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While most players would’ve been dreading their first ever encounter with the great Michael Jordan, a then-18-year-old Kobe Bryant came in brimming with confidence and actually believed he could “destroy” Jordan.
But as he retold the story of his first matchup with Jordan on UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma’s podcast, Holding Court, Kobe maybe had a bit too much confidence in his own abilities at that time.
Article Continues Below“I was thinking in my mind, I didn’t care. I’m going to destroy this guy. I don’t care if I’m 18, I’m coming for blood.
And the first thing he did, they ran a fifth-down sequence in the triangle. He caught the ball in the corner and he made his little pirouette spin that he does and sneaks baseline. I fell for it, and he went by me and dunked it.
I remember just laughing to myself all the way up the court. I’ve seen that move thousands of times and I can’t believe I just fell for it.”
Bryant is famous for being one of the most competitive and outwardly confident players ever on the level of Jordan himself, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that even a teenage Bryant would believe he would be able to destroy His Airness. As immensely talented as Bryant was at that age, though, he still wasn't nearly good enough to take on GOAT.
But what made Bryant so great was that apart from his borderline irrational self-belief, he was also a maniacally hard worker who put the time in to learn and get better from his mistakes. He obviously learned from the errors he made during his first meeting with MJ and went on to have an outstanding Hall of Fame career.
