There was a lot of criticism for the young Kobe Bryant who first came into the league in 1996 as the 13th pick, somehow landed in LA, and all of a sudden, wanted to be the next Michael Jordan.
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And even though he was the closest to ever reaching MJ’s level (both game-wise and records/accolades-wise), a certain journalist didn’t like him for anything The Black Mamba did.
For what, you ask? Because Kobe was a ‘bad imitator’ of Jordan.
When Jason Whitlock dared call Kobe Bryant a fraud
Jason Whitlock, who was quite infamous for extensively earning his bread through consistently writing against some targeted players, didn’t leave Kobe’s back even after he retired.
After his 60-point performance in the final game of his 20-year career. Whitlock crossed all the boundaries and blatantly said that he is “the most fraudulent superstar celebrity athlete we have ever seen.”
In his appearance on Colin Cowherd’s The Herd, the former ESPN Columnist criticized Bryant for doing everything MJ did in the worst way and said, “he was not Michael Jordan carrying teams to 5 titles”.
You heard it right. The man did say Pau Gasol and the man whose name he couldn’t even remember were like Shaquille O’Neal combined. Even Shaq of the mid-2000s and Bynum wouldn’t be Shaq’s equivalent. But that’s a discussion for another time.
We can clearly see how, much like love, hate also makes people blind. Forget Skip Bayless, Whitlock was the biggest athlete-hating journalist ever when AI and Kobe were around.
Whitlock had no backup to his claims
The former Fox Sports guy also went on to call Kobe a selfish player whose narcissistic behavior destroyed the Lakers franchise.
Five titles in 20 years? Any team would pick Kobe as the #1 pick in 1996 if they had half the clue what he was going to bring to the table.
If the 18x All-Star was a narcissist, he wouldn’t have played second fiddle to Shaq 3-consecutive years when he himself was playing at an All-Star and All-Defensive First Team level at the time.
He never had problems with O’Neal until the latter started gaining weight drastically and was becoming way more involved in other things compared to what they did primarily, play basketball.
Bryant might have had more obsession with the game than anybody else. But the amount of narcissism he had, much like MJ (or less than him), was just enough to bring the best out of him and his teammates.
If the Bulls legend himself never minded Bryant copying him, why was this man so irritated by it, you ask? We’ve still got to figure that out.
Also read: Michael Jordan Once Humiliated Innocent On-Looker Just For Wearing Kobe Bryant’s Jersey at His Camp
