The NBA set new standards in 1996. After 12 years of watching a Chicago Bulls player contort in the air and execute plays never seen before, another household name appeared: Kobe Bryant (throw in Allen Iverson).
It was still Michael Jordan 's league because he was still "MJ"—the basketball assassin, sports' greatest winner, and the chosen one. Aside from his impressive resume and overall impact on the game, Jordan shattered his peers' most deeply held beliefs. While everyone admired him, Bryant couldn't understand why guys feared him, despite the fact that he was only 17 years old and had never played college basketball.
"Listen, man, sometimes you get some players that are cut from the same cloth," Bryant said in 2014. "Even at 17 years old, I was not afraid of anybody. He and I are very similar that way. We'll challenge anybody. We're a rare breed in that regard."
Suppose some kid who was eating at a school cafeteria just months earlier wasn't intimidated by the best athlete in the world. Why was the majority of the NBA? Perhaps the better question is why a teenager was not fazed by the man at the mountaintop of the sport he loved. Did he appreciate and admire MJ? Yes. Fear? Not a chance.
"When I first came into the league, Michael was terrifying to everybody," he said . "Everybody was really afraid of the guy. Like really, deathly afraid of him. I never really understood that, and I was the one that was willing to challenge and learn from him and wasn't afraid to call him and ask him questions. He was really open and spoke to me a lot and helped me a lot."
The first meeting
It turns out the young No. 8 didn't get to really show his true colors when he met a 33-year-old Jordan 8 days before Christmas in 1996. No. 23 tallied 30 points on the night, although he was a tad fidgety with his shot — converting just 10 of his 32 attempts. The game's true star was Scottie Pippen, who posted 35 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists.
Meanwhile, the recent high school graduate played just 9:48 minutes and recorded 5 points. His main job was to learn from star guard Nick Van Exel, whose 36 points upstaged the championship-winning Bulls duo.
For Bryant, he was reserved but highly receptive. He didn't play much — he wouldn't play much the entire season. But the forcefield around him was big enough to convince you that a few added steps would take him to the level.
"It may be four years from now until he fully develops," legendary announcer Sony Hill said in Oct. 1996. But I can tell you that he will be everything everyone expects him to be. He still needs some nurturing, but Kobe has all worlds open to him."
Chasing Jordan
While he would never openly admit it, you didn't need to be a genius to figure that Bryant put his body on the line to reach Jordan status, mainly as he worked his way up to in the NBA. On the other hand, being 'like Mike' wasn't solely Kobe-created; it was the pressure of the outside world to author a legacy large enough to at least escape the shadow of the Bulls legend.
"I wanted eventually to be one of the best players in the league," the Lakers legend remarked, according to the book "The Show: The Inside Story of the Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers." "I just didn't know that other people would urge me to be that right away. Everybody was expecting me to be the next Michael."
The pressure fueled the young star—it never broke him. The noise pushed him to the brink, but it became something he enjoyed later. After a while, it became his symbol and what people most remember him for. Many will argue that Michael Jordan (indirectly) helped and hurt his career.
That 'ghost' in Chicago was next to impossible to reach; comparing the two was effectively a cash grab—good for theater and storylines. But that endless chase combusted into 20 years of sustained excellence for the man who wore No. 8 for one half of his career and No. 24 for the other half.
"Even Jordan has said that Kobe is the only player who can be compared to him, and I have to agree," Hall of Fame head coach Phil Jackson wrote in his book "Eleven Rings."
Related: How Vince Carter motivated Kobe Bryant in HS - "He was the number one shooting guard in that class, and I was coming up behind him"
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