Kobe Bryant never forgave. George Karl never forgot.
“Kobe thought I kept him on the bench because I wanted Michael (Jordan) to win the MVP,” the former Nuggets coach recalled Monday.
The bench in question was at Madison Square Garden, in the 1998 NBA All-Star Game. The Black Mamba was only 19 then, making his first all-star appearance, and had 18 points through three quarters for Karl’s West squad. Jordan finished with 23 for the victorious East and was selected as the game’s MVP.
“And that was the game where I think Kobe, he was telling guys to get out of the way, he wanted to go 1-on-1 and isolate,” Karl said of Bryant, the 41-year-old basketball icon who perished, along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others, in a helicopter crash Sunday.