Photo Credit: Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune

Kobe Thought He’d Destroy MJ In Their First Match-Up

Geno Auriemma is the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women’s basketball team. He also holds the records for most championships in college basketball history, with eleven. Auriemma also had a famous podcast called Holding Court with Geno Auriemma. In the podcast’s most recent episode, Geno was joined by none other than Kobe Bryant.

One of the topics they were talking about was Kobe’s first game against Michael Jordan in 1996. Bryant, who was only 18-years old, came into the game with the plan to destory Jordan, but things didn’t go as planned. Jordan had 30 points, Kobe played for only 10 minutes and scored 5 points.

“I was thinking in my mind, I didn’t care. I’m going to destroy this guy. I don’t care if I’m 18, I’m coming for blood.

And the first thing he did, they ran a fifth-down sequence in the triangle. He caught the ball in the corner and he made his little pirouette spin that he does and sneaks baseline. I fell for it, and he went by me and dunked it.

I remember just laughing to myself all the way up the court. I’ve seen that move thousands of times and I can’t believe I just fell for it. And then after that, it was like, ‘OK, let’s get to work.’ Every time I faced him I wanted to see how he was going to respond to his same moves.”

Via Lakers Nation