Michael Jordan Still Has Kobe Bryant’s Last Text Message To Him On His Phone: ‘I Don’t Know Why, But I Just Can’t Delete It’

NBA icon Michael Jordan still has Kobe Bryant‘s last text message to him on his phone. 

Bryant tragically passed away in January 2020. 

“I don’t know why,” Jordan told ESPN in 2021. “But I just can’t delete it.”

Jordan and Bryant are universally recognized as the two best shooting guards in NBA history.

When Bryant was alive, Los Angeles Lakers fans routinely told him that he would beat Jordan one-on-one, a statement Bryant 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 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 and Bryant are two of the greatest 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.”

Jordan and Bryant combined to win 11 championships, eight Finals MVPs, six 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 with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards.

Kobe 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. MJ also won three All-Star Game MVPs. 

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

However, his legacy lives 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.”