Episode 5 of ESPN's hit docu-series “The Last Dance” led with a feature on the late, great Kobe Bryant. The narrative featured around how a 19-year-old Kobe tried to take on Michael Jordan in the 1998 All-Star Game.

NBA legend Jason Kidd was part of that epic contest, and he told the story of how he saw Bryant waive off none other than Karl Malone, as Kobe did all he could to prove that he was at the same level as MJ.

“The biggest thing that stood out was Kobe was going to go after Michael, and he wasn't scared,” Kidd said on a recent appearance on ESPN's “Hoop Streams,” via Sabreena Merchant of Silver Screen & Roll. “One of the plays that I will never forget, and you can ask Karl Malone about it someday, is that he asked for a pick-and-roll and Kobe waved him off, and I think we were all in awe or shock. That’s Karl Malone, pick-and-roll with John Stockton, they’ve done it a million times, so Kobe and Karl. And Kobe was like, ‘no no no I got this all by myself’, and he waved Karl out and he did his thing. And I think Karl was like, ‘okay I need to come out of the game because this has passed me now.’

“For you to just have the nerve to wave Karl off, even if he wasn’t the MVP, just because of his muscles, you had to be different. And so on the bench we were all in tears and laughing and giving Karl a hard time about ‘you must have not set a good screen.’ But it just showed Kobe’s determination to be the best, and he wanted to be the next Michael Jordan if not better. He wanted that one-on-one challenge, and he didn’t feel like he needed Karl’s help at the time.”

First of all, that was hilarious. We can only imagine Malone being incensed with what has just transpired. Secondly, for good measure, here is the clip of the aforementioned incident:

As Kidd explained above, this just proved how hungry Bryant was at that time. He had a point to prove, and he would do it at any cost necessary.