Last night, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James matched up for the final time in Cleveland as LeBron’s Cavaliers hosted Kobe’s Los Angeles Lakers. It was another stop on the Kobe Bryant farewell tour but this matchup is more magnified with the matchup between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
James and Bryant were never really rivals and despite the rumors of the two almost being traded for each other in 2007, LeBron looked up to Bryant and his body of work. Kobe wanted to do better than Michael Jordan but LeBron just wanted to be respected by Kobe Bryant.
LeBron has earned Kobe’s respect in more ways than one and despite ‘The King’ and ‘The Black Mamba’ never playing together in the NBA, they did have memories winning gold medals in the Olympics together in 2012 and 2008.
As Kobe announced that he will be retiring at the end of the season, he also announced that he would be stepping away from the 2016 USA Men’s Olympic Basketball team and that decision by Kobe might also be the deciding factor in LeBron not competing in Rio.
Following from Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report.
The guy who wore No. 8 on a poster on James’ wall, whose hairstyle James once tried to emulate and work ethic James blew up into some mythical force of personal fear-based motivation, was and always will be a god to James.
That’s why Bryant not pursuing a spot on the U.S. Olympic basketball team this summer is a very real reason James might also not join the team, according to NBA sources.
James is that disappointed the Rio Olympics will not serve as the final, ultimate celebration of Bryant’s career—and more so that James won’t have the priceless honor of being Bryant’s co-star teammate when it ends.
James has not made a decision on Brazil and is expected to gauge how he feels after the NBA season. But James alluded last month to Bryant’s absence from the U.S. team when James was named a finalist. In saying he was no closer to a decision on Rio, James said, “The last time I thought about Team USA was Kobe taking his name out of the pool.”
