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00:00 I'm Jill Painter Lopez with Sports Illustrated here with Melissa Roland.
00:10 And Melissa, Kobe Bryant was featured in episode five of The Last Dance.
00:14 What were your takeaways?
00:15 It was a very emotional episode.
00:17 It opened with a loving memory of Kobe Bryant.
00:20 And then we're taken to 1998 Madison Square Garden where Kobe's playing in his first all-star
00:25 game against Michael Jordan who's competing for his sixth NBA championship that season.
00:30 Michael Jordan looks at Kobe as a young 19-year-old who trash talks a lot and is trying to go
00:36 up against everybody one-on-one.
00:38 And he's in his locker room in the Eastern Conference locker room and he calls Kobe the
00:42 little Lakers boy and jokes around with his teammates that he's going to try to take everybody
00:46 down.
00:48 And he talked a little smack.
00:49 But then we go to Kobe Bryant and Kobe has an interview in which he talks about how privately
00:55 Michael Jordan really mentored him.
00:57 Kobe said that when he first came into the league he was obviously a lot younger than
01:01 everybody else and he struggled at first.
01:03 People thought that really all he did was shoot airballs.
01:06 And Kobe went after Michael Jordan.
01:08 He made him his mentor.
01:10 He looked at him for help.
01:12 And Michael Jordan really was there for him and really helped turn him into the player
01:16 he became a five-time NBA champion.