a past player? Kobe would hear those talking points and hoped to respond to them.
While on the Dan Patrick Show, Brendan Haywood, a former player and champion in 2011, detailed how Bryant would be trying to show out against Jordan just to prove a point.
“The good thing for me is, when I first got into the league, I played with MJ,” started Haywood, “so in those games, Kobe would always be trying to prove a point to MJ… Kobe was trying to go off. I think he hit us for like 40 in a half in LA one time. He was trying to let Mike know that he was the next one.”
We all know how Bryant idolized Jordan, as he detailed over and over through the years. As most kids did during the 80s and 90s, Kobe saw MJ get as close as humans could to walking on air and dreamed of doing the same. From turnaround jumpers to backdowns and counters, Bryant trained to be exactly like his hero.
It’s especially funny that Jordan would often not be the primary defender of Kobe, leaving someone else on the hook for the vicious doggedness that can only come from someone trying to prove themselves.
According to Haywood, that guy was Jerry Stackhouse, a great player in his own regard. “I love Stack, but there was nothing he could do to Kobe that night. I mean, he was just on one because you could tell he’s playing against Mike and he wants to let Mike know… almost how Ant Man [Anthony Edwards] wanted to let KD [Kevin Durant] know what was up last year…”
“We’re watching it and we just can’t believe this dude is going off. Jerry Stackhouse is playing excellent defense and Kobe is just in one of those zones.” finished Haywood. “Nothing Stack can do.”
“You can put the shoes on, but you never gonna fill them” – Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant
While no one particularly likes being called out or beaten by someone younger or less experienced than themselves, it brought out a different type of psychopathy in Jordan. After an early matchup between the two shooting guards, Jordan taunted Kobe by telling him, “You can put the shoes on, but you never gonna fill them.”
Whether this was an on-court tactic meant to rile Bryant up is still unclear, but it was certainly motivation for the younger Los Angeles Lakers star. The comment put Kobe into a trance-like state for weeks, intent on destroying his idol-turned-rival.
Months later, when the two faced each other again back in LA, Bryant gave Jordan a 55-point performance and the ultimate serving of karma.
Still, it is true that Kobe never fully filled Jordan’s shoes. One could argue Bryant was only the best player in the world for a year or two in the late 2000s before LeBron James overtook him, and he was always far closer to his rivals than Jordan was to his from a standard of play.
However, when it comes down to it, few players were as insane and obsessive as Kobe, who would’ve done anything if he knew it would give him an advantage on the court.
