Chicago Bulls: 3 times Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan inspired us all
1. Kobe destroys Michael just before his final retirement
The way Jordan went out in one of his final regular season games was not actually memorable for his actions. In pretty much every game that Jordan played in during his NBA career that was very memorable for basketball fans, it was due to his actions and legendary performances. But this was goes to Kobe.
Trying to one-up each other was a consistent story between Kobe and Jordan. These two lived on the competition between each other on-the-court, even though there was significant respect between them off-the-court. This time around in March 2003, Kobe would finally have a huge performance that wouldn’t be cast in MJ’s shadow.
By this point, Kobe had already won multiple NBA Championships with former Bulls head coach Phil Jackson now leading the way for the Lakers. He and Shaq were taking the NBA by storm while MJ was on his way out with the Wizards. Just one month later, MJ would hang ’em up for the final time as his playing days would be officially over.
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In this March 2003 regular season showdown between the Wizards and Lakers, Kobe would hang an insane season-high and game-high 55 points to beat MJ. Kobe shot 15-of-29 from the field to get those 55 points to go along with five rebounds, three assists, and three steals.
Meanwhile, Jordan had a decent night that wasn’t near enough to beat Kobe and the Lakers where he registered 23 points, four assists, and one steal. The Lakers would win this March 28, 2003 meeting by more than 20 points.