“Getting Close To Some Michael Jordan Sh*t”: Kobe Bryant’s Tendencies To ‘Copy’ MJ Had Jelani McCoy And Teammates In Awe

Jelani McCoy had a front row seat to Kobe Bryant’s rise to superstardom. While on the , the former Laker recalled his experience watching Kobe turn Jordanesque during his first three peat in the early 2000s. Talking about Kobe’s effort to replicate , McCoy told his interviewer, Advertisement During the podcast, McCoy revealed that used to play along with narrative but soon proved everyone wrong when the time came, .

Advertisement After winning his first Championship, Kobe added two more (2000, 2001, 2002), completing the first three peat since MJ’s Bulls back in 1998. Loading embed instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/C12UsoBxciO/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading Jelani McCoy would play alongside Kobe during the 2000 2001 season.

During that time, Kobe had just won his first Championship in LA, silencing most of his doubters. But even so, Kobe still carried the tag of being an . However, Kobe credited Jordan for his achievements and said that he would never have won five rings. In fact, during the docuseries ‘The Last Dance’, Kobe even touched on this very topic, telling the interviewer, Advertisement Loading embed tweet https://twitter.com/espn/status/1257114309110444032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw The brotherhood of Kobe and MJ Michael Jordan didn’t have a sibling that quite resembled him, in size or mentality.

But that doesn’t mean Jordan wouldn’t find a little brother, later in his life. Kobe Bryant entered the league, straight from High School during the 1996 97 season. From the jump, Kobe had made it clear that he aimed to be the greatest. Thus, to be the greatest you must learn from the greatest. Though MJ didn’t like revealing his tricks to anyone, he did so for Kobe.

Kobe would often pester Jordan late into the night, sometimes phoning the Jordan residence at 3:00 AM. But this maniacal drive to win is what attracted Michael to Kobe. In Kobe, Michael saw his younger self. During an interview with SportsCenter, back in 2020, Michael Jordan gave Kobe Bryant the ultimate nod.

On being asked about his dream 1v1 list, Jordan took the names of Kobe, Kareem, LeBron, DWade, and many other legends. Jordan proudly confessed that he wouldn’t take a single loss, but also added something else, To be called the only player capable of beating Michael Jordan is quite the accolade. Among all the greats, Kobe has stamped his place on the Mount Rushmore of the basketball.

Though gone too soon, Kobe and his Mamba mentality will always live on in future generations of hoopers. Advertisement.