The admiration that the late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant showed towards Michael Jordan was clearly visible during his illustrious career. While Bryant had many times spoken fondly of the Chicago Bulls legend, watching him play and his attitude towards the game also had a Jordan feel to it.

Talking about the same in an interview with tportal.hr, former NBA player Toni Kukoč said: “Kobe Bryant was a classic copy of Michael Jordan, and that puts him a little sideways. They played in the same position, they were physically very similar, and the fact is that Kobe just copied from Jordan, and with that he got his psyche.”

“A documentary about Jordan is coming soon and in these ten episodes, people will be able to see how many similarities there were between the two. Both were willing to die to win and worked very hard and put in an unprecedented amount of effort to be the best.”

Kukoč was Jordan’s teammate in Chicago and is currently a special advisor with the Bulls franchise.

“To me, Michael Jordan is a marvel of nature, he would sometimes sleep for only three hours and then dominate the field with unprecedented energy!” Kukoč said.

Toni Kukoč was a nominee for the class of 2020 Hall of Fame along with Kobe Bryant

Coming from the European basketball leagues, Kukoč played in the NBA for 10 years, winning three titles. He was among the nominations for the Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2020. However, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan along with Bryant got the nod ahead of him this year.

It was the seventh time that  he was among the nominees but didn’t make it in the final list.

“I can’t say I don’t care. But, on the other hand, I don’t want to spend energy on that,” he said.

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“After all, what am I going to say about myself? But if my former coaches, former teammates and basketball experts say I am one of the top 3-4 European players of all time, what are we talking about? Maybe they don’t all know what they’re talking about? It doesn’t make sense to talk about that anymore … You know you would rather spend that energy playing an 18-hole golf course.”