The clutch gene is not really something that can be taught. It’s a quality that an athlete just has embedded into their system. Kobe Bryant was a prime example of a player who came up in the clutch so often that you’d think he wrote the book on delivering under pressure. Funnily enough, Kobe did learn how to be clutch…from his daughter Natalia.
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In a 2014 interview with the New York Times, the Black Mamba recalled a conversation he had with Natalia, who was just 11 years old at the time. Natty had just gone back to school, and used to get nervous when in math. “Her hands would get really clammy,” said Kobe. But then he asked her how she got over that fear, and her answer changed his perspective forever.
“I started thinking that once you take a math test, it’s done. I’m going to wake up the next day,” Natalia told her father. The nonchalant attitude of his 11-year-old offspring sort of flipped a switch in Kobe’s mind.
Bryant then hammered the point home. “It may be a good day, it may be a bad one, but the cycle continues, no matter what happens on the math test. The pressure of taking a final shot or needing a major stop may matter in the moment, but Kobe knew that after the moment was over, life went on.
It’s a brilliant viewpoint from one of the NBA’s greatest icons. A player whose competitive edge always rose above when the spotlight from the game shone the brightest. It’s also a sad and somber recollection knowing how much the Mamba loved his daughter — and how heartbreaking it is that he’s no longer here.
Kobe loved the game, but he loved teaching his daughter, Gigi about it more
Kobe Bryant is the player, Kobe Bryant is the father, and Kobe Bryant is the teacher. For his daughter Gianna, he was all three. The Black Mamba once spoke in detail about how much he enjoyed teaching Gigi the game that he loves.
“It’s been awesome,” he said to USA Today in what was his final interview.. “You get to see them grow and develop and get better. It’s more important than the game itself that you understand that their confidence as young women grows tremendously through playing the sport and you have to be mindful of that.”
Even though Kobe and Gigi have been gone for five years, their impact on the basketball world is still felt. Tears are still shed for the loss. Love is still displayed in their memory. And like most of the clutch things Kobe did in basketball, they will live forever.
