Most pundits and NBA specialists believe Kobe Bryant modeled his game after Michael Jordan. Bryant and Jordan, though contemporaries who faced off against each other, shared a special bond. A bond built by a similar style of play.
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Kobe acknowledged Jordan’s influence on his game and claimed he studied Jordan’s moves and tried to incorporate them into his own game. In fact, Michael and his teammates too saw the awful likeness. The fierceness and competitiveness showed not just a similarity in skills but perhaps also in their mindset.
Both Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan wanted to be the greatest. While Jordan already was, Kobe was hell-bent on snatching his idol’s throne. But Jordan wasn’t so easy to beat. Especially because during his career he had no intention of letting the Black Mamba usurp his throne.
Michael Jordan shrugged Kobe Bryant’s advances at his throne
Roland Lazenby, in his book Michael Jordan: The Life, pointed out various players began to imitate MJ after his success. However, none came as close as Bryant did. Lazenby wrote how even Ron Harper and Michael Jordan knew about this. They even had a discussion about it.
Lazenby wrote: “How would Bryant do matched up against Jordan? At the least, the question temporarily distracted the Bulls from their anxiety over Krause, Pippen, Jordan, and Jackson. His Airness drove the Bulls to a big lead in the first quarter that night, providing ample time in the second half for a Jordan-Bryant showdown. “Michael loves this stuff,” Ron Harper said of the meeting between the two. “[Bryant] is a very young player who someday may take his throne, but I don’t think Michael’s ready to give up his throne yet. He came out to show everybody that he’s Air Jordan still.”
Jordan and Kobe went after each other in 1997
In their first matchup of 1997, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan put on a show for the world. MJ and the ‘Jordan imitator’ battled out to see who was a better player.
In that game, Jordan dropped 36 points on the Shaquille O’Neal-less Lakers. Bryant responded with similar intent. He dropped 33 points against the Bulls. In all his future matchups against Jordan, Kobe only scored more than 33 points in his last game against his idol.
