Dave Betancourt | Sports Section Manager

3/08/02

His dad goes by Jellybean and he's named after a steak. He'll tell you he's not trying to do it. He'll say he grew up a Lakers and Sixers fan and idolized Magic Johnson while growing up in Italy and the suburbs of Philly. And while that may be all well and good, the one thing that stands out the most and the one thing that a lot of people will refuse to admit about 23 year old Kobe Bryant is that he is without a shadow of a doubt the closest thing to Michael Jordan that the league may ever see. The evidence is all there. All you have to do is watch an L.A. Lakers game and see the undeniable similarities.

Of the many things that can come to mind when thinking of Michael Jordan, one of the biggest for myself was his always wanting the ball in a clutch situation. If there was little time on the clock, and the Bulls, or even now the Wizards for that matter, needed a big time shot, you knew who the ball was going to. The defense knew it, everyone in the crowd knew it. Same thing with Kobe. If for some reason the dominant Lakers are down with time winding down, there's no doubt in the world who's getting the ball.

Number eight.

Bryant has already shown that he can handle the pressure of hitting a last second shot. He's already done it a few times this year. And when the ball sails through the net and the buzzer sounds he's right there pumping his right fist to the crowd. The exact same fist pump that Jordan just so happens to do every time he nails a game winner.

But maybe a fist pump after hitting a game winning shot isn't enough for you. Everyone gets lucky every once in a while right? And what's the big deal about a fist pump anyway. Ok, well there's more. Can you say baseline fade away jumper boys and girls? It's easily the hardest thing to do in basketball. More times than not it's attempted in desperation with little time on the clock, but Jordan perfected it as his ultimate weapon. Because he was constantly double-teamed the second he got the ball Jordan needed something that would get him away from defenders and put him in position to score. So he perfected the baseline fade away jumper to let teams know that if they sent more than one man at him that he had something for it. Jordan hit that shot like players hit a simple lay up.

Well guess who happens to be the one player in the NBA who can hit a baseline fade away with ease. No it's not Patrick Ewing, it's numero ocho. Kobe. Bryant will kill you with that shot just as easily as he'll go to the lane for a dunk. He's got everything down perfect from the dribble, to the spin, to the elevation to hitting the shot nothing but net. It's as if he cloned that little bit of info from Jordan's DNA. But maybe hitting a baseline fade away jumper and pumping a fist after a last second shot still isn't enough. Need more? Ok.

Ok well let's skip the basketball stuff for a second. How about off the court? Bryant is making just as much, if not more money, off the court as he is on it, just like number 23. He's got major deals with Adidas and Sprite that pay him handsomely just like Jordan had with Nike and Gatorade. Now I know almost every major NBA star has his own shoe now a days, but none of them have the commercial appeal that Bryant has. Once Bryant decides to hang up his Adidas that appeal will help him greatly in whatever he decides to get involved with whether that be business or even entertainment. Oh, did I mention he bought the Italian basketball team his dad used to play for.

How about the ability to single handedly dominate a game by himself. Something Jordan did all the time in his prime. Bryant proved he could hang with the big boys and control the flow of a game in game four of the 2000 NBA finals when by himself he killed the Indiana Pacers in overtime after Lakers superstar Shaquille O¹Neal fouled out. Bryant was only 21 at the time, but he hit shot after shot and refused to let his team lose on the road. He literally grew up before the NBA world's eyes and officially declared then that he was the "next Jordan," if not by words then by actions.

Now there is one thing that does separate Bryant and Jordan and will give critics ammo when it comes to whether or not he is truly the "air apparent." That one thing is O'Neal. Shaq is always the x-factor when comparing Bryant to Jordan. Jordan never had a dominant center, let alone a dominant big man period. For Jordan there were guys like current Bulls head coach Bill Cartwright and the recently retired Luke Longley. Not exactly guys that would make a defense cringe.

Because Jordan never had a big man or any other dominant player (not counting Scottie Pippen) he was always double teamed. As soon as he touched the ball, he was swarmed. Bryant however is never double teamed. To double team Bryant means to leave Shaq with only one man on him. That is the ultimate no-no for a man that is the most dominant center to enter the league since Wilt Chamberlain.

Some feel that because Bryant has Shaq and never gets double teamed that should be reason enough to not compare him to the greatest basketball player ever. But even with people who may think that, Bryant will eventually have his time to shine. Shaq just turned 30. He's got two rings and may get another one this year. Eventually he will get bored and will grow tired of guys trying to beat him to a pulp just to get a foul called.

Let's say that's four or five years from now, Bryant would only be 27 or 28. As scary as it seems he would just be reaching his prime then. At that time whenever Shaq does call it quits the Lakers will be Bryant's and Bryant's alone. And it will be at that time when Bryant will have his chance to truly stake claim that he is the next Jordan. That time may not come for a while but until then Bryant is still doing a pretty good job of being the most unstoppable player in the league and the eventual successor to Air Jordan.