Draft:Mamba Mentality

The Mamba Mentality is a mindset attributed to American professional basketball player Kobe Bryant. Bryant described the philosophy in his own words as “a constant quest to try to better today than you were yesterday.”

The name is derived from one of Bryant’s most well-known nicknames, the Black Mamba.



History
On July 18, 2003, Bryant was arrested in Eagle, Colorado, regarding a sexual assault complaint filed by a 19 year old hotel employee. Afterwards, Bryant created an alter ego named the “Black Mamba” to separate his personal life from his basketball career. The name was inspired by the Deadly Vipers, an assassination squad from Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film Kill Bill.

Bryant’s work ethic and dedication was highly praised throughout his career. According to an athletic trainer for the United States men’s national basketball team which Bryant was a member of, Bryant would work out individually beginning at 4:30am every day before team practice. He later said that the Mamba Mentality “was all about 4 am workouts.”

The name “Mamba Mentality,” according to Bryant, originated during the 2016 Mamba Mentality Tour, a youth basketball clinic hosted by Bryant in Manila, Philippines. Bryant said that he worked the young players very hard and put them through an extensive number of drills, and reportedly came up with the name during the camp.

Philosophy
The Mamba Mentality was described in Bryant’s own words as “a constant quest to be better than you were yesterday.”

The Mentality consists of five essential “pillars,” which were articulated by Bryant himself. These pillars are recognized as “fearlessness,” “relentlessness,” “passion,” “obsessiveness,” and “resilience.”

Legacy
Since its creation, the Mamba Mentality has been cited by numerous athletes as a source of inspiration, including LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and Chris Paul, as well as athletes from other sports such as Micah Parsons and Novak Djokovic, among others.

During the 2020 NBA Finals, the first NBA Finals series since Kobe Bryant’s death earlier that year, the Los Angeles Lakers wore “Black Mamba” uniforms, a reference to Bryant’s nickname, as a tribute. The team subsequently attempted to adopt the Mamba Mentality.

In January 2024, Highsnobiety published an article titled "KOBE BRYANT’S MAMBA MENTALITY LIVES ON" by Riccardo Zazzini in which he argues that Kobe's Mamba Mentality philosophy is one of the gifts Kobe left contemporary culture before his death. Zazzini refers to Kobe as, not only a basketball player, but a poet and a legend.

In January 2024, on the 7PM in Brooklyn show, Carmelo Anthony and The Kid Mero discussed Kobe. Melo explained how Kobe's Mamba mentality is the greatest thing he learned from him.

In January 2024, LeBron James' son Bronny James expressed on social media how he idolizes Kobe's Mamba Mentality.