“What’s Feelings Got to Do with It?“: When Rookie Kobe Bryant Gave Us a Glimpse of Mamba Mentality

Kobe Bryant’s mentality stayed very consistent throughout his NBA career. Whenever he faced debilitating setbacks, the Lakers legend seemed to find himself calmer than ever, trying to figure out how he could get past the situation and improve further. A famous sports psychologist, Bill Beswick recently highlighted a famous anecdote from the Black Mamba’s life to show how the latter’s mindset crafted his career since his early days.

During his rookie season in the NBA, the Lakers made it to the 1997 NBA Playoffs, where they faced faced the Utah Jazz in the Conference Semifinals. In Game 5 of this series, Kobe stepped up to take four massive shots in crunch time but air-balled each and every one of them.

Since he was a rookie at the time, people feared that this failure might take a toll on him, especially given how big the stage was. However, Kobe’s mentality to cope with the failure was beyond astonishing.

Beswick noted,

“At the end of the game, in the interview, the commentators were astounded. ‘This great talent missed all three [four] shots?’ And he was sat down on the bench, and his head was in his hands. And they were talking about how he was feeling, he must feel dreadful…”

“[During the post-game interview] he [Kobe] looked at him [the interviewer]. He said, ‘What’s feeling got to do with it?'”

Beswick then went on to unveil the rest of Bryant’s response and explained why it was the best way that the Lakers star could have dealt with his frustration.

“‘I was working out why I missed those shots. I now know why I missed those shots, and I can do something about it.’ [Kobe added] And that’s a great coping strategy when you have a setback. Setbacks knock you emotionally off balance. But, you’ve got to work beyond the emotion to get to, ‘Why did I have that setback? What can I learn from it? How can I avoid it?'”

Logically, what Beswick is saying does make sense.

However, the process that he mentions is not easy to implement in practice. To separate your failure from yourself and think logically on how to better your flaws is a difficult task.

Yet, it was one that a teenage Kobe adopted without any psychological help. That shows the extent to which he nurtured his Mamba Mentality.

Many players have tried to adopt the Mamba Mentality 

There have been countless players who have tried to adopt Kobe Bryant’s mindset. Out of this list, names such as Jayson Tatum and Devin Booker are noteworthy.

Therefore, Kobe’s legacy lives on within players who take inspiration from his philosophy and try to emulate it.

It was his mentality that inspired his countless fans the most. And perhaps it is because of it, that the NBA may never see a player like him again.