3<\/p>\n Michael Jordan was far and away the biggest NBA superstar for many yearsCredit: Getty<\/p>\n Towards the end of his prime years in the NBA, Jordan accepted that he had a transformative impact.<\/a><\/p>\n The five-time MVP saw his Jordan Brand become a household name<\/a> across the globe with his fame seemingly knowing no limits.<\/p>\n “I’ve heard people say I’m the Babe Ruth of this half of the 20th century. I don’t know. Most recognized athlete? It seems that way,”\u00a0Jordan said\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in 1998.\u00a0<\/p>\n “But, man, it’s lasted a lot longer than I anticipated. I never thought it would go on like this. <\/p>\n “I’ll tell you, to remain a positive model in the public eye for so long, it takes a toll, it takes a big chunk of you. You want it to die out, but now it’s so deep, it’s a big responsibility that just goes on and on.”<\/p>\n Michael Jordan’s bold claim<\/p>\n With his time as the face of the league coming as he retired for the second time in 1999, Jordan also boldly stated he expected Grant Hill and Kobe Bryant, who h<\/a>e<\/a> had a great relationship with<\/a>, to take the mantle.<\/p>\n “I see other players, other NBA stars, who can take some of the responsibility,”\u00a0he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Grant Hill. Kobe Bryant, to some degree. But still, a lot of that burden is on me.”<\/p>\n Such nominations were dismissed by both Hill and Bryant, who were focused on creating their own legacy.<\/p>\n “I appreciated them, but after a while, it just got old,”\u00a0Bryant once said of\u00a0the comparisons with Jordan<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n 3<\/p>\n Kobe Bryant looked up to Jordan, with the Bulls legend an established star in his early daysCredit: GETTY 3<\/p>\n Grant Hill and Jordan faced off 15 times in the years they shared in the NBACredit: GETTY<\/p>\n “They eventually faded away because I was putting together my own identity.”<\/p>\n “All you can do is try to be the best player you can be and not really think about [the comparisons],”\u00a0Hill said about\u00a0being compared to MJ<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s more a fascination of the media. And barber shops.”<\/p>\n What did Kobe Bryant go on to achieve?<\/p>\n Understandably, neither player went on to match the unprecedented legacy of Jordan, but Bryant did go on to enjoy an NBA career to be proud of.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Lakers legend won five NBA championships, one fewer than Jordan, along with two NBA Finals MVPs, one NBA MVP award and was selected to the All-Star team a stunning 18 times.<\/p>\n Along with that, Bryant was a two-time NBA scoring champion and also a two-time Olympic gold medalist.<\/p>\n Something wrong with this dude’ – Michael Jordan’s blistering outburst left teammates stunned underlining why ‘dangerous’ icon is different How did Grant Hill’s career turn out<\/p>\n While Hill never matched the heights of Bryant, the forward enjoyed a career many would dream of and earned a spot in the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n Hill ended his career with seven NBA All-Star selections and, in his first season, was the Rookie of the Year, an award he shared with Jason Kidd. <\/p>\n Unfortunately, Hill never picked up an NBA title as a result of his career being severely impacted by ankle injuries.<\/p>\n Those troubles began in 2000 and meant his prime years were curtailed by health issues.<\/p>\n Ultimately, both Hill and Bryant enjoyed fine NBA careers, even if they didn’t become Jordan 2.0s.<\/p>\n Stay up to date with the latest from the NBA across all platforms – follow our dedicated\u00a0talkSPORT USA Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0and subscribe to our\u00a0talkSPORT USA YouTube channel\u00a0<\/a>for all the offseason news, interviews and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan knew he was the face of the league. The six-time NBA champion was at the peak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[95268,7329,95272,95270,7566,95269,95274,7328,95273,355,18072,99,95271],"class_list":["post-155880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball-news","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-face-of-the-league-nba","tag-grant-hill","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-kobe-bryant-news","tag-kobe-bryant-rings","tag-michael-jordan","tag-michael-jordan-rings","tag-nba","tag-nba-news","tag-sports","tag-who-is-the-face-of-the-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/user-expressly-acknowledges-downloading-using-990796605.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Kobe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-51641823.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Grant](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-909356454.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n