Kobe Bryant had greater access to NBA talent than most other 13-year-old players.

The future Los Angeles Lakers the legend was the son of the former NBA player Joe Bryant, who played for the Philadelphia 76ersSan Diego Clippers, and Houston Rockets between the mid-1970s and the 1980s.

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Like many teenagers of the early 1990s, Kobe grew up idolizing Michael Jordan.

The same Michael Jordan who dove from the free throw line and won six NBA championships while becoming a global cultural phenomenon.

Kobe modeled his entire game on “Air Jordan” and wanted to meet him one day.

Fortunately, his father – who still had connections within the Sixers organization from his playing days – was able to make that dream a reality, as the article recounts. “The Rise” 2022 by Mike Sielski.

So, before the 76ers game against the Chicago Bulls On March 8, 1992, the elder Bryant led his basketball-obsessed son into the arena locker room to meet his idol.

Sielski writing: “Kobe said hello to Michael Jordan. Jordan responded and gave him a bracelet. There is no lasting indication that Kobe was nervous or stuttering or intimidated in any way by Jordan. It was simply their entire conversation; Jordan had nothing either Kobe, who introduced himself to Bulls forward Horace Grant.

It was then that Kobe made an astonishing and improbable promise.

“Do you play basketball?” Grant asked Bryant, according to Sielski.

“Yes,” Kobe said, “but I’m only in eighth grade.”

“Are you going to become a superstar one day?”

“Yes,” Kobe said, “I could be.”

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Few, perhaps even Kobe, could have predicted how prophetic his words would prove to be.

Bryant became a Laker great, winning five NBA championships, two Finals MVPs, the 2007-08 MVP and two scoring titles.

He was also a 15-time All-NBA and 18-time All-Star selection, carving out a Hall of Fame career that puts him in the conversation of all-time greats.

Kobe and MJ would inevitably come face to face on the NBA court, but their paths crossed again before that, this time in 1996, when Jordan was at the peak of his powers.

Kobe, 17, was invited to the Spectrum by Sixers coach John Lucas before his team faced Jordan’s Bulls, who were in the midst of a 72-10 season and on pace to win their fourth world title.

Bryant was one of the hottest prospects in the country at the time and Lucas reportedly wanted to strengthen his relationship with Bryant before the upcoming NBA draft, which is why he invited him to the game.

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Lucas led Kobe to the visitors’ locker room for another fateful meeting with his idol.

“‘Kobe,'” Jordan said, “what’s up?”

Jordan held out his hand. “Hey,” he said, “nice to meet you, young man.”

Says Sielski: “Kobe reached out and shook Jordan’s hand. His hand is so…strong…Kobe wasn’t nervous. This person standing in front of him, this person the world loved, was a human being, just like everyone else. Just a basketball player, like Kobe.

“Unlike their previous meeting, Jordan this time spoke to Kobe at length. Enjoy the game, he told him. With the pressure and hype going on, you can easily get distracted and the game won’t be nice Don Don’t let people do that to you. Just have fun on the pitch and you’ll be fine.

“The last piece of advice Jordan gave him: Man, if it were up to me, you’d go to North Carolina. Go to Carolina.”

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Jordan was referring to Kobe’s decision to go to college or enter the NBA draft.

Bryant could have gone to Carolina like MJ, but decided to capitalize on the prep-to-pro movement of the era, previously ignited by prodigious stars like Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett.

In a recent conversation, John Salley, former teammate of Jordan and Bryant, revealed that MJ was the only reason Kobe decided to go straight to the NBA after high school.

Bryant ended up being drafted by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He was traded to the Lakers almost immediately afterward, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Kobe and Jordan faced each other for the first time in the NBA later that year, the first of eight career battles they had against each other.

Bryant had a winning record against No. 23 during his career, going 5-3. Perhaps more importantly than a game-winning drive, he earned Jordan’s respect and became his “little brother.”

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“Michael, in particular, he became my big brother. He’s been my big brother since I came into the league,” Kobe said in an interview in 2019, the year before his tragic passing.

“I don’t know if he opened up to me more than other players. I’m not sure. I don’t know if other players had the courage to ask. But we have a very , very good relationship,” he added.

Jordan, a six-time champion, retired in 1999 for the second time. In 2000, Kobe was the league’s preeminent shooter at the start of his own championship line.

Jordan returned for two more seasons in the NBA, from 2001 to 2003, as a member of the Washington Wizards, and the two engaged in trash talk during the 2003 All-Star Game.

Their mutual respect, however, never wavered.

In 2013, Jordan chose Kobe over LeBron. Years later, Bryant reiterated his respect for the basketball GOAT in the hit Netflix documentary, “The Last Dance.”

“What you get from me comes from him,” Kobe said during the show.

“I won’t have five championships here without him.”