Part of what made Kobe Bryant great was thinking he was the greatest, according to a fellow Hall of Famer.
Tracy McGrady, who entered the NBA out of high school one year after Bryant did it in 1996, was in awe of the late Lakers star’s mindset at an early age.
“To be around Kobe at 19 years old, bro, you would’ve thought Kobe had been here before and been around the greats of the game because his mindset was so different than I’ve ever experienced and ever seen in anybody at 19 years old,” McGrady said on “All the Smoke” podcast.
“This man really, truly thought he was better than Michael Jordan.”
By the time Bryant turned 19 years old as a rookie in 1997, Jordan was nearly 34 with six MVPs under his belt and on his way to a fifth NBA championship and ninth scoring title.
But while Bryant took some lumps early on in his career, he already had the mentality to become one of the sport’s legends. It paid off as he finished with five championships, two scoring titles and an MVP.
Kobe Bryant and Michael JordanAFP via Getty Images“At the time, I’m looking at my dog, I’m like, ‘Bro, you crazy as hell, bro,'” McGrady said. “For anybody to even think that as a teen, I’m like, ‘Bro, there’s something wrong with you. You crazy.’
“He used to watch his homegrown moves — ‘Come Fly with Me,’ ‘Playground’ — he used to watch that religiously, bro. Pause it, if Mike do something, pause it, rewind, mimc it. He was obsessed with this [stuff]. … He was different, bro.”
