David Neiman, Sports Hub LA

One of the first feature pieces I ever wrote for the Washington Post was about Kobe Bryant. It was November 2002, the Lakers were coming off their third straight NBA title, and No. 8 – as he was then – was starting to emerge from the shadow of Shaquille O’Neal.

As part of the story, I asked Phil Jackson to compare Kobe with Michael Jordan. The fact that I posed the question gives you a sense of how I – and many other people – perceived Bryant at the time.

Phil, as one might have expected, offered what I saw as a politic response:

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