Michael Jordan once brought up an awkward topic while enjoying a meal with Kobe Bryant - and it showed just how competitive he was.
Jordan, 62, and Bryant were two of the best players to ever grace the NBA and won a combined 11 championships – Jordan won six while Bryant won five.
Despite the 15-year age difference between the pair, they did still faced each other eight times – namely during the 1998 NBA All-Star game with Bryant boasting five wins against Jordan overall.
There was a mutual respect between the pair, with Bryant even referring to the 62-year-old as his “big brother” in 2019, the year before he passed away.
“He's like my big brother,” Bryant said in an interview used in ESPN’s Last Dance.
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“I truly hate having discussions about who would win one-on-one. Or fans saying you beat Michael one-on-one.
“I feel like, yo, what you get from me is from him. I don’t get five championships here without him. Because he guided me so much and gave me so much great advice.”
After Bryant passed away in 2020, Jordan paid tribute to the former LA Lakers star.
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“When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me died,” Jordan said at a memorial service.
He then revealed that Bryant’s drive to win was something he “loved” about him.
“To me, that’s what I loved about the kid — absolutely loved about the kid,” he added. “No matter where he saw me, it was a challenge.”
“He wanted to be the best basketball player that he could be,” the former Chicago Bulls star explained.
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“As I got to know him, I wanted to be the best big brother that I could be.”
And despite their friendship, both were fierce competitors, and this was apparent when they enjoyed a meal together.
Bryant revealed the controversial thing Jordan brought up at dinner when he spoke on The Jimmy Kimmel Show in 2018.
"He was talking about 'My year in 1991 versus your peak year, I would have kicked you’re a***'," said Bryant.
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"I said, ‘Mike, come on now, enjoy the salad.' We both know that's not gonna happen."
Topics: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, NBA, Basketball
Luke Davies