Michael Jordan’s rivalry with Kobe Bryant featured in Last Dance documentary

Michael Jordan couldn’t help but tear apart the game of the young Lakers upstart when they clashed in the 1998 All-Star game.

Kobe Bryant defends against Michael Jordan. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

Kobe Bryant was no different to any other player put up as a threat to Michael Jordan’s supremacy when they clashed in the 1998 NBA All-Star game.

The fifth episode of The Last Dance documentary series touches on Jordan’s relationship with a young Bryant, told through the lens of the mid-season contest in New York.

Jordan was still the poster boy of the league at that point but Bryant made a surprising late surge in fan voting to secure a spot as a Western Conference starter despite still coming off the bench as a rising star for the Lakers.

For a league searching for its next superstar — given Jordan was expected to retire at season’s end — it was a perfect opportunity to market Bryant and the game was presented as a battle between old and new.

As always, Jordan was well aware of the narrative.

Behind the scenes vision from the documentary shows His Airness bristling at the play of the youngest All-Star in NBA history during the first half, accusing Bryant of cheating on defence to leak out for fast break opportunities.

“That Laker boy’s gonna take everybody one-on-one,” Jordan told Eastern Conference teammate Tim Hardaway in the locker room.

“He don’t let the game come to him. He just go out there and take it. ‘I’m going to make this s**t happen. I’m gonna make this a one-on-one game’.

“If I was his teammate, I wouldn’t pass him the f***ing ball. You want this ball again, brother, you better rebound.”

In a midgame huddle, Jordan repeated the thought: “He just wants to get to the offensive end and go one-on-one. I’m gonna make his a** work down here (pointing to the defensive end). He haulin’ a**.”

Jordan and Bryant pass each other in a hallway at the 1998 All-Star game. Picture: ESPN

Jordan talks with Tim Hardaway (left) before the game.

It’s not mentioned in the documentary but Jordan had suffered from the flu in the lead-up to the game. It didn’t appear as bad as the famous bout of illness that knocked him around in the 1997 NBA Finals, but it was bad enough for him to cancel a round of golf he had planned with Charles Barkley in Las Vegas in the days before the game at Madison Square Garden.

In the end MJ shook it off to tally 23 points on 10/18 shooting, eight assists and six rebounds and claim game MVP honours in the East’s 135-114 win.

Bryant performed well too, scoring a team-high 18 points on 7/16 shooting, and he was denied a chance to attempt to match Jordan’s output as he spent the entire fourth quarter on the bench alongside Lakers teammate Shaquille O’Neal.

“I just felt I should distribute the time equally to everybody on the team,” West coach George Karl said. “I probably would have played Shaq some and Kobe some if it was a winnable basketball game.”

Jordan played 32 minutes to Bryant’s 22 and hit jump shots over him on several possessions. “It was fun,” Jordan said. “I was trying to fend him off as much as I could. He came at me pretty early. If I see someone that’s maybe sick or whatever you’ve got to attack him. I like his attitude.”

Pistons great Isiah Thomas was part of the broadcast team and described the back-and-forth as a win for Jordan: “Kobe had challenged Michael. Michael comes out and he’s saying, ‘Not tonight, young fella. Uh-uh Kobe. I got some more tricks left in my bag’. He’s not ready to leave yet folks.”

A classic match-up.

The 1998 playoffs played out in similar fashion as Jordan led the Bulls to a second three-peat. Bryant continued to play a bench role for the Lakers, who made it to the Western Conference Finals but were swept 4-0 by the Utah Jazz. Bryant averaged 10 points a game in 22 minutes as a substitute.

“It was a rough couple of years for me, coming to the league because at the time the league was so much older. It’s not as young as it is today,” Bryant said. “So nobody was really thinking much of me. I was the kid that shot a bunch of airballs, you know what I mean? And at that point, Michael provided a lot of guidance for me.

“I had a question about shooting his turnaround shot, so I asked him about it. And he gave me a great detailed answer. But on top of that, he said, ‘If you ever need anything give me a call’.

“He’s like my big brother. I truly hate having discussions about who would win one-on-one and fans saying, ‘Kobe, you’d beat Michael one-on-one’.

“I feel like, yo, what you get from me is from him. I don’t get five championships here without him, because he guided me so much and he gave me so much great advice.”

Episodes five and six of The Last Dance will be available on Netflix next week

Originally published as Michael Jordan’s rivalry with Kobe Bryant featured in Last Dance documentary