Kobe Bryant didn't talk much about the likeness of his game to Michael Jordan's throughout his career, but he certainly didn't stop others from making the comparison.

Now that the Los Angeles Lakers icon is retired from playing, he's free to shamelessly let the comparisons fly.

If it looked like Kobe was doing a Michael Jordan impression throughout his 20-year career, that's  because he was.

Howard Beck of Bleacher Report has a story out about Jordan's legacy, and how Kobe-era players were dogged by the "Next MJ" label, which had a negative impact on some of Bryant's contemporaries.

The article also notes that today's stars - possibly other than LeBron James - aren't stuck with that label and are free to play the way they want to play. And kids are following their lead.

But back in the late 1990s, as the league and Madison Avenue were looking for the next shining star, they were looking for players who looked and played just like #23.

They found one in Kobe, who practiced looking like and playing like Jordan.

"Damn near 100 percent of the technique," Kobe said. "Damn near 100 percent."

And the challenge of being labeled as the "Next MJ," even as Kobe's career was just getting started?

"Didn't frighten me much at all," Bryant said. "It was a challenge."

Beck's article mentions the typical "Next MJ" blasts from the past, like Kobe, Vince Carter, Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Jerry Stackhouse, Tracy McGrady, even Harold Miner. But he even brings up some "Next MJ" deep cuts like (thanks, Dick Vitale) Louisville's Jerome Harmon, Virginia prep phenom Kevin Madden, Len Bias, Roy Marble and Ron Harper.

It was probably nice for some of these guys to get that mention at first. But it quickly would become a burden.

"I don't want to be the next Michael Jordan," Vince Carter tells B/R Mag, recalling a mantra that could have been spoken by all of them. "You're not putting that on me."

Now, players are free to be themselves, as kids are practicing 35-footers in hopes of being the next Stephen Curry or practicing fancy ball-handling moves with visions of being the next Kyrie Irving.

Penny - whose Magic coach Richie Adubato once said "we are looking at the next Michael Jordan" after a nice playoff performance for Orlando - sees it now as a high school coach in Memphis.

"They're just not making as many as Steph," he said in the article, chuckling. "They'll just say, 'I can really shoot them!' And I'll go, 'Yeah, well prove it to me.' If you prove it to me, then you have that right.'"

"They want to be Kyrie and Steph, for sure."