There may be no superstar that was more forward about modeling his entire game and mentality off of another player than Kobe Bryant, who would happily tell people that his game was molded in the image of Michael Jordan.
Kobe mimicked just about everything Jordan did on the floor, and also was driven by the same insatiable desire to win and be the best. It’s something that Jordan admired about Bryant, calling him a “little brother” during his speech at Kobe’s memorial service earlier this year. Sunday night’s installment of The Last Dance will touch on their relationship, most notably the 1998 All-Star Game when they squared off in Madison Square Garden.
Ahead of that, the Chicago Bulls dug into the archives to give folks a look at their relationship in that 1998 season, with Jordan explaining after a game where cameras caught the two chatting during a free throw that he was giving the young Bryant some advice on how to perfect his patented turnaround jumper.
The teacher and the student.#TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/JM15DNN6yb
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) May 3, 2020
“He wanted to know when I turnaround on my jump shot how I lock the defense and how to feel the defense,” Jordan said. “I told him you should feel the defense with your legs. Once you feel the defense with your legs you more or less can feel where the defense is and you can take advantage of that.”
When asked if he didn’t have a problem sharing “trade secrets” in a game, Jordan said it was part of his duty to pass that on to the next generation
“Not at all. That enhances his basketball skill, and someone did that for me and certainly I’m not against giving him any kind of hints about his game if he asks. I’m certainly not going to come out and try to give him too much information. The kid, he’s learned a lot in the short amount of time he’s been in the league and, believe me, he’s going to continue to learn.”
It’s a cool video to pull from the archives and show how Jordan was willing to share those parts of the game with Kobe, as, while it’s obvious the influence of Jordan on Kobe’s game, a lot of younger fans haven’t necessarily seen that kind of concrete example of how Jordan provided that guidance to him.
