Kobe Bryant is better than Michael Jordan. Not more successful. Hasn't had a bigger economic impact. Hasn't won more MVPs. Hasn't won more titles. But he's a better player.
There are some rappers out there that I listen to, that I'm like: "You are really good but you could be like the Michael Jordan of rap if you applied yourself." There's a lot of people who are better at basketball than Michael Jordan, but Michael Jordan just wanted to be Michael Jordan, more.
He's very knowledgeable. That's the one advantage that I see in Kobe Bryant's career compared to Michael Jordan. Ten years into Kobe Bryant's career, we're seeing a very polished 27-year-old player who's probably got another seven or eight great years ahead of him.
Michael Jordan on his worst day is ten times better than Kobe Bryant on his best day.
When I look back at the people who were most influential in my life, it wasn't Kobe Bryant, it wasn't Michael Jordan, it wasn't Muhammad Ali. It was regular people who do, like, regular jobs in Ames, Iowa, who had impact. My hero was the secretary in the department of music - my mom.
I always wanted to be on the same court as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
I think there's a lot of different ways to win. You've seen teams that win championships with a super-duper star like Kobe Bryant. Those championship teams with Michael Jordan certainly had a great, great player.
My friends, they all say that I'm turning Hollywood. Big-time. And I want to be that. I want to be a guy who's bigger than what they say. You look at Kobe. Michael Jordan. Somebody like Michael Jackson. Those guys are bigger than life. I strive to be that.
Kobe was hell-bent on surpassing Jordan as the greatest player in the game. His obsession with Michael was striking. When we played in Chicago that season, I orchestrated a meeting between the two of them, thinking that Michael might help shift Kobe’s attitude toward selfless teamwork. After they shook hands, the first words out of Kobe’s mouth were, ‘You know I can kick your ass one on one.’
So much has been said about Michael Jordan as a basketball player, but when I played with him, the Michael I knew was just Michael. I guess more than anything is that I got to experience the human side of the so-called gladiators, warriors and heroes that we worship.
I don't want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.
If I would compare anybody to Michael Jordan, it would be Kobe Bryant.
Kobe [Bryant] had the biggest contract for a high school kid. He was the first one to get more than a million a year.
Women are more sensitive, more practical, more intelligent, more balanced, better able to deal with people, better cooks, better parents, better carers, better leaders, and so on and so forth.
I wore the number 24 in high school my freshman, sophomore year because of him. I wore Kobe Bryant basketball shoes because of Kobe Bryant. Every time I laced up my basketball shoes, I felt like I had Kobe Bryant with me. I had a little part of him - I had his jumper, his fadeaway.
As a player, you model yourself after other players. Kobe takes the same approach as Michael Jordan. But I follow someone like Magic Johnson; he showed emotion, he smiled and jumped around, he was happy for his teammates. There needs to be more players like that.