Watching part of Jordan’s World Cup opener against Greece, I stared at the screen and tried to make sense of what I saw. A player with a shaved head wearing No. 24, a wristband halfway up his forearm, a guy who takes a lot of shots, leads his team in scoring, and has a lot of the great Kobe Bryant’s behavior on the court. (follow as he leans forward on kicks). who was this boy
Runde Hollis-Jefferson.
The former Nets lottery pick, who plays in the World Cup as a citizen of Jordan, has changed his identity and game in the form of Kobe Bryant. see for yourself
Hollis Jefferson and Jordan will face the USA team tonight in the final round of Group C.USA is 2-0 and advance is guaranteed regardless of the result).
The new look was no accident. Hollis-Jefferson told ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
“He’s a legend and you can only dream of being compared to someone like him,” Hollis-Jefferson said. “But I’m not close to Kobe. I’ve tried to be as hardworking as him and I feel his energy. I also know a lot of people who knew him, so I’ve heard stories about him. My whole life.”
Hollis-Jefferson is scoring like Kobe, who is second in the league with 31.5 points per game (behind Luka Doncic’s 35.5). He shot 54.3 percent in the World Cup (albeit just 28.6 percent from 3).
It was the struggles of the 3 that kept Hollis-Jefferson in the NBA. In his six NBA seasons — four with the Nets, who drafted him, plus one with the Raptors and one with the from the pioneers – He was a very good defender, but Brooklyn wanted him to become a three-dimensional guy. The bullet never arrived. Eventually, he was asked to play the four more and more to get him closer to the basket, and he put together some in that role. It never really worked out. He eventually left the league and played in Turkey, France and last season in the Philippines. He lost weight at that time and followed Kobe’s example.
This season, he received FIBA approval to be a citizen of Jordan and represent them at the World Cup. It hasn’t led to a win — Jordan is 0-2 and can’t advance to the World Cup regardless of the result against the United States — but it has raised some eyebrows.
Just because it all looks so familiar.