Shannon Sharpe argued with Doc Rivers that Kawhi is the most like Michael Jordan: "Kobe Bryant was Michael Jordan with hair"
Kawhi Leonard was arguably the best player in the NBA during the 2018-19 NBA season when he led the Toronto Raptors to their first-ever NBA championship.
Leonard's impressive performance earned him a Michael Jordan comparison from then-L.A. Clippers head coach Doc Rivers. But many disagreed with what Doc said, claiming he only said so because of a vested interest in Kawhi.
Rivers' critics included ESPN analyst Shannon Sharpe, who debated that Kobe Bryant is closest to MJ.
"The closest thing that we've ever seen to Michael Jordan played for the Lakers," said Shannon. " He wore 8 for half his career and wore 24 for the last half of his career. That was the closest thing. Kobe Bryant was Michael Jordan with hair."
Kobe was the Michael's copycat
Sharpe reminded Rivers that Kobe was as good as Black Jesus on defense. He mentioned that although he never won the DPOY award, Bryant had as many All-Defensive first-team selections as Jordan.
Kobe was always known as MJ's copycat, and he was proud to say that he studied Jordan and copied MJ's game. In fact, Mike himself admitted this when he said nobody except Bryant would beat him in a one-on-one game because he stole all my moves.
"The way he puts his wristband on his elbows, the way he puts the knee sleeve, the way he walks, the way he celebrated a win with what did he do? The same thing that Jordan did. He's a carbon copy of Michael Jordan, not Kawhi. Kawhi is an unbelievable player, a two-way player, three-time first-team All-Defensive, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, having a great playoff run, But I'm sorry Doc, I'm gonna have to disagree with you," added Sharpe.
Most like Jordan we've ever seen
After leading the Raptors to the 2019 NBA championship, Leonard entered free agency. At that time, Rivers was the Clippers' head coach, and the team was trying to lure Kawhi to that side of Los Angeles instead of the Purple and Gold.
"Kawhi is the most like Jordan that we've seen," Rivers said. "There's a lot of great players. LeBron is phenomenal, and KD is phenomenal. Not that Kawhi is Jordan or anything like that, but he's the most like him. Big hands, post-game, can finish. Great leaper, great defender, in-between game. If you beat him to the spot, he bumps you off, and then you add his three-point shooting."
Doc was meted a $50,000 fine for that statement, but it was worth it, so to speak, as Leonard ended up signing with the Clippers. He later clarified his statement, saying he only compared body types, not the whole package. But again, he did what he had to to get Kawhi to sign with the Clippers.
