It’s Kobe Week across the NBA, and on Monday night, it’ll culminate in his highly-anticipated jersey retirement ceremony at Staples Center during halftime of the Lakers game against the Golden State Warriors.
The league announced earlier in the day that they’d extend the normal halftime period from 15 minutes to 21 minutes to allow more time for the festivities, but that’s obviously wishful thinking given Kobe’s legacy as perhaps the greatest Laker of all-time and all the pomp and circumstance that will surely accompany the event.
Nike has already gotten in on the fun by resurrecting the once-wildly-popular Kobe and LeBron puppet commercials, which is just one small portion of the merchandising extravaganza they’ve brought to bear for this milestone.
Naturally, it’s also an opportunity to for Kobe’s peers and cohorts to reminisce about his legacy and his place in the pantheon, and Steve Kerr brought some firsthand perspective to the age-old Kobe-MJ comparisons during shoot-around.
Steve Kerr on the similarities between Kobe and MJ pic.twitter.com/ld4JiEkVaB
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 18, 2017
“Kobe is the closest thing to Michael,” Kerr said. “Everybody has been compared to Michael. LeBron has been compared to Michael. I don’t think LeBron is Michael at all. I think he’s a very different player, different mentality, mindset than MJ had. Kobe has the same mindset and mentality that MJ had. The assassin, the ‘I’m gonna rip your throat out with my scoring,’ low-post dominant, fade-away jumper, footwork. I thought Kobe’s footwork was one of the best parts of his game, probably the most underrated because everybody focused on his shooting and his athleticism. But his footwork got him open. That’s where he was so similar to Michael.”
It isn’t a particularly fresh take, but it obviously means more coming from a guy who both played alongside Michael Jordan and against Kobe Bryant during his career. The commonalities in their respective footwork is a particularly astute assessment of their similarities.
Additionally, it bears mentioning that Kerr isn’t necessarily saying Kobe Bryant is a better player than LeBron James, which is often the sticking point in these conversations. All that aside, it’ll be an indelible night in Laker-land as fans will get to honor not only one of their franchise’s greatest stars, but one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
