It might be the most tiresome and categorically useless debate in sports history, but Michael Jordan comparisons are nothing if not ubiquitous. Even before he retired the world was anxious to anoint the second coming, whether it was Harold Minor, Grant Hill, Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James.
But of the would-be heirs, nobody has come closer in terms of the sheer accuracy and comprehensiveness of his mimicry than Kobe Bryant. Kobe himself admitted as much. He spent the bulk of his childhood examining His Airness under a microscope and compulsively emulating his every move, the mannerisms, the body language, the nonverbal ticks, all the subtleties and nuances of his game: the iconic fade-away jumper, the footwork, the gait and posture, the swagger, the beautiful reverse layups, ad infinitum.
The result has been a living, breathing, flesh-and-blood facsimile of a player who was once considered inimitable. Even Kobe’s career trajectory has so closely mirrored that of his muse that it’s downright eerie sometimes. The startling similarities between the two have been rendered visually in two previous installments of the “Kobe Bryant vs. Michael Jordan Identical Plays” series courtesy of YouTube user Youssef Hannoun, who just released the third, and according him, final video Wednesday. Enjoy.
(via Youssef Hannoun)
