Kobe Bryant is without a doubt one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. He may not be the GOAT, but it's hard to deny that the fallen Los Angeles Lakers icon has to be in the conversation in one way or another.
Former Lakers teammate Shaquille O'Neal, who himself is an all-time great, recently spoke out about how Kobe was motivated by none other than the GOAT himself, Michael Jordan. According to Shaq, Bryant just had to do everything in his power to try and one-up his idol:
“Kobe emulated his game after Mike,” Shaq said. “And every time Mike scored he knew he had to score. That’s what you do when you go against a great player, aka your idol.”
O'Neal made this revelation on the newly-dropped trailer of NBA 2K23's revamped Michael Jordan Challenge feature. It sounds epic and I'm pretty sure MJ fans everywhere will be doing what they can to get their hands on this year's iteration of the highly-popular game as soon as humanly possible.
As for Kobe, it is clear that he had MJ in his sights during their time in the NBA. Kobe Bryant knew how special Jordan was and the impact his legacy had on the game. In his own quest for glory, the Lakers legend always considered Jordan to be the barometer of his success.
Unfortunately, we never got to see prime Kobe vs. prime MJ in the NBA. Jordan was already in the twilight of his career when Bryant reached true superstardom. Nevertheless, there's no denying that Kobe still continued to take inspiration from MJ long after the Chicago Bulls great called time on his NBA tenure.
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