Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, won six NBA Championships with coach Phil Jackson. Jackson also coached MJ clone Kobe Bryant to win five titles. No single figure is more qualified to comment on the MJ/Kobe debate than Jackson. So while Jordan has been rocking it at the Ryder Cup, did Jackson diss Jordan by claiming that Bryant trained harder? The Zen Master may have just started WWIII by engaging in this conversation.
Phil Jackson may have just started World War 3 by weighing in on the great MJ/Kobe debate. When asked about Carmelo Anthony, Phil's answer veered off the path a little bit (via Huffington Post):
"No one can approach that [level of training]... I don't expect anybody to be able to model their behavior after that, although Kobe modeled his behavior a lot about Michael Jordan, but he went beyond Michael in his attitude towards training, and I know Mike would probably question me saying that, but he did."
Not only are Jackson's comments incendiary to the press, Jordan will likely flip his lid over that statement (almost surely in private).
Jordan is known all over the sports world as one of the fiercest competitors of all time. And Jackson's saying that Kobe the Whiner trained harder?!
Meanwhile, in the UK, Jordan has been offering his fierce support to the American team at the Ryder Cup, being granted "backstage" access to the guys on the team (via USA Today):
"So I want my team, like Fred and I did, to get to see Michael. Rather than him sneaking around in the gallery, I want him to be seen and I want him to be in our team room, be hanging around and be a great influence."
What do you think?
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