Mark Jackson Says Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant Possessed a Winning Attribute No Other Player in NBA History Could Match

Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are two of the most legendary players in NBA history. They have been compared to one another, but what makes these two players so different?

Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are two of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game. They both possess a winning attribute no other player in NBA history could match.

Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were two of the most fiercely competitive players in NBA history. Throughout their famous basketball careers, they arrived sooner, played harder, and stayed later than everyone else. It was because of this that they were both so wonderful.

Former NBA All-Star Jackson, Mark recently said that Jordan and Bryant were the only two players he had ever faced who would do anything — and he meant anything — to win.

Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, according to Mark Jackson, were the most difficult NBA players to defend.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan converse on the floor | VINCENT LAFORET/AFP via Getty Images

During his 17-year professional career, Mark Jackson battled hundreds of NBA players. From 1987 to 2004, he was a member of seven different teams, thus he had to defend everyone from Jordan to Bryant to LeBron James.

In a recent interview with NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay, Jackson stated that Jordan and Kobe were the two most difficult athletes he’d ever had to defend.

“Every single time on the court, Mike and Kobe simply thought assault,” Jackson said. “The two people I’d describe are the attitude and the way they wear you down with their approach.”

“For me, those two men are the frontrunners.”

Jordan and Kobe had a winning quality that no one else had.

Jackson didn’t simply laud Jordan and Bryant for being two of the most difficult players to defend he’d ever seen. He also said that the two NBA superstars had a competitive fire beyond anything he had ever seen in his career.

Physically, [Jordan] was more than ready to put himself through whatever it took to win. Greatest competitor of all time. Because both of these players, sadly, the late, great Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, were the only two people I ever played against who were ready to give it everything on the floor, I would place them in this debate. And I mean whatever I say.

If it meant dropping dead on the floor, I’m certain those two men would do it for the win.

Mark Jackson

That wouldn’t surprise us, given all the tales we’ve heard about Jordan and Kobe’s work ethic.

Like Jordan and Kobe, Jackson would not throw it all on the court.

“Leave it all on the floor,” as the adage goes, is seldom taken literally, but it was for Jordan and Bryant. They would have gone to any length to win in the NBA, but Jackson acknowledged he would not go as far.

“That ain’t my testimony,” Jackson replied, “as great of a competitor as I am.” “I’d want to win, but not at any cost.” At that price, no way. I’m not willing to win with my dying breath.”

Jordan and Kobe, on the other hand, would have. That’s what set them apart.

We may never see another player quite like them.

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