Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant shared an extremely close relationship. Kobe entered the league during the final years of Michael Jordan’s career. And Jordan became a mentor and a big brother for Kobe over the years, as they got closer and closer as time went on.
Jordan would give Kobe advice whenever he asked for it, and also had insightful conversations with him whenever they hung out together. But Kobe also knew how competitive Jordan was during his career, and that competitive nature came out during their conversations together.
In an appearance on the ‘All The Smoke’ podcast, Matt Barnes asked Kobe Bryant if he had secret conversations with Jordan without cameras. Bryant revealed that Jordan would try and compete for everything, and even wondered who would win between himself in 1991 or Kobe in 1993, before telling Kobe he would destroy him, and then Kobe would remind Jordan who he was talking to.
“I mean will compete with any and everything. I won’t. I’ll only compete with things that I’m really am good at. He’ll talk basketball all day long, nonstop, and compare ‘well, what would have happened if… my ‘91 against your ’03?’ and La La La… What he started the conversation with as, ‘Well I would have destroyed you’. I just said ‘Listen, just remember who you’re talking to’. And he just stared laughing and he was like, ‘I’m just messing with you’. And then we kind of just moved on. But it would have been fun.”
Jordan and Kobe were clearly very close. In fact, Kobe also shared a similar experience with MJ during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show. The duo were both known for their competitive streaks, so them getting competitive over hypothetical situations is not surprising at all.
Jordan also spoke about not being able to delete Kobe Bryant’s old texts and his phone number, noting that he just can’t seem to bring himself to it. Clearly, the passing of Kobe has had a massive effect on MJ, and he has not gotten over the grief of that loss.
