Kobe Bryant had the opportunity to play for Michael Jordan's Bulls twice is his career, but it wasn't His Airness' legacy that kept him from playing in the United Center, where Michael Jordan's bronze statue stands.
"Do I seem like the type to cower to something like that?" Bryant asked (via ESPN.com) before Sunday's matchup with the Bulls. "C'mon, man. No."
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Sometimes called the Jordan of the current generation, Bryant was linked to the Bulls during free agency in 2004 and again during the summer of 2007 after demanding a trade from the Lakers.
"My wife and I were actually planning travel arrangements to come out to Chicago and look at some homes and schools and things like that," Bryant said. "Then once [Shaquille O'Neal] demanded a trade, it was like, 'There's no way they're going to trade me anywhere.' The sign-and-trade option just pretty much went off the table."
Added Bryant, "so if I was fortunate enough to come here, if that trade had happened and I'd be here, it's not a pressure situation to live up to what he's done. It's more, 'Can I carry on this man's legacy? Can I do it justice? Can I represent Chicago the way that it should be represented in his honor?' Just a tremendous, tremendous amount of influence."
Lakers coach Byron Scott, who played against Jordan and was Bryant's teammate, said Bryant is as close to Jordan as they come.
"If you look at a picture of MJ in his later years and you look at a picture of Kobe, it's kind of eerie how similar it is and how close it is.," Scott said. "Not only from a basketball standpoint, but the way he thinks about the game, the way he approaches the game, and his killer instinct."
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Bryant said his first memory of facing Jordan in Chicago was "getting schooled for the baseline dunk the first time I matched up with him."
"That was like the coolest thing, because I had seen that spin move so many times. I knew he was going to do it. But the timing on TV and in person are two completely different things. So he just spun right before I thought he was going to spin. I was like, 'Man, that was pretty cool.'"
Bryant tried to channel his inner Jordan Sunday night in his final appearance of his career at the United Center, but merely managed 22 points on 8 of 20 shooting in a 126-115 loss.