If there's one thing that we learned during Kobe Bryant's illustrious career, it's that he is a winner and a fierce competitor. His competitive nature was seen every time he played on the basketball court, but he's showing us now that even though he is retired, he's not backing down from any sort of challenges. Bryant retired in 2016 at the age of 38 after playing 20 seasons in the NBA and he is regarded as one of the best to ever play the game of basketball. Lately, he's been active in doing a lot of things that are not totally related to basketball, but surely he still follows the NBA and the latest events and topics around the league.

Antetokounmpo the MVP?

A lot of today's star players in the NBA were just kids when Bryant was at the peak of his career, and it's therefore it's no wonder that they look at him as their Michael Jordan. One of the young players that admires Bryant is Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo. On Sunday, Kobe Bryant went to Instagram and issued several challenges to some of today's NBA players. Giannis Antetokounmpo obviously felt he was left out as he took it to Twitter to ask Bryant for a challenge of his own. Bryant responded by writing "MVP" on his Twitter account, challenging the 22-year-old Giannis to win the Most Valuable Player award next season.

While this might seem like a tough challenge for the 6-foot-11 small forward from Greece, it is a feat that he's surely capable of achieving.

Giannis had a breakout year last season, as he led the Bucks in every major statistical category. He finished the season averaging career-highs in points (22.9), rebounds (8.8), assists (5.4), steals (1.9) and blocks (1.6) per game. He did all of this while shooting a career-high 52 percent from the field and 77 percent from the free-throw line.

It was a special season for Antetokounmpo, crowned with his first career All-Star appearance as he was selected to the Eastern Conference All-Star team. There's no doubt that Antetokounmpo has the tools necessary to be the MVP of the league at some point in his career, but it's hard to expect him to win the award next season, especially considering the competition.

Tough task for the Greek

Giannis finished eighth last season in the MVP voting and Vegas sportsbooks have him ranked at the sixth spot for the next season in the MVP rankings. Antetokounmpo has been given a 17/2 chance of winning the MVP award next season by the Bovada Sportsbook. Probably the biggest weakness of Antetokounmpo's game is his three-point shooting. He connected on just 27 percent of his three-pointers last season, and he'll definitely have to improve that area of his game if he wants to be a serious candidate for the Most Valuable Player award. Other than that, team success could also be a key factor in him winning the MVP. The Bucks finished sixth last season in the Eastern Conference standings, with a solid 42-40 record.

They were eliminated in the first round of the postseason by the Toronto Raptors and Giannis has yet to lead his team past the first round of the playoffs. Can he do it? Let's see what the 2017/2018 season brings.
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