Along with the Air Jordan 3 inspired Kobe 9s, Kobe Bryant also mentioned that a Michael Jackson inspired colorway will be released as well. Many fans know that Kobe was a speaker along with Magic Johnson at Micahel Jackson’s memorial service, so there is definitely a relationship that was built between Mr. Jackson and Kobe was building his career as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.
–== Kobe Shoe History ==–
What I found to be one of the better moments of the event at the Vault today, was at the end of the Q&A session, Kobe wanted to remind the players from Westchester High School to not be afraid of being great. It was kind of random, but Kobe really emphasized the story with a passion to basically tell the players that not everyone is comfortable with greatness and because of that, they might pull you back to be mediocre like them. “Crabs in a barrel” was the term he used. Basically, he was restating the old adage of “you are who you surround yourselves by.”
As I was doing some of the research for this post, I stumbled upon an old Time Magazine commemorative edition on Michael Jackson that included a piece of Kobe talking about his relationship with the King of Pop:
“One of the things he always told me was, don’t be afraid to be different. In other words, when you have that desire, that drive, people are going to try to pull you away from that, and pull you closer to the pack to be ‘normal.’ And he was saying, It’s O.K. to be that driven; it’s O.K. to be obsessed with what you want to do. That’s perfectly fine. Don’t be afraid to not deviate from that. One of the books that he gave me that helped him communicate with me was “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” which was about that.
Looks like Kobe is doing is generational duty of paying it forward to the next generation of ballers, but what he really was doing was encouraging to be great beyond the court as well.
So, what would a Michael Jackson inspired Kobe 9 look like?
