Phil Jackson, who trained both Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, found Mamba’s selfishness and ball-hogging infuriating.
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The start of Kobe Bryant’s career wasn’t exceptional. Though a brilliant athlete, the young Laker lacked professional experience. It showed in the way he approached the game. However, that quickly changed. He grew into a formidable scorer. His iso game was on a whole different level.
But with this improvement, Kobe became rather selfish. His chemistry with the team suffered. The team questioned his motives and Phil Jackson took note of it.
But mamba wasn’t too receptive to the comments. He refused to play the triangle and kept hogging the ball. his infuriated Jackson. Jeff Pearlman wrote about this in detail in his book.
Phil Jackson lashed out at Kobe Bryant
Phil had trained both Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant at their peak. This meant that the coach had undeniable insight into their work ethic and psyche.
Phil Jackson publicly stated that he found Michael Jordan more receptive and coachable. He appreciated how Jordan was a great player but at the same time, he listened to criticism and implemented the right steps to tackle his shortcomings.
But Kobe Bryant wasn’t like MJ. He wasn’t as open to feedback. In fact, Phil believed that Kobe was a juvenile narcissist. He even claimed that Bryant wrongfully believed that Lakers were his team.
In the Three Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty, the author wrote what Phil felt about Kobe’s selfishness. The legendary head coach minced no words in his judgment on Bryant’s failings.
Jackson: “I did a lot of studying about juvenile narcissism, and juvenile narcissists are the worst because they think they only deserve the best. They want to be the leaders. They don’t accept counseling or advice. You can’t criticize them. Kobe [Bryant] was a juvenile narcissist.”
Phil described setting up a meeting between Michael Jordan and Black Mamba
Phil was troubled by Kobe’s refusal to follow instructions that he set up a hush-hush meeting between MJ and the young Laker. He detailed in the book what happened when Kobe entered the room.
Phil claimed that the first thing he told Michael was how he would win a one-on-one. Jordan agreed with Bryant and reminded the young star of the gap in their ages. Bryant was 22 and MJ was 26 back then. Jackson found the question weird.
Perhaps Jackson was too set in his ways to see who Bryant was. The way he played with the Olympic team in 2008 clearly showed Bryant could work really well in a group.
Maybe that’s exactly what he did once he came back to coach the gold and purple and won two more championships with the same young talent he had hated years ago. And to set matters straight, it was definitely Kobe Bryant’s team in 2009 and 2010.
