“I Switched Onto Him a Couple Times and It Didn’t Go Well”: Steve Kerr Reflected on Guarding Kobe Bryant and His Similarities to Michael Jordan

Steve Kerr was recently a guest on the ‘Legends of Sports’ podcast, hosted by legendary sports photographer, Andrew Bernstein. While on the show, Kerr was asked about Kobe Bryant and the infamous Kobe-MJ debate. Putting his point across, Kerr said,

“Obviously in the NBA, there are so many great players, but they are very few who when they walk onto the floor, as an opponent, you go ‘ Holy Sh*t, how we going to beat this guy.’ Michael was one of those people.”

Kerr added his thoughts about the Mamba and his experience of guarding the GOAT and stated how it was not an easy task for him as well,

“To me, Kobe is as close to Michael Jordan as anyone has ever been…I never had to guard him[Kobe Bryant], I had no chance, I switched onto him a couple of times, and that didn’t go well.”

Kobe had even validated much of what Kerr said. Bryant had a beautiful jumper, mechanically similar to Michael and the turn-around jumper, the baseline fade-away shot, and most of Kobe’s footwork came from Jordan. Though Kobe took a lot from Michael, he was sure to add a little ‘mamba’ to everything. But the biggest similarity between Kobe and Jordan was in their mindset and mentality towards the game.

Surprisingly enough, Kerr even mentioned the same during a 2017 interview. Talking about the two legendary shooting guards, the Warriors Coach said,

“Kobe is the closest thing to Michael. Kobe has the same mindset and mentality that MJ had. The assassin, the ‘I’m-going-to-rip-your-throat-out-with-my-scoring.’ The low-post dominant fade-away jumper. “

Surprisingly enough, Kobe’s influence on the younger generation of players remains ‘strong’. Players such as Max Christie and Jayson Tatum even openly admitted to copying Kobe’s playstyle and being inspired by Mamba’s personality.

Steve Kerr on Kobe’s death

Even though Bryant and Steve Kerr didn’t directly compete against each other much, Bryant was sure to leave a lasting impression on the Warriors HC. Kerr would be among the few players who had the honor of both, playing, as well as, coaching against Bryant. But after Bryant’s untimely death in 2020, Kerr was taken aback.

He was even interviewed a few days after Bryant’s death. During the interview, Kerr was asked to share his feelings on the incident. Talking to the media, Kerr said,

“I think mostly, everyone is in a state of shock. We heard about the news during practice, two days ago. Practice abruptly came to a halt, and we all went home, and we didn’t know what to do. It’s not something you can just process and put behind you, it’s there and it will always be there.”

As Kerr rightly pointed out, the scars from Kobe’s death are something that basketball and the NBA can never fully recover from. Bryant is a part of basketball culture, like no one before him. His influence in China, single-handedly, sparked a basketball revolution in the country, something no player can ever have claimed to do.

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• Kobe Bryant
• Steve Kerr