“It felt great”: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson loves being compared to Kobe Bryant despite Jordan’s looming knockout from FIBA World Cup

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was on fire in Jordan's second 2023 FIBA World Cup game against New Zealand. Unfortunately, Jordan still fell short despite Hollis Jefferson's spectacular performance.

The Mall of Asia Arena showed a lot of love to the Jordanian star and even chanted Kobe Bryant's name. Hollis-Jefferson has been trending on social media for a few days now for playing in a similar way to the late LA Lakers legend.

During a post-game interview, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson shared his thoughts to the media on being called "Kobe" by the crowd. Hollis-Jefferson was pleased by the chants especially since he grew up watching Bryant:

"It felt great. I told this to a few people, when I was growing up a lot of the older people in my neighbourhood played against Kobe in high school. And a lot of them were friends with him, knew him, and they told me just how his work ethic was as a kid , 11, 12 years or whatever, he always had a basketball.

"He just loved the game so much, he was a student of the game. And I just loved to hear those stories! Its just an honour, words can’t describe it though."

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Jordan falls short despite Rondae Hollis-Jefferson's 39-point outburst

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson's point haul was not enough for Jordan at FIBA World Cup

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson put on a spectacular performance in front of the Mall of Asia Arena crowd on Monday night. He put up 39 points in an attempt to provide Jordan their first victory in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Throughout the game, Hollis-Jefferson did everything in his power to keep the game within range. Unfortunately, New Zealand was the better team and came out on top 95-87.

Hollis-Jefferson struggled to find his rhythm offensively in the first quarter but was able to pick up the pace from there. He then completely took over his team come the second half and even sent the game to overtime after he hit a huge four-point play to tie the game 85-85 late in the fourth quarter.

RHJ nearly notched a double-double with 39 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two steals. While it may be upsetting that his team lost, Hollis-Jefferson must feel good about coming up with another big-time performance for his country.