Air to Heir

At the end of the 1998 All-Star game in New York, Michael Jordan dispensed a quick piece of advice to Kobe Bryant.

“Stay aggressive,” Jordan told the 19-year-old kid.

At first Bryant didn’t think the words carried much wisdom. That was it? That’s all the great Jordan, with five NBA championships going on six, had to tell him? Of course Bryant had to be aggressive. He already knew that. Or so he thought.

It wasn’t until weeks later, as the regular season dragged on and on, that Bryant understood what Jordan meant. It’s not so easy to stay aggressive when you’re in your third city in four days and you’re down by 10 points and your shots just aren’t falling.

And, Jordan elaborated Sunday, there’s a fine art to aggressively searching for your own shot without excluding your teammates.

Bryant has come so far by age 24, it prompted a compliment from Jordan that was almost as simple as his original tip five years ago.

“He’s getting it,” Jordan said.

Getting it to the extent that Bryant has scored 35 or more points in 13 consecutive games, going for at least 40 in the last nine.

“He’s on a great run,” Jordan said. “He’s really finding a way to do it within the structure of the offense. I don’t think it’s any play that’s outside of that. Once a player gets the kind of confidence that he has right now, it makes it very tough for the team to try to defend him.

“Knowing Kobe like he is, he’s going to try to continue to involve other people and make other people threats and the defense is going to dictate his actions. If he feels like he can aggressively attack, then he will continue to do that. I think that’s what I would do. If the defense starts to give toward him, then you have to move the ball. At some point in time, you can’t worry about the 40 points, you’ve got to keep everybody involved and you get a win. The most important thing is getting a win.”

The Lakers have gone 11-2 during Bryant’s run, demonstrating that he understands what really matters.

But Bryant is playing for more than victories. He’s playing for his place in history.

He’s clearly driven by the desire to be the best player in the history of the game. Jordan currently holds that title by common decree. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored more points, Bill Russell won more championships, but Jordan generally gets the nod because of the combination of his skills, talent and competitive drive.

The most interesting part of Jordan’s recent interview with John Thompson on TNT (one of his rare sit-down conversations since he returned to the NBA in 2001) was when Thompson asked him if he’d ever come across anyone as competitive as himself.

I thought Jordan might say Magic Johnson or Larry Bird. Instead he said no one.

And that might be the most truthful statement he’s ever made.

I’ve never seen anyone as obsessed with winning as Jordan. (Case in point: he dictated that nobody could be shown as the winner in the Gatorade commercial that pits Jordan against his younger self, because that would mean that one of the Jordans had to lose.)

That absolute refusal to lose is the standard Bryant must match. Well, that and the six championships, which Jordan thinks should be no problem if Shaquille O’Neal stays around.

I asked Jordan if he saw any mirror image of the fire in his eyes when he looked at Bryant.

“I wouldn’t put him on the same level as me,” said Jordan, who just put together a 43-point performance of his own Friday, four days after he turned 40. “But where he’s a lot like myself is as far as separating himself -- the way I wanted to separate myself from Clyde Drexler and everybody else.”

It always comes back to Drexler, whom the Chicago Bulls have to thank for the availability of Jordan at the No. 3 selection in the 1984 draft. The Portland Trail Blazers had Drexler at shooting guard and didn’t think Jordan could help them there, so they selected Sam Bowie instead.

Jordan seemed driven by eradicating any thought that Drexler could be better than him. And he says it is evident Bryant wants to end any debate about who’s better, he or Tracy McGrady.

Exhibit A in Kobe’s favor was his 52-point effort in a double-overtime, Shaq-less victory over the Houston Rockets last week in the most pivotal game of the season. The fact that Bryant did it while limping around with a bad knee for 54 minutes made it even more memorable.

“To be a great player in this league ... those nights you don’t feel well, you fight through it,” said Doug Collins, who coached the young Jordan in Chicago from 1986 to 1989 and coaches the 40-year-old Jordan in Washington now. “Michael was the king of doing that.”

When Collins was a color commentator for NBC he would interview Bryant and couldn’t help but think of Jordan. They had the same inflection in their voice, the same mannerisms. More important than any of that was this similarity Collins noted: “Killer instinct.”

Bryant literally has a chance to fill Jordan’s shoes, if he signs an endorsement contract with Nike as expected. That could lead to his wearing Brand Jordan, with the Jumpman logo featuring Michael’s dunking silhouette.

If Jordan’s career can be defined in two parts, it has been about making shots in money time ... and making money. Bryant’s doing both right now.

“He’s negotiating with his play,” Jordan said about the shoe-contract talks.

At the same time, Bryant’s putting forth a campaign for his stature in the game. If he can distance himself from his contemporaries, the next step is to take on the all-time greats. Jordan sits atop the perch now. Although he’ll toss down compliments to Bryant, he isn’t ready to allow Kobe to join him.

One day it could be Bryant’s call.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Coming of Age

Comparison of Kobe Bryant’s per-game statistics this season, at 24, with those of Michael Jordan at the same age (from the start of 1987-88 season) with the Chicago Bulls:

*--* BRYANT 2002-03 JORDAN 1987-88 41.7 MINUTES 40.4 11.0 FG MADE 13.0 24.1 FG ATT 24.4 458 FG PCT 535 385 3-PT PCT 132 7.2 FT MADE 8.8 8.6 FT ATT 10.5 834 FT PCT 841 30.8 POINTS 35.0 6.3 ASSISTS 5.9 7.0 REBOUNDS 5.5 2.2 STEALS 3.2 3.7 TURNOVERS 3.1

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