Kobe Bryant has become a bigger motivation to any basketball fan than even his idol Michael Jordan. His legends have crossed the boundaries of the sporting world and grows to motivate several as we speak.
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The Mamba Mentality is now a world-famous mantra for success and dealing with the problems that stop you from attaining the success you wish for. And also to keep pushing the boundaries of that success as you keep achieving them one by one.
Kobe defined that mentality over his 20-year-long career in the NBA. A career that starts with him as a young ignored player at the start of his career in the biggest franchise of the multi-billion dollar sport, to becoming the face of that franchise for the longest time.
Let’s get to one of the stories of how the man who wanted to be like Mike or even better, motivated himself to win a championship without Shaquille O’Neal, against a very solid Boston Celtics team.
Sue Bird’s Kobe Bryant moment
The USA’s basketball national teams were in the 2008 Beijing Olympics under the leadership of Kobe Bryant (Men’s) and Sue Bird (Women’s). The men’s team termed the ‘Redeem Team’, was there to win back the Olympic Gold having lost it to Argentina in 2004.
But Bryant, having just lost the NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics, had revenge going on in his head all the time. And when he was at the player’s lounge for a drink, the women’s basketball team was playing spades, he saw a newspaper with the NBA Finals story on it.
“He came in, and we were drinking a little wine, playing some Spades, just chilling, and he came in, sat down, poured himself a glass, and he was kind of reading a paper,” Bird recollected. “So, he opens up the paper, and there’s this article about [the Finals], and there’s a picture of Paul Pierce. We look over, and he’s tearing out the picture of Paul Pierce, and he cuts it out, and he folds it up, and he puts it in his pocket. And we’re all looking at him, like, ‘What’s going on?’”
The answer was short, crisp, and classic Kobe, “motivation”. Sure enough, he would lead his side to back-to-back championships after going back to the States, having helped USMNT reclaim Gold against his Lakers’ teammate Pau Gasol-led Spain.
Did Kobe get his revenge on Pierce?
The Truth was the Finals MVP in 2008 when the Celtics beat Kobe’s Lakers in 6 games. The C’s didn’t make it to the Finals the next year, where Bryant went on to win a 4th title and First FMVP after defeating the Dwight Howard-led Orlando Magic.
Kobe did get the chance to get things even with Pierce as his team again made it to the Finals in 2010. Although the Lakers went down 2-3 in the series, Bryant had the last laugh as he led his side to two straight victories and the championship, by scoring game-highs of 26 and 23 points, in the final two games.
Black Mamba also won his second and final FMVP for averaging a series-high 28.6 points along with 8 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 2.1 steals per game.
