A Tuff memory

Back in the 1990s through 2000, I was working as editor of As a monthly magazine, we had 12 covers a year, and we often counted on spot on the NBA All-Star team. So for our April 1998 issue, we planned a Kobe cover and contracted ace NBA author Roland Lazenby to write about him. The feature is titled “A Star Is Born.” Within it, Lazenby (who later wrote a book on Bryant) quotes Michael Jordan raving about Kobe. Jordan had just watched Bryant score 32 points in a blowout Lakers win over the Bulls. In discussing Kobe, MJ conceded that playing against him left him feeling a like he’d been forced to defend himself: “I felt like I was in the same shoes of some of the other players I’ve faced.” In the same feature, we raved about the rising price of Bryant’s 1996-97 Topps Chrome rookie card, which was already selling for over $100. (That’s ungraded—grading wasn’t quite a hobby-wide thing yet.) We also noted that signed Kobe photos were going for $35 to $50. Those were the days.