By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
MANILA, Philippines – Τhere is a doppelgänger of the unforgettable Kobe Bryant in Manila, taking local fans by storm.
The most mindboggling thing about him, however, is that he is a well-known former NBA player. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, the 23rd pick of the 2015 NBA draft, a fearsome defensive player during his days in the league, seems on the FIBA World Cup court exactly like Kobe Bryant.
He moves and shoots the same way, even some mannerisms of Kobe, like the way he moves his shoulder when he is about to shoot free throws, are there.
It’s uncanny to watch, considering the fact that during his years in the NBA and also in Europe when he played most notably for Besiktas during the 2021-22 season, he didn’t move and played like that.
However, the resemblance is obvious. And as he said with a smile, his good friend Shabazz Napier, who will play this season in Serbia for Crvena Zvezda “keeps telling me to take a DNA test, Kobe is my cousin and I didn’t know it”.
With him scoring 39 points for Jordan in the losing effort against New Zealand, he felt something else, especially when he hit a three-point and got also fouled to send the game to overtime: “On that four-point play, I felt like he (ed. note: Kobe) was with me on that moment”.
The local fans were chanting “Kobe” every time he touched the ball, and that’s the biggest tribute any active player can provide to an icon: “I think it’s an honor, it’s like a dream come true. I would love to have been able to work with him and learn from him, but to be able to hear his name being chanted tells you he still lives through basketball”.
“It was always there”
But how does a player who is not an unknown become the second coming of Kobe, at least on the way he moves and plays on the court?
The answer of Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is that you have to get the right opportunity and for him, that came for the first time in Puerto Rico: “I think that when you run into a coach that truly believes in your talent and your abilities, that’s when your game moves to the next level and you are able to do things that you just thought you couldn’t, and also the things that you worked so hard to do. When I went to Puerto Rico for my first year, Eddie Casiano allowed me to play my game and let me be free. But if you ask my first coaches, my high school coaches, they will say to you it was always there”.
At this point in his career, he had the freedom, especially on the national team of Jordan to do his thing, and he appreciates this: “In certain leagues, you have those players who are able to do that, it’s just wasn’t my chance, it wasn’t my turn, it wasn’t my opportunity. I had a little sample of this in my third year in Brooklyn, but now I am able to be truly free and it’s amazing”.
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What makes it even sweeter, being a fan-favorite in a FIBA World Cup, is that he is doing it with his wife and two kids being in the arena and cheering for him.
“It’s an honor, them being able to be a part of this is truly special. It took a lot of them getting here, a lot of travel, she is being wonderful taking care of them by herself, so I give her a lot of credit for that. Women are phenomenal, we should always uplift them, treat them the best and care about them”.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL