NBA legend Michael Jordan still has NBA icon Kobe Bryant‘s final text message to him on his cell phone.
Bryant tragically passed away in January 2020 in a helicopter crash.
“I don’t know why,” Jordan told ESPN. “But I just can’t delete it.”
Jordan and Bryant are universally recognized as the two best shooting guards in NBA history.
Jordan and Bryant combined to win 11 championships, eight Finals MVPs, six MVPs and 12 scoring titles.
Jordan averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, while Bryant averaged 25.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.5 blocks with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“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.”
When Bryant was alive, Lakers fans told him that he would beat Jordan one-on-one, a comment Bryant didn’t enjoy hearing.
“I truly hate having discussions about who would win one-on-one,” Bryant said in Episode 5 of The Last Dance docuseries. “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 cried while speaking at Bryant’s public memorial in Los Angeles in 2020. He said he lost his “little brother.”
I was thinking, at first, I might be a little somewhat nervous about it, but then I realized I’m not going to be nervous about showing emotions for someone I absolutely loved,” Jordan said. “That’s the humanistic side of me — people tend to forget I do have one.”
Bryant is fourth in NBA history in points, while Jordan is fifth. The two basketball giants were magical to watch.
Jordan won three All-Star Game MVPs, five MVPs, 10 scoring titles, three steals titles, six championships and six Finals MVPs during his career. He made 14 All-Star teams, 11 All-NBA teams and nine All-NBA Defensive teams.
Meanwhile, 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.
“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.”
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