Jordan actually finds Bryant’s comments comical, saying “I absolutely laughed,” according to ESPN.com.
“For him to compare those two teams is not one of the smarter things he ever could have done,” Jordan reportedly said prior to playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Charlotte on Thursday.
Jordan’s response comes after Charles Barkley already fired back. Barkley said he believes only Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Durant would make the Dream Team, and that the ’92 team would beat the current group by double digits.
Barkley was also confused by Bryant saying that the Dream Team consisted of players at the tail ends of their careers, a sense of bewilderment that Jordan elaborated on on Thursday.
“I heard Kobe say we were not athletic,” Jordan reportedly said. “But we were smart. He said we were too old, but I was 29 and in the prime of my career. Pip [Scottie Pippen] was 26 or 27, [Charles] Barkley was 29, Patrick [Ewing] was 29 and Chris Mullin was 29. Almost everybody was still in their 20s.”
Jordan thinks that Bryant made the comments in order to “legitimize his own Dream Team,” but MJ feels as though there’s “no comparison” between the two teams.
“For him to make that comparison, it’s one of those things where it creates conversation,” Jordan said while noting that Bryant is entitled to his opinion. “I guess we’ll never know. I’d like to think that we had 11 Hall of Famers on that team, and whenever they get 11 Hall of Famers, you call and ask me who had the better Dream Team. Remember now, they learned from us. We didn’t learn from them.”
If Bryant’s team really did learn from the Dream Team, it should be in good shape when it touches down in London. But when it comes to USA 1992 versus USA 2012, the battle rages on.
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