It is a well-known fact that Michael Jordan had an unmatched mentality when it came to proving his superiority to other players. There are countless stories about Jordan leaving NBA players speechless after interacting with him. But is there any other player whose mentality is simply too much for others? Yes, you guessed it right; we are talking about Kobe Bryant.
Ever since he entered the NBA, Kobe had the sheer will to surpass others and become the best player in the league. In hopes of doing that, he based his game against none other than Michael Jordan. But things didn’t go well when Kobe faced off against MJ.
In 2003, when the two superstars faced each other, MJ got the win. This led to MJ telling Kobe that, “You could wear the shoes but never fill them.” You can guess what happened next, Kobe made it his life’s mission to defeat Mike the next time the two played against each other.
In a recent podcast, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas revealed further details about this interaction between the two legends.
“I guess during that time Kobe didn’t say anything to anybody. So for like two weeks, they said, ‘Kobe was just mute.’ Like he didn’t talk to his players, didn’t talk to his teammates, just he was like in focus mode. It was straight like practise was just so intense. The players are like, ‘Yo is he mad at us? Did we do something to him?’ And then Phil was like ‘No no no no, Jordan told him, when we played him, you could wear the shoes but can never fill them… And that’s the game where Kobe had like 55 points.”
In response to Kobe being a ‘psycho’ when it came to Jordan, Arenas said, “Yeah he is. Everyone at the top is. You don’t get to the top being normal. You don’t get to the top thinking normal.”
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Yep, that’s the story behind the famous game when Bryant went on a bizarre scoring streak and went on to score 55 points against Mike! Of course, the Lakers ended up getting the win and Kobe got his revenge on Jordan.
Even after almost two decades, this remains one of the greatest Kobe Bryant stories, and thanks to Arenas for revealing it. The former Washington Wizards star has been revealing a lot of things about Mike. For example, he once threw a $10 million cheque after being fired by the Wizards.
So to conclude, both Kobe and MJ were players that you see once in a lifetime. It is quite possible that we will not see any other players like them in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyl8ICTRg6U
