One of my favorite things is reading personal interviews with athletes. The interviewer asks the typical questions like, “what were you thinking during this play?” or “how are you going to turn this season around?” but also asks about movies, family and any other random topics that show that athletes have lives outside their respective sports.
Kobe Bryant recently sat down with ESPN’s Chris Palmer and of course they discussed the subpar Lakers’ season and Kobe’s legacy but they also talked about “Django Unchained,” commercials, everyday tasks and even Kobe’s aversion to dog poo.
Kobe also takes the opportunity to brag about his one-on-one chops.
He seems to think he is the best ever, saying he could beat LeBron, “no question.” He thinks Kevin Durant would probably give him the most trouble because of his length, but I get the impression he thinks he is unbeatable. Palmer also asks him who he would want to play, active or retired and Kobe says assertively, “Jordan.”
They never establish if this is a one-on-one game with Michael Jordan now or in his prime, but I would assume it is the latter because Kobe seems to think the two would go back and forth and it would come down to the last couple of shots.
Just like the debate of the original Dream Team against the 2012 Olympic basketball team, this battle cannot be settled without a time machine (which I’ve just recently accepted won’t ever exist). It will be fun to argue until the end of time, but we will never know for sure.
There are plenty of other interesting nuggets scattered throughout the interview. It is definitely worth a read if you have some time on your hands. Kobe is going to go down in history as one of the greatest players of all time and it’s fun to me to get a more intimate look at his long journey from being a teenager in the NBA to where he is now.
Image: SB Nation
