In advance of Sunday’s debut of Episodes 5 and 6 of “The Last Dance” on ESPN, J.A. Adande joined Tom Haberstroh on “The Habershow” podcast to talk about the unique relationship between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
Adande may be the luckiest contemporary basketball writer in the world, having a front-row seat Jordan and the Bulls as a writer for the Chicago Sun Times and the Washington Post, and to Bryant and the Lakers as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
Covering MJ early in his career, Adande said that younger players would often ask him about Jordan. But Kobe was one player who taught him about what Jordan was like, not only as a player, but as a mentor.
“One thing that sticks with me is he talked about how Michael told him at that ‘98 All-Star Game, he said, ‘Don't forget to stay aggressive,’” Adande said. “And Kobe said, initially he was like, ‘What do you mean stay aggressive? Of course I’m gonna stay aggressive.’”
“Kobe was almost insulted that Michael felt the need to tell him that. Then as the second half of the season went on, and, you know, it’s your third game in five days in three cities and all of that stuff that comes with the NBA, and you’re just dragging yourself to the arena. Kobe realized this is what he’s talking about; that you have to find a way even in these situations to stay aggressive. He was like, ‘Now I get it.’ So it was kinda cool. He took me through a learning process through Michael, and how even he doubted some of the things that Michael had to say, and that he came to realize the wisdom of that.”
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Adande described how he sometimes relayed kind words between the two superstars. In one instance, Bryant even allowed himself to be compared to Jordan — something he typically shied away from.
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“So when Kobe had that run, he was scoring 40 points for whatever consecutive games, Michael’s playing with the Wizards,” Adande said on the podcast. “I happened to be on the East Coast, and I go and I talk to Michael about it.”
“Michael says, ‘You know what, I’m starting to see in Kobe what I had, and that’s that desire to separate from the other players. People were comparing me to Clyde Drexler or whoever the players of my era was, and I wanted to show that I was above them. And now Kobe is showing that desire that you’re not gonna speak about the Tracy McGradys and the Vince Carters (probably LeBron even at that point). He wants to separate himself from all those guys, Iverson, too.’ And that’s really what he’s seeing. And I relayed that to Kobe and he was really pleased, and it was the one time when I heard him compare himself to Michael.”
“Everyone else made that comparison all the time. Kobe was reluctant to do so.”
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