$562,500 Temptation Pulled Kobe Bryant Into Michael Jordan’s Territory for Common Purpose, Reveals NBA Veteran

We all know how much Kobe Bryant learned from the Bulls legend. “He’s like my big brother… I don’t get five championships here without him. Because he guided me so much and gave me so much great advice.” This confession was in the Last Dance documentary, where the Lakers legend expressed his love for Michael Jordan. But it was not only the skills on the court that Bean was able to emulate. There was one off-court decision too, which required some pushing from a former teammate.

Brian Shaw, on the Fast Break podcast, explained his relationship with Kobe was not just on the hardwood. The 5x NBA champion was just 10 or 11 at the time when they first met. Soon, they became teammates and won a three-peat with the Purple and Gold franchise. The relationship between the two continued, and in 2007, B-Shaw made a suggestion. “Fast forward now to Jordan used to have his camp at Santa Barbara every summer. So I tell Kobe’s having his camp at Loyola.”

The suggestion from Shaw was to start a camp in Santa Barbara to accommodate more children. Many current stars like Jamal Murray, Paul George were also once part of an NBA invite-only camp. But the camp Shaw was talking about was only about kids. “I said, ‘because you got about 150 to 200 kids here at Loyola. You can get 750 at Santa Barbara with all the courts. And I said, ‘Jordan is getting $750 per session per kid and getting $750 kids. You do the math on that.” The math stands at a whopping $562,500, but charging money or moving to a new location was not financially motivated.

Kobe Bryant didn’t feel that moving into Michael Jordan territory, where the 6x NBA champion does his camp, was like a sign of disrespect. “He said, ‘No, they you know.‘” But Shaw had other advice, and this time it stuck. “I said, Do it a month earlier or a month after or whatever. It doesn’t matter. You could do it.” So, he eventually started doing his campus Santa Barbara, too.”

The success that MJ found by running his training camp at the University of California in Santa Barbara, led to Kobe Bryant doing his bit. Speaking about it, the Lakers legend back in 2010, emphasized the favorite part of running his camp, saying, is teaching the kids and watching them execute what they’ve learned on the court. “I love doing this,” the five-time NBA champion said. “I’m going to be like the Energizer Bunny out there for these kids… A lot of them have questions, and I encourage them to just come up to me and ask. I’m not ‘Kobe Bryant,’ you know, I’m just ‘Kobe.’”

$172 million in career earnings, yet the NBA champion took part in the Kobe Bryant camp

The list of current stars who attended Kobe camp includes Trae Young, DeMar DeRozan, and Stephen Curry, among others. In fact, the Warriors superstar started his own camp and gave a shout-out to Bean. This was the 10th year for the Curry Camp, yet the 4x NBA champion did not forget his roots. “I went to Paul Pierce, Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant camps, and I learned a little something and carried that with me, so hopefully we’re a part of their journeys like that“. Working out as kids is different than working out as an NBA star.

Yes, back in 2019, Kobe Bryant handpicked a number of current NBA players to attend a training camp. The names? According to Marc Stein, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, Jamal Murray, Isaiah Thomas, Buddy Hield, John Collins, Aaron Gordon, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Jordan Clarkson were the select few. Murray spoke about the experience, as it was also after his Nuggets made their first playoff run together. For the star who has over $172 million in career earnings, this was a valuable opportunity.

“That was a very, very good experience to have that much talent in the gym, watching film, weight room, playing scrimmages with those guys, getting a feel for them, getting a feel for Kobe’s mentality,” Murray said at Nuggets media day on Monday. “I asked him a lot of questions. It was one of my favorite highlights this summer.” Naturally, there, he absorbed everything he could from the 18-time all-star and five-time champion. Be it to teaching kids or current stars, Kobe Bryant loved teaching and passing his information to others.