Kobe Bryant was never lacking in confidence when it came to his basketball abilities and Tracy McGrady revealed he thought he was better than Michael Jordan. In the first episode of Kobe: The Making of a Legend, McGrady revealed Bryant felt Jordan had nothing on him.
“He didn’t give a s*** what they thought,” McGrady said. “He didn’t care. He’s about this basketball, about his craft, like he’s real serious about this. And all the time, I used to hear, ‘I am better than Michael Jordan. Like he used to say that, faithfully, ‘I’m better than Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan ain’t got nothing on me.’ I was like, this dude is insane.”
No one should be all too surprised by this. Bryant idolized Jordan and modeled his game after him, but all that admiration wouldn’t have stopped him from believing he was better. That was the kind of mindset he had and that boundless confidence of his played a part in him going down as one of the greatest players of all time.
Bryant won five NBA titles, two Finals MVPs, an MVP, and two scoring titles in his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. He also made 18 All-Star teams, 15 All-NBA teams, and 12 All-Defensive teams. That’s a spectacular resume, but it’s not quite as good as his idol’s.
Jordan won six NBA titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, a DPOY, and 10 scoring titles in 15 seasons. He made 14 All-Star teams, 11 All-NBA teams, and nine All-Defensive teams in those 15 years.
Jordan won more titles and major individual accolades than Bryant and it’s why he’s widely regarded as the better player. There’s really no argument in Kobe’s favor but that never stopped him from believing he was better. Lamar Odom once shared a story of Bryant calling himself better than Jordan on the Lakers team bus.
“We were on the bus one night, I think this is after he hit a game-winner against Milwaukee. My n***a comes on the bus and says in front of me and (Derek Fisher), ‘Yo, I’m better than Mike’. I was like, ‘You’re better than Mike? That’s how you feeling?'”
This happened in 2009 when Bryant had won four titles but he started believing he could get the better of his idol long before. Phil Jackson revealed that a young Kobe told Jordan to his face that he’d beat him 1-on-1. Jordan thought he could lose, as he was 37 while Kobe was 22.
It would have been fascinating to see Jordan and Bryant face off in their primes. Their games were so similar and with how competitive they were, they’d have tried to tear each other’s heads off.
We only ever got to see Jordan and Bryant face-off eight times, with the latter winning on five occasions. Bryant gave Jordan quite the send-off in their final meeting, scoring 55 points in a 108-94 win for the Lakers.
While Kobe appears to have told his teammates and friends that he was better than Jordan, he never said it publicly. Perhaps that was just him being respectful toward his idol, which is commendable.
As for this Bryant documentary, it is a three-parter. Part two will drop on Feb. 1 at 9 PM ET and part three will air on Feb. 8 at the same time.
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