Bryant shares Jordan memories

Before his final game at the United Center, Kobe Bryant told some good stories about his first game in the building on Dec. 17, 1996, when the Chicago Bulls were on their way to winning championship No. 5.

"Getting schooled for a baseline dunk the first time I matched up with him," Bryant said when asked what Michael Jordan memory stands out. "That was like the coolest thing. It was.

"Because I had seen that spin move so many times. I knew he was going to do it, but the timing on TV and in person are two completely different things.

"He just spun right before I thought he was going to spin and I thought, 'That was pretty cool.' So that's my first memory of it. Then coming here to watch a Finals game with Jermaine O'Neal. Sitting all the way up in the nosebleeds, where Toni (Kukoc) and Michael looked about that big.

"Enjoying the Finals experience - those were my top two memories."

The Lakers led that December 1996 game by 19 points early in the fourth quarter before the Bulls rallied to win 129-123 in overtime. Jordan scored 30 points that night, but Scottie Pippen (35 points) and Kukoc (31) did most of damage during the fourth-quarter comeback.

"You just saw Scottie and Michael said, 'That's enough,'" Bryant recalled. "I was sitting on the bench like, 'They are covering so much ground. I don't understand how this is possible, how Pippen can trap in the backcourt and all of the sudden he's at half-court and all of the sudden he's getting a rebound at the rim.' I wondered how it's physically possible.

"The defensive pressure, we couldn't even get the ball across half court. It was pretty phenomenal."

Bryant recalls MJ influence:

Kobe Bryant grew up in Italy while his father played professionally overseas. He watched NBA games as much as he could, but when he returned to the United States as a teenager, he focused on studying Bulls legend Michael Jordan.

"When I came in the league and matched up against him, what I found was he was extremely open to having a mentor relationship," Bryant said Sunday at the United Center. "He's given me a great amount of advice and an amazing amount of detail - strategies, workout regimens and things like that.

"Seriously, I don't think people really understand the amount of impact he's had on me as a player and as a leader."

Bryant used that example to explain why he was never worried about potentially playing for the Bulls.

"If I was fortunate to come here and that trade had happened, it's not a pressure situation to live up to what he's done," Bryant said. "It's more, can I carry on his legacy, can I do it justice?

"Can I represent Chicago the way it should be represented in his honor?"

Bryant summed up his similarities to Jordan with their extreme desire to be the best.

"What I take away from that is our competitiveness is second to none," Bryant said. "We're pretty obsessive about how to confuse people, to the point where when I was playing, if I said hi to a player, they were looking at me sideways like, 'What is he up to?'

"I think it's that attention to detail and that competitive spirit really makes that connection. I don't think a lot of players are as fanatical as we were."

Kobe hoped Pau would stay:

Pau Gasol introduced Kobe Bryant on the videoboard before Sunday's game and helped save Kobe's run with the Lakers. After Gasol was traded to Los Angeles from Memphis in the middle of the 2007-08 season, the Lakers went to the Finals for three straight years, winning two titles.

Bryant said he tried everything under the sun to convince Gasol to stay in L.A. in 2014 before he joined the Bulls as a free agent.

"But, you know, Pau is such a prideful person," Bryant said. "He felt like he was being disrespected with all the continual trade talks despite all the success we had, and the benching and all that stuff, he just felt completely disrespected.

"I understood that as a man. There was nothing I could do except wish him luck."

Bulls injury update:

Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said he's hoping Jimmy Butler can test his injured left knee this week in practice.

Hoiberg said Nikola Mirotic is still feeling some abdominal pain and isn't ready to start running yet. Both players probably are two weeks from returning to action, the coach said.