Lives Cut Short Byron Scott eventually became the Lakers head coach and worked with Bryant he went to the last place anyone might have expected a basketball court He convinced nearby Palisade High School to allow him to use its gymnasium He stayed there until the sun came up the next morning practicing his 10
No Fear The media quickly began poking fun at Bryant for his four air balls in the 1997 semifinals game The next day even the Los Angeles Times ran the headline Lakers Get Aired Out 2 Soon however the conversation shifted People began to see that Bryant’s willingness to keep taking shots despite airballing several was an admirable trait Former Lakers guard Jerry West was the team’s general manager during Bryant’s rookie season West said in an interview about that game with the Los Angeles Daily News that Bryant never gave up even after he faced failure He was fearless I think that’s one of the things that spurred him to greatness said West 3 Kobe Bryant jump shot The impromptu practice session was not an isolated incident meant to blow off steam It was Bryant’s way to make sure that he never repeated the mistakes he made in that fateful game He kept working on his jump shot every single day until the next NBA season began While others may have succumbed to negativity and self-doubt after a big disappointment Bryant made hard work and perseverance the driving forces that would make him the player he wanted to be Years later he recalled that semifinals loss as a turning point in his career Although it was miserable to go through Bryant said that he looked back upon that game with fond memories because it helped shape him as a player Becoming the Black Mamba As many athletes both amateur and professional know every sport is partly a mental 11
Lives Cut Short The Origin of the Black Mamba game A player can have enormous natural talent and highly developed skills but without a clear vision of what needs to be done in the game victory can remain out of reach Professional basketball often requires split-second decisions and aggressive action Some professional athletes are the nicest most easygoing people one will ever meet but when the game clock starts ticking they seem to become someone else This was the approach Bryant soon decided to use toward basketball He even adopted a name for his new more serious alter ego He nicknamed himself the Black Mamba an image that depicted the ferocious attitude he now displayed when he donned Bryant got the idea for his Black Mamba nickname while watching director Quentin Tarantino’s movie Kill Bill An assassin in the film goes by the code name Black Mamba after using this kind of snake to kill another character Bryant immediately noticed the similarities between the traits the snake displayed and the qualities he needed to develop on the basketball court He began researching the black mamba snake species He soon realized that Tarantino had chosen it because of its reputation as one of the fastest and deadliest snakes in the world The black mamba’s bite is so lethal that it can kill a human being with just two drops of venom The snake is agile deadly and offers no apologies for its actions exactly how Bryant wanted to be on the basketball court By becoming the Black Mamba Bryant could use these killer instincts to defeat his opponents in the NBA
Kobe Bryant his purple-and-gold Lakers jersey Like the deadly snake of the same name Bryant wasn’t going to let anything get in his way The nickname quickly caught on with both fans and sportscasters who watched Bryant morph into the Black Mamba whenever he took the court People who knew him best understood that neither the moniker nor the mentality that accompanied it had anything to do with who Bryant was in his personal life When he wasn’t playing basketball he was the same husband father son and friend he had always been But in basketball he strove to become the most ruthless player in the game Doing His Homework Lakers coach Del Harris noticed that Bryant took his job as an NBA player seriously Most professional players put lots of time and effort in at practices but Bryant stayed focused on the game even while others turned to rest and recreation On the plane rides to and from their games for example Harris noticed that Bryant did not play cards or video games to pass the time as others did Instead he watched videos of previous Lakers games so he could learn from them During a 2014 interview with the New Yorker Bryant compared his identification as the Black Mamba to the fictional character Bruce Banner and his superhero alter ego the Incredible Hulk While Banner and Hulk may share a single body they are two drastically different beings A year later Bryant told sportscaster Ahmad 13
