Watching ESPN’s highly-acclaimed documentary “The Last Dance” proved to be an eerie experience for Robert Horry.
Appearing this week on “Wireside Chat” with Houston Rockets broadcaster Craig Ackerman, Horry said that the series reminded him of his late teammate Kobe Bryant with the similarities between Bryant and Michael Jordan.
“I was there from the beginning when Kobe first came in the league as a rookie,” said Horry. “It’s so weird watching ‘The Last Dance’ and knowing that Utah was playing the Bulls. That’s the game [Game 5 of the 1997 Western Conference Semifinals] that kinda turned Kobe’s career. He shot an airball down the stretch, kinda went from [there to] going into the lab, working hard, and trying to become the player he was.
“He was just a great teammate, a great player, one of the smartest players you could ever play with,” Horry continued about Bryant. “It’s so weird getting a chance to really watch Michael Jordan in ‘The Last Dance’ and hear the words that he uses and everything. It’s almost like Kobe just took everything he said, everything he did, his mannerisms, his language, his lingo, and just copied it. It’s like watching a ghost now, and I hate to use those terms, but to watch Michael Jordan is like, man. How did Kobe learn everything this dude did to a T and made it a little better in some areas.”
Horry was teammates with Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers for Bryant’s first seven seasons in the NBA, including their run of three straight championships from 2000 to 2002. He also competed against Jordan for many years, having entered the league in 1992.
Bryant enjoyed a very close relationship with Jordan, which was spotlighted in part during Episode 5 of “The Last Dance” where Bryant gave Jordan credit for his success in the NBA. He was known to idolize Jordan and patterned his playstyle, leadership qualities, and competitive fire after that of His Airness. Even upon Bryant’s passing, Jordan was one of the speakers at his memorial service, and it is clear that the two will always share an inextricable link.
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