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“Kobe Bryant was competing like it was the Finals!”: Lakers’ Russell Westbrook recalls how the Black Mamba taught him Mamba Mentality during a friendly pickup in UCLA

Arun Sharma
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"Kobe Bryant was competing like it was the Finals!": Lakers' Russell Westbrook recalls how the Black Mamba taught him Mamba Mentality during a friendly pickup in UCLA

Lakers’ Russell Westbrook fondly recalls the lessons Kobe Bryant taught him during a friendly pickup game from his UCLA days

Russell Westbrook is an NBA great who made triple-doubles sound ordinary. Despite all he has achieved, Russ doesn’t like to forget his humble beginnings. Russell Westbrook grew up loving the Los Angeles Lakers, as any LA kid did. His idols, as he recently revealed were Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant. After getting drafted and spending the majority of his career in Oklahoma City, Russ spent a season each in Houston and Washington. This summer, he got traded to the Lakers, and finally now plays for the team he grew up admiring.

Also Read: “Kevin Durant vs Kobe Bryant for the 9th greatest player of all time is a real argument”: Bill Simmons makes a controversial statement on Zach Lowe’s podcast

Russell now plays for the same team as his idol- donning the famous purple and gold. Back in his hometown, playing in front of his home crowd, the same arena his idol played in. He may get flak for turning over the ball too much, or shooting bricks: but one thing you cannot fault him for is his attitude. Russ epitomizes hard work—giving it his all on the court, leaving nothing on the table. His stat lines may seem ordinary to us now, but if someone else had the same like he did, they would be praising them to no end. This hard work, he learnt from his idol himself, the late Kobe Bryant.

Russell Westbrook embodies the Mamba Mentality perfectly

Not even a few months into being a Laker, Russell Westbrook is producing his own documentary. For advertising the same, he went on Jimmy Kimmel live. It was a fun episode, and there were a lot of things discussed. One of those: how Kobe Bryant taught a young Russell Westbrook the Mamba Mentality.

The late Kobe Bryant met a young Russell when he was at UCLA, where he got to play a game of pickup with him. Imagine a young Westbrook, playing against a prime Kobe Bryant, who just lost the finals to the Celtics. Yeah, you thought correctly, Westbrook was always going to get beat badly. We all heard stories of Kobe’s relentless mindset to be the best- the same inspired Westbrook too.

“The No. 1 lesson I got in that is that watching him — and to this day I think we all know it as the Mamba Mentality — but when I was younger and watching him, he was competing like it was the Finals. And to me, it was so inspiring because it allowed me to understand, this is what you need to be like, regardless of where you’re at, what you’re doing, however you’re playing. And I took that attitude and ran with it.”

Also Read: “I want to get 20/20/20 even if LeBron James is playing!”: Russell Westbrook reveals his outrageous goals for his debut season with the LA Lakers

To get an opportunity like that, to duel the great Black Mamba in his prime in itself is a great experience. Even though Russ didn’t win, he sure got lessons for life.

Even though he’s had a shaky start with the Lakers, it’s still the preseason. The first game that actually matters is when the Lakers host the Warriors on the 19th.

About the author

Arun Sharma

Arun Sharma

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Arun Sharma is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. A double degree holder and a digital marketer by trade, Arun has always been a sports buff. He fell in love with the sport of basketball at a young age and has been a Lakers fan since 2006. What started as a Kobe Bryant obsession slowly turned into a lifelong connection with the purple and gold. Arun has been an ardent subscriber to the Mamba mentality and has shed tears for a celebrity death only once in his life. He believes January 26, 2020, was the turning point in the passage of time because Kobe was the glue holding things together. From just a Lakers bandwagoner to a basketball fanatic, Arun has spent 16 long years growing up along with the league. He thinks Stephen Curry has ruined basketball forever, and the mid-range game is a sight to behold. Sharma also has many opinions about football (not the American kind), F1, MotoGP, tennis, and cricket.

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