Best of SI: ‘Last Dance’ Director Explains Michael Jordan's ‘Little Laker Boy’ Comment

Episode 5 of The Last Dance opened with a sight that had to be jarring for NBA fans: Kobe Bryant giving a fresh interview. 

Episode 4 left off with the Bulls playing their final game of the first half of the 1998 season, so it only made sense for the next installment to pick up at that year’s All-Star Game. The game would be Jordan’s final All-Star appearance as a Bull and also marked Bryant’s All-Star debut.

Kobe wasn’t even a starter for the Lakers that season (Eddie Jones was the starting shooting guard) but he was voted by the fans as an All-Star starter at the age of just 19.

In the East locker room before the game, teenage Kobe was on MJ’s mind. 

“That little Laker boy’s gonna take everybody one-on-one,” Jordan said. “He don’t let the game come to him. He just go out there and take it.”

Coming from anybody else, you might interpret that as a criticism. Kobe’s ball-hogging tendencies were commonly used by his detractors as an argument against him. But Jordan was a similar sort of player, so you have to imagine he meant it as a compliment. Kobe was the youngest player in the game but he wasn’t intimidated. Jordan had to admire that. 

Jason Hehir, the director of The Last Dance, said he thought it was remarkable that Kobe was on the minds of the East players before tipoff. (The All-Star Game discussion begins around the 2:10 mark in this video.)

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