Kobe Bryant entered the NBA straight out of high school in 1996 and it appears the reason he did so was Michael Jordan. Former NBA player John Salley recently appeared on Byron Scott’s Fast Break podcast, where he claimed that Bryant told him the reason he decided against going to college was that he wanted to make sure he played against Jordan.
“I said, ‘Why’d you not go to college?’ and he says, ‘I heard MJ was going to retire.’ And that was his reason for not going to college,” Salley said. “I said, ‘What?’ and he goes. ‘Yeah he was going to retire and I wanted to make sure I played against him. I didn’t want to go to college and miss the opportunity of playing against MJ.’
“And I was like, ‘Okay kid, that’s a good reason for not having a higher education.’ I wish I would have thought of that one,” Salley continued. “(Julius Erving) is retiring I can’t stay at Georgia Tech. But he was serious. He was like, ‘I wanted to play against him.’
“He felt he knew every single thing about him and he felt he had the same mentality,” Salley added. “And Kob did, man.”
Bryant’s mentality certainly was a lot like Jordan’s and it appears he was desperate to test himself against his idol. Had he gone to college and stuck around there for a few years, there was a good chance he wouldn’t get to play against the Chicago Bulls icon.
Bryant’s decision to enter the league straight after his memorable stint at Lower Merion meant he was able to play against Jordan four times when he was on the Bulls. He and the Los Angeles Lakers managed to win two of those games.
Jordan then retired for the second time in 1998 and if we go by what Salley said, Bryant might have patted himself on the back for rushing to the NBA instead of going to college. Just three years later, though, his idol was back in the league and you wonder if he regretted not going to college upon hearing that.
Jordan came out of retirement for the second time in 2001, but this time he was suiting up for the Washington Wizards. He played for the Wizards for two seasons, which meant four more meetings with Bryant. The Lakers got the upper hand in them, winning three of those four contests.
So, Bryant ended up amassing a 5-3 record against Jordan and I’m sure he was quite proud about that. In those eight contests, he averaged 22.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game.
As for Jordan, he put up 24.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in their meetings. It’s a pity we never got to see them face off when they were both at their best, as that would have been a spectacular sight.
Roland Lazenby Revealed Two Other Reasons Why Kobe Bryant Didn’t Go To College
While Bryant’s former teammate Salley claims Jordan was the reason he didn’t go to college, famous sportswriter Roland Lazenby has shared some different ones. Lazenby said two reasons why Bryant didn’t go to college were his parents needing money and Sonny Vaccaro’s actions.
“He [Tex Winter] said that Kobe didn’t go to college. Kobe had very mixed feelings about that. He wanted to go play for Mike Krzyzewski [Coach K] at Duke, but his parents, what people didn’t realize, his parents were badly in need of money.”
“Sonny Vaccaro, who had been fired by Nike mysteriously, was with Adidas and Sonny told me and explained for my book about Kobe, Showboat, that the most clandestine thing he did was they stalked once they realized Kobe was Kobe. Sonny had a vendetta against the NCAA or college basketball and a vendetta against Nike, as he explained it to me. Sonny being of Italian heritage, the vendetta is a big thing. He wanted to steal the next great star from college basketball and from Nike. And so he accomplished that. The spring of Kobe’s senior year in high school, right after he’d finished the season and won a championship, Adidas had a contract for Kobe.”
Well, Bryant isn’t around anymore to tell us exactly why he didn’t go to college. He tragically passed away in a helicopter crash in 2020 and is sorely missed by the basketball world today.
Whatever Bryant’s reasoning might have been not to go to college, the decision certainly didn’t backfire. After being selected with the 13th pick of the 1996 NBA Draft, he won five titles, two Finals MVPs, an MVP, and two scoring titles to go down as one of the all-time greats.
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