NBA News: Kobe Bryant Admits He’s Jealous of Tim Duncan

Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan entered the NBA a year apart from one another, Kobe being drafted in 1996 and Duncan being drafted in 1997. While their careers are, for the most part, paralleled with both of them winning 5 NBA championships, their journeys to their respective 5 championships couldn’t be any more different.

In 1996 Bryant was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th pick and he was subsequently traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Vlade Divac, a trade that surely still haunts Hornets fans to this day.

Duncan, on the other hand, was drafted with the first overall pick in 1997 by the San Antonio Spurs. Unlike Bryant, who entered the NBA draft right out of high school, Duncan was a four-year college star at Wake Forest and was thought of as more of a “sure thing” while Bryant was looked at as a project.

In the beginning Duncan lived up to being a “sure thing,” averaging 21.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game whereas Bryant struggled his rookie season, averaging 7.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists.

Both Bryant and Duncan won their first championship early in their careers, with Duncan winning in the strike-shortened season in 1999 and Bryant winning his first the following year in 2000.

Comparing their careers is much like comparing them in their respective drafts. Duncan has been the “sure thing” in San Antonio, never once calling out teammates or demanding a trade. Kobe, on the other hand, has done just the opposite, forcing Shaquille O’Neal out of Los Angeles after they were probably the greatest duo in NBA history, and has threatened to leave Los Angeles on multiple occasions, nearly signing with the Bulls when he tested free agency in the mid-2000s.

Recently Kobe was asked to compare his career with Duncan’s by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News and started by saying, “Just talking with him, you could tell we were polar opposites.”

In that statement, Kobe was reflecting on the first time he met Duncan in 1997 when filming s Sprite commercial.

Bryant continued and said that he would love to play Duncan and the Spurs one more time in the playoffs. “I want a crack at him,” Bryant said. “I would love to play the Spurs in the playoffs one more time.”

With strong rumors that Duncan will retire after this season and with the Lakers struggling, it’s unlikely that Bryant will get his wish.

Kobe was then asked about the stability within the Spurs organization throughout Duncan’s career, and how he feels that Duncan is still on a championship contending team late in his career.

“I can’t express to you how much I’m jealous. I’ve been up and down.”

Bryant was then asked if he’d be okay if Duncan won his sixth championship this season, which would put him one ahead of Bryant’s five. “If you ask me if I’m okay with Tim doing it, I’m not,” Bryant said. “I’m not okay with that.”

Kobe’s Lakers will face Duncan’s Spurs three times this season, this first of the three will take place tonight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Then they’ll face off twice more, the first of the final two will be on December 12, and the second will be on January 23. The three games between the Lakers and Spurs this season will likely be the last three times these two legends face off.

[Image via Lakers Nation]