I will make sure to watch this HOF induction speech

hammer1

Michael Jordan to present Kobe Bryant at Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

https://clutchpoints.com/michael-jordan-present-kobe-bryant-hall-of-fame-induction-ceremony/

1951WheatiesPremium

Michael Jordan, for me, is a really bad choice to do this and I don’t think it will go too well, for a number of reasons.

But I hope I am wrong.

hammer1

@1951WheatiesPremium said:
Michael Jordan, for me, is a really bad choice to do this and I don’t think it will go too well, for a number of reasons.

But I hope I am wrong.

What do you think he might say that would make him a bad choice?

Goldenage

@1951WheatiesPremium said:
Michael Jordan, for me, is a really bad choice to do this and I don’t think it will go too well, for a number of reasons.

But I hope I am wrong.

I think you're thinking about his own speech, which was not the greatest. However, I firmly believe that MJ will have
learned his lesson, and perhaps will hire the help of a professional speech writer to do Koby's speech. I'm sure he will spend a measly 20k to have the speech writer get in contact with his family, friends, former team maters, to give a lot of good information MJ can read at the ceremony. I think it will be classy.

Goldenage

And when I say he'll spend 20k, that of course will come out of the 100k appearance fee he'll get for doing it.

1951WheatiesPremium

@hammer1 said:

@1951WheatiesPremium said:
Michael Jordan, for me, is a really bad choice to do this and I don’t think it will go too well, for a number of reasons.

But I hope I am wrong.

What do you think he might say that would make him a bad choice?

Well, for one thing, Michael Jordan can’t stand there and call Kobe Bryant the best of all time with any meaning or conviction. While I wouldn’t call Kobe that either, necessarily, the fact that he could be considered in that discussion is there and on that day - especially given the circumstances - it is something that should be said.

Also, Michael Jordan is great at lots of things but public speaking isn’t really one of them. It’s a ‘you have it or you don’t’ thing and he doesn’t have it. It’s one thing to do pre taped interviews talking about how great YOU were or reminiscing and another entirely different thing to deliver something like this live.

Lastly, I don’t think it’s a stretch Michael was Kobe’s idol and that his game was heavily influenced by and modeled after Jordan’s. But there was very little connecting them other than that; they weren’t really contemporaries or rivals - they overlapped two years with neither at their peak ability. Perhaps they shared an off court bond and this is meaningful to Michael but it just seems off to me to have an even bigger star standing in place one of the biggest stars to ever play. Who gets the biggest ovation that day? The man or the montage?

And in the scenario where Michael Jordan hits all the right notes, that’s not ideal either as he ends up overshadowing Kobe on a day that is supposed to be about Kobe Bryant, not Michael Jordan. So that’s not a good outcome, either.

I don’t know who the right person is - maybe Shaquille O’Neal, Phil Jackson, Jeannie Buss or Vanessa Bryant? Maybe an entertainer or someone with hosting experience?

Look, I was not a Kobe Bryant fan; far from it actually. Still, you get one shot to memorialize an all time great basketball player who died tragically at a very young age. It will last in perpetuity and has the potential to resonate if done really well and I just think that this choice is not necessarily the right one.

As I said, I hope to be wrong.