Getty Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan talk during a free-throw attempt.
Many who are basketball superfans have asked to very important questions that have become daily topics of televsion, internet and print debates.
Are you ready for it?
Ok.
Here it goes: Did Kobe Bryant play like Michael Jordan?
Or did the Black Mamba play like himself?
Appearing on the Scoop B Radio Podcast, John Celestand, Bryant’s ex-Los Angeles Lakers point guard weighed in on the popular topic.
Check out a snippet from our podcast dialogue below.
John Celestand on Kobe Bryant playing in Michael Jordan’s likeness:
“I think sometimes man, you can watch something and watch somebody so much, that you subconsciously start doing things like them and you don’t even know it. I don’t think he went out and said, “Yo I’m gonna do everything to be Michael Jordan”…but I think he watched so much tape, and he had the same body frame for the most part – Michael was 6’6”. Kobe might have been 6’7”, right? And were probably around the same weight. They played the same position. So, I think it just starts to – you watch the ‘Come Fly With Me’ videos, you watch how he walks…you don’t go out and try to do it, it just happens. If you’re not the same height and the same weight, it won’t look exactly. But they were kind built similar. So it did look like they were trying to do that. Shaq would always say, “Look at little Mike. Look at little Michael over there”…but you know, I never thought Kobe was trying to do it purposely but I think I was kind of like by…osmosis. It’s not always copying. It’s just watching and absorbing. And you know people say Nas sounded like Rakim. And maybe he did a little but, I don’t think he went out and said I’m gonna rhyme just like Rakim. I think you listen and you absorb and grew up on it, and it becomes a part of you – it’s not all of who you are, but it becomes a part of who you are.”
John Celestand was the Lakers’ 30th pick in the 1999 NBA Draft.
For those keeping score at home, he won an NBA Championship with the Lakers in 2000 when LA defeated the Reggie Miller, Jalen Rose led Indiana Pacers.
Indy was guided by Naismith Hall of Famer, Isiah Thomas.
That 2000 Lakers Championship team was guided by head coach Phil Jackson and had both Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal on their potent roster.