When Kobe Bryant passed away on January 26th, 2020, the tragedy was felt and mourned by people around the globe. Everyone fortunate enough to know him personally had their favorite ‘Kobe Story’ to tell. While most people talked about the five-time NBA Champion’s game, his resilience, and his signature Mamba Mentality, legendary TV show host Conan O’Brien had a different side of Kobe he wanted to highlight.
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Conan talked about Kobe’s passing on his show and said that he’d like to outline Kobe’s underrated humor. O’Brien stated that Kobe was “naturally very funny,” which was something a lot of people didn’t know about.
The veteran TV presenter admitted that he was a “terrific guest.” This was pleasantly surprising for O’Brien because a superstar of his stature doesn’t need to be a great guest. But like most things, Kobe did this differently too.
O’Brien said, “Whenever he was on our show, he was a joy to talk to and he always had the audience in the palm of his hand.”
The TBS host said on his show that in the past 24 hours, he thought about that version of Kobe, the funny guy and a great guest. O’Brien then showed some snippets from their conversations on the show where Kobe cracked jokes and laughed with the host and the audience. In one of the clips, Kobe talked about how he deals with the strict rules against trash-talking in the league.
He said, “Fortunately for me, I speak several languages. So, they don’t know what the hell I’m saying.”
Kobe said that he would use Italian curse words to express himself and let out some frustration while going unnoticed by the refs.
Kobe had explained the Black Mamba persona to Conan
When O’Brien had brought up Kobe’s persona, the Black Mamba, to ask a few questions about the same, the Lakers legend went into great detail to explain what it was all about. He said, “That’s my alter ego…Basically all it is is you become the Black Mamba when I play basketball. Which means that I become a bigger a**hole. That’s all.”
Kobe revealed how having an alter ego helped him get into a different frame of mind, one that’s needed to play competitive sports.
In reality, his personality was very different from that, so he needed something to channel that energy from within. From when he introduced the Black Mamba to the world in the mid-2000s to today, the alter ego has gained its own identity. Now, fans of Kobe have their own versions of the Mamba Mentality which helps them do great things in life.
