Kobe Bryant Shares His Thoughts On Michael Jordan And The Current NBA Player He’d Want On His Team

By now you’ve seen the footage of Kobe Bryant telling a story about what life was like with the Lakers during the Kwame Brown/Smush Parker years. That footage is actually from a UC Santa Barbara psychology class where Kobe was speaking last week.

But that wasn’t the only interesting tidbit that was uncovered, Kobe also spoke on his current relationship with Michael Jordan and which current NBA player he’d like to play with. Hint, it’s not anyone who plays for the Heat.

On Michael Jordan:

“Of course, I want to win as many as I can so, by that alone, I’m chasing him,” Bryant said. “As long as I’m playing, I want to continue to win more. But it’s never been a direct competition between him and me though because he’s helped me a lot. He hates when I say it, but I’ll say it anyway: I call him and he calls me right back every time. We talk about things, that’s the kind of relationship we have. I’ve learned so much from him so we can’t have a debate about who is better. You know what I mean? He’s directly influenced me.”

What NBA player would Mama love to have on his team:

“I would actually like to play with Melo.” Bryant said. “Championships are won on the inside and I’m always thinking about winning the title. I would love to play with Melo because I would know that I have an inside presence. That’s really been the biggest strength with our Lakers team. We have a lot of guys who can play in the post, and that’s how you win championships. I can post, Lamar [Odom] can post, Ron [Artest] can post, Pau [Gasol] can post and Andrew [Bynum] can post. Teams are usually lucky if they have one guy that can control the block. But yeah, I would love to play with Melo.”

One benefit to the lockout. It’s allowed the fans to see another side to some of their favorite jocks. From web-series to popping up at various pro-am leagues, I think guys have done a good job at staying connected to their fans. I just hope all that goodwill doesn’t go out the window when games start are being missed.