“Wanted to Go to Carolina”: Kobe Bryant Actually Wanted to Play For Michael Jordan’s College, Reveals Vince Carter

It’s long been believed that Kobe Bryant, who famously skipped college to go straight to the NBA, would have joined the Duke Blue Devils if he had decided to follow the more traditional path to the league. Kobe has spoken many times on his love and admiration for Coach K, and he did eventually get to play for him in the Olympics as a member of Team USA. As Vince Carter told ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on The Hoop Collective though, Kobe actually wanted to go to UNC.

Carter referred to an old interview Kobe gave, in which the Lakers great said he wanted to be a Tar Heel.

“One thing he said is if he was going to college, he wanted to go to Carolina to play against me. Because Kobe and I played AAU together, so he knew who I was and how I played, and that was a barometer that he wanted. He said, ‘I want to go to Carolina to play against him every day.'”

Carter recounted a story of how he once played through a broken wrist in an AAU tournament, and that motivated the famously competitive Kobe to want to take a crack at him.

Windhorst agreed, saying that although Rob Pelinka, the Lakers’ current GM and Kobe’s agent at the time, had a lot of Duke players as clients, Kobe always struck him as more of a Carolina guy than a Duke guy.

Kobe was known for wanting to emulate Michael Jordan in every way, from his competitive nature to his shooting form and even his mannerisms on the court. It would only make sense, then, that he’d also want to follow in MJ’s footsteps and go to Chapel Hill.

Carter and Kobe didn’t get to play together in college, but they did battle it out in the NBA many times

Kobe did get his wish in the NBA, as he played against Carter 31 times over the course of their careers. Kobe got the best of those matchups, as his team went 20-11, and he averaged 23.6 points per game compared to Carter’s 16.0.

In 2023, Carter spoke about the rivalry, saying that he and Kobe once got chippy with each other during a game, and their relationship was never quite the same after that, as they barely acknowledged each other before games:

“It was kind of a quick dap, if that, and it was just like, ‘I’m trying to kill you,’ and he felt the same, but it never spilled outside of that.”

Kobe and Vince’s best head-to-head duel occurred in 2000, when the Lakers beat the Raptors in overtime. Bryant scored 40 points and added 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks while Carter scored 31 of his own with 12 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 blocks.

Kobe is a player whose stature has only grown since the world lost him. Looking back on his classic games and imagining what it would have been like if he had played for Carolina or Duke may be wishful thinking, but there’s no doubt that it would have been a college basketball fan’s dream.