Michael Jordan once gave advice to a young Kobe Bryant during a game in 1997

Michael Jordan once gave advice to a young Kobe Bryant during a game in 1997.

Jordan is widely considered to be the greatest NBA player in history, having inspired the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships and transformed basketball’s status globally in the Nineties.

While a fierce competitor, a video from 1997 has emerged of Jordan giving advice to his opponent, Bryant, during a game.

On the incident, Jordan said at the time: “He asked me one question. We’d been down at half-court. He wanted to know how, when I turn around on my jump shot, he to unlock the defence or how to get a feel of the defence.

“I told him you should feel the defence with your legs. Once you feel the defence with your legs you’ve more or less got a feel of where the defence is and you can take advantage of that.”

When asked if he had a problem giving away advice during a game, Jordan replied: “Not at all. That enhances his basketball skills. Someone did that for me, and truly I’m not against giving him any kind of tips about his game. I’m not going to try to give him too much information.

“The kid has learnt a lot in the short time he’s been in the league and believe me he’s going to continue to learn.”

Of course, it was not the first time Jordan would impart wisdom to Bryant.

“Michael gave me some really good advice after the ‘08 Finals: ‘You got all the tools. You gotta figure out how to get these guys to that next level to win that championship.’” Bryant said to Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck.

“Going into the 2010 series, I said, ‘Listen, Boston, they got Ray Allen, they got Paul Pierce, they got [Kevin] Garnett, they got Sheed [Wallace], the talent is there. They’re stacked.’ That was the first superteam. [Michael] kind of heard me lament about it, and he just goes, ‘Yeah, well, it is what it is; you gotta figure it out. There’s no other alternative.’”