Kobe Bryant said it was a compliment Larry Bird picked him over LeBron James: “I admired Bird for his work ethic and his determination.
Bryant is known to have copied Jordan’s game, but he also got inspiration from Bird.
Kobe Bryant grew up in Los Angeles. As a Lakers fan, it was all but normal for him to despise the Boston Celtics. The C’s were the LA squad’s fierce rivals during the 1980s, and they faced each other three times in the NBA Finals.
Although the L.A. won twice, the Lakers could’ve won back-to-back, too, in 1984 and 1985, had it not been for the Celtics. However, while Kobe hated Boston, he admired their leader, Larry Bird.
“I was a real student of the game,” Bryant told the “Max & Marcellus” show on 710 ESPN in 2012. “I remember watching an interview that Tommy Heinsohn did, and he’s talking about Larry Bird, and he’s talking about his drive, and he’s talking about how Bird is a self-starter. He’s a self-motivator. He doesn’t need anything to push him to get going.”
Larry worked hard on his game
Bird was one of the fiercest competitors the NBA had ever seen. Born, raised, and toughened in French Lick, Indiana, Larry was Magic Johnson’s career rival from college to the NBA.
Larry was known as one of the game’s biggest trash-talkers. But Bird always backed up his words with a big game. He wasn’t the tallest, strongest, or fastest. That’s why he worked harder on his game than most players and was always out there to prove his worth.
“As a kid, listening to that, listening to that interview I said, ‘You know what? That’s how I need to be. I need to have that. That’s how I should be.’ So, that was kind of an inspiration for me. Even though I hated the Celtics, I admired Bird for his work ethic and his determination. So, to hear those comments come from him now is great,” added Kobe.
Bird said he’d pick Kobe over LeBron
Bryant’s comments on Bird came after Larry Legend was asked to pick between Kobe and LeBron James. The Celtics legend admitted that LeBron was the best player in the league then. He said that if he wanted to win, he would pick Kobe, but if he wanted to have fun, he would go with Bron.
“If you want to have fun, like I did with Bill Walton, play with LeBron. It would have probably been more fun to play with LeBron, but if you want to win and win and win, it’s Kobe. Not that LeBron’s not a winner, just that Kobe’s mindset is to go into every practice, every game, to get better,'” Bird said
While Bird complimented Kobe, perhaps he didn’t know that the Black Mamba got his inspiration from him. The Celtics and Lakers were bitter rivals during the 1980s, but that did not stop two all-time greats from appreciating each other’s game. That’s stuff that only legends are made of.
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