Kobe Bryant’s ‘Mamba mentality’, celebrated as his enduring basketball legacy, was powered by his incessant drive toward perfection and greatness. A competitive spirit that was so important for Kobe that he did not want to make friends or maintain friendships, if that meant slacking on his game. NBA lifer Byron Scott, who was teammates with the 18-year-old rookie Bryant, recalled this while describing his first locker-room impressions of the legend.
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Kobe had an uncanny ability to leave an impression on everyone, from teammates and coaches to opponents. Needless to say, the impressions, and opinions varied based on which side of the fence the person stood. Scott had the good fortune to be Kobe’s teammate and later his coach.
On his podcast, Scott told former sixth-man extraordinaire Lou Williams that it was quickly apparent that Kobe had what it took to be great.
“I didn’t come here to get friends, I came here to win. I want to be one of the best … no, I want to be one of the greatest of all time,” Scott recounted Kobe as saying on Byron Scott’s Fast Break.
Scott, by the time he met Kobe, had seen enough of the game to measure potential in a young player. He had spent most of his playing days as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. And after two seasons in Indiana and one in Vancouver, Scott returned to the purple and gold for the final season of his career in 1996, coinciding with Bryant’s entry.
Even though his teammate was only a pup, Scott knew he was serious. “I looked at him, I saw the way he practiced all day, and I said, ‘Yeah, you will be.'”
Williams, who played for 17 years in the NBA himself, understood just how rare that kind of work ethic was for a player that young. Kobe was one of the most talented players to ever play the game. But he also understood that to be the greatest, he needed to work the hardest. That’s what made him special, and that’s what the Mamba mentality was all about.
Kobe went on to win five championships and an MVP on the way to fulfilling his dream of becoming one of the greatest of all time. And, just as he was there when Scott retired, the NBA circle of life became complete when Scott returned to L.A. to coach Bryant during the final two seasons of his extraordinary career.
Kobe’s will to win never faded in his 20-year career
Even when his playing days were nearing an end, Kobe’s drive never diminished. Current Minnesota Timberwolf Julius Randle spent the first four years of his career with the Lakers. He witnessed Kobe’s intensity firsthand.
Randle recalled an incident from his rookie season that perfectly summed up how competitive Kobe was.
Randle appeared on Carmelo Anthony’s 7PM in Brooklyn podcast this summer to tell the story, saying that there was a commotion in the locker room and that when he went to check, there was “ice and candy on the floor.” And Kobe was “damn near in tears because they lost four games in a row” at the beginning of the season.
What impressed Randle so much was that Kobe already had five championships and was still recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. Yet he still had that same intense desire to win. Even that torn Achilles couldn’t totally keep Kobe down, as he famously stayed in the game after tearing it to sink two free throws, proving once again that there have been few if any players that could match his competitiveness.
Kobe played his last game over eight years ago. And of course, he had to end it in his own signature way by dropping 60 points on the Utah Jazz. As incredible as that was, nobody who had ever watched him was surprised.
