Michael Jordan Still Gets Emotional Whenever He’s Asked To Talk About Kobe Bryant: ‘He Was Just So Happy, He Was Doing So Well’

NBA legend Michael Jordan still gets emotional whenever he’s asked to talk about Kobe Bryant. 

Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash in January 2020. 

“He was just so happy,” Jordan told ESPN. “He was doing so well.”

Jordan and Bryant are two of the best players and scorers in NBA history.

Jordan cried while speaking at Bryant’s public memorial in Los Angeles in 2020. He said he lost his “little brother.”

When Bryant was alive, Los Angeles Lakers fans always told him that he would beat Jordan one-on-one, a messageBryant didn’t like hearing. 

“I truly hate having discussions about who would win one-on-one,” Bryant said in Episode 5 of The Last Dance doc. “And fans saying, ‘Kobe, you’d beat Michael one-on-one.’ And I feel like, ‘Yo, what you get from me is from him.’ I don’t get five championships here without him ’cause he guided me so much and he gave me so much great advice.”

Jordan and Bryant combined to win 11 championships, eight Finals MVPs, six regular-season MVPs and 12 scoring titles.

Bryant is fourth in NBA history in points, while Jordan is fifth. 

Bryant averaged 25.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.5 blocks in 1,346 games with the Lakers, while Jordan averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks in 1,072 games with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards.

Bryant was an 18-time All-Star, a five-time champion, a four-time All-Star Game MVP, a two-time Finals MVP, a two-time scoring champion, a 15-time All-NBA Team member, a 12-time All-Defensive Team member and the 2007-08 MVP.

Meanwhile, Jordan won five MVPs, 10 scoring titles, three steals titles, six championships and six Finals MVPs with the Bulls. He made 14 All-Star teams, 11 All-NBA teams and nine All-NBA Defensive teams.

Jordan also won three All-Star Game MVPs. 

“His style of play was identical to mine,” Jordan said. “He stayed true to his course, and I respect that. … He was a mentally tough kid, maybe even tougher than I was. Remember, the people who followed me, my fans, didn’t like that he was trying to copy what I had done.”

The basketball world will never be the same with Bryant gone.

However, his legacy will certainly live on forever. 

“In some ways, Kobe was self-made,” Jordan said. “People forget that. He was an 18-year-old kid that made himself into one of the best. To me, it was all from hard work and dedication. All the effort he put forth. He should be a great role model for a lot of kids who at 18 may not want to go to college, that may want to play basketball somewhere. He showed them how. And he sat on the bench for a long time before he got his chance. People forget that, too. But when he got his shot, he took advantage of it.”