It's been 731 days since Kobe Bryant's sudden death, and the pain caused by the tragedy has not been alleviated much by the passage of time.
The way to honor a great star is certainly not to indulge in pain, but to inherit Bryant's Mamba spirit and pass it on. In 731 days, the entire basketball world and even the entire sports world are inheriting Kobe's "Mamba spirit".
And this, in itself, is Kobe's expectation of the younger generation. In Bryant's posthumous book, The Mamba Spirit, Bryant writes, "Whenever I hear someone talk about the 'Mamba Spirit,' whether he's an elite college player, an NBA player, or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, I feel like it makes a lot of sense. Whenever someone talks about the inspiration they have received from the 'mamba spirit', I feel that all my hard work and sweat have not been in vain. ”
Lore
In Game 2 of the 2020 Western Conference Finals, 2 seconds before the end of the game, the Lakers trailed the Nuggets 102-103. Prior to this, Caruso and Danny Green missed a counter-attack, but fortunately the ball was still in the hands of the Lakers.
Similar desperate situations, Kobe Bryant has faced countless times in his career, and he has never been afraid of pressure. In Kobe's interpretation of the Mamba spirit, ignoring the pressure when the situation is grim, carrying the team on his shoulders, and completing the winning blow is part of it.
"I don't feel the pressure at all, I know what I want to accomplish and what it takes to achieve those goals, and I always believe that my efforts will pay off." People are always fussing about all kinds of so-called kills, but in fact, it is just a shot after all. If you hit a shot once a day, it's one in a thousand. If you can shoot that much every day, just one shot counts for nothing. ”
At this moment, the successor to the kobe mamba spirit is Anthony Davis.
The Lakers sent a bottom line ball, Davis ran to the left wing to receive the ball directly to shoot three points, the ball into the basket, the Lakers killed the Nuggets. After hitting the deadly three-pointer, Davis shouted "Kobe" excitedly.
Wearing a black mamba shirt and helping the team win games in the most kobe way, Davis interpreted the mamba spirit – you have to give everything for the game, for the team.
Only in this way can we win. Only in this way can we be great.
"I just flew to the flanks and took a shot when the team's life was hanging, and that was a mamba shot. That's right, I shouted 'Kobe', I'm wearing a black mamba shirt, I don't want to lose," Davis said after the game, "We've seen Kobe Bryant hit countless of these kills in the regular season, in the playoffs, in the Finals, so it's a special goal for me and the Lakers." ”
Comeback
On April 12, 2013, three minutes before the end of the Lakers- warriors' battle, Kobe Bryant suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon and was seriously injured. At the moment of the injury, Bryant had realized that there was a problem with the Achilles tendon, and he already had a premonition that he would be reimbursed for the surgical season.
From the historical case, the Achilles tendon injury is almost invincible, among the stars who have suffered a serious Achilles tendon injury before, only Wilkins has played an All-Star level performance after his comeback, and the others have either plummeted physically and athletically, or simply retired.
"I'm taking tendon injuries as a whole new challenge, people say I can't come back, but I know I can't be knocked down by injuries. It was then that I decided I had to conquer that mountain. Bryant wrote in the book Mamba Spirit.
Kobe Bryant is eager to change his life, he returned to the court with a perverted training passion, because of age and other injuries, Kobe Bryant in the last 3 years of his career attendance plummeted, the competitive state declined, he finally did not escape the devastation of the Achilles tendon injury, but Kobe Bryant's training, rehabilitation attitude and way after the serious injury still brought inspiration to the younger generation.
In 2019, after Durant suffered a serious Achilles tendon injury in the Finals, Bryant gave him a lot of advice, such as not rushing to come back, such as not neglecting strength training during recovery. Even Durant himself said it was the Mamba spirit that sustained him through a long period of recovery.
On the day Kobe Bryant suffered a serious Achilles tendon injury, Klay Thompson was his on-court opponent. In November 2020, Thompson also suffered a serious Achilles tendon injury, the second time in more than a year that he suffered a serious lower limb injury. During his long recovery, Thompson took the "Mamba Spirit" that Kobe Bryant gave him to get inspiration from it.
Today, Durant has made a perfect comeback, and he has performed even better in some ways than before the injury. Thompson has just comeback and hasn't adjusted to the point yet, but he also has hope of returning to where he once was.
persist
In today's league, the most Kobe-like play is probably DeRozan. This season, DeRozan averaged 26.3 points, 5 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, and the Bulls' introduction of DeRozan was the "most face-slapping operation of the season."
So far this season, DeRozan has worn Kobe's boots to complete Kobe's same three-point shoot-offs, turn mid-range jump shots, dribble dry jump shots, etc., and he is recognized as "Kobe's successor" at the technical level. In this era of three-point and data analysis, DeRozan is an outlier, he is a defender of the classical mid-range play, and he is proving that Kobe's play is not outdated.
DeRozan's reputation plummeted after the rise of three-point and data analytics, and experts believe that mid-range shots and singles are the least effective offensive methods, and these authoritative views have weakened DeRozan's value. After joining the Spurs, DeRozan was not related to the All-Star, and few teams were even willing to pay DeRozan a high salary last offseason.
But Bryant has long said that basketball analysis can not rely on data alone, data can not show any emotion, can not show how and why players can play that kind of data, the use of data requires feeling and awareness of what is behind the data.
This season, DeRozan proved the flaws of data analysis with super performances, confirming Bryant's point of view. Basketball is a living object without life, but people are living bodies with feelings. Inefficient in mid-range shots and singles? DeRozan relied on this style of play to shoot a 58.2 percent true shooting percentage. Although it is not up to the level of Durant and James, it is also an elite level of scoring efficiency, and he has also entered the MVP discussion.
Now DeRozan is approaching what Kobe calls "invulnerable", and the opponent knows what DeRozan is going to do, but he can't stop it. DeRozan is still not a prolific and efficient three-point shooter, but after day after day of polishing, his three-pointer has risen to a level that opponents dare not underestimate.
succeed
In 2017 and 2019, Bryant challenged "Alphabet Brother" Antetokounmpo twice, encouraging him to win the MVP and the championship.
In 2017, Antetokounmpo had shown the potential to become a superstar, but the Bucks only had a record of 42 wins and 40 losses, and he was still close to becoming an MVP. In 2019, Antetokounmpo has already won the MVP, but the Bucks folded the Eastern Conference Finals, and Antetokounmpo only missed the championship.
Bryant saw his own shadow in Antetokounmpo, who had participated in the team's rebuilding process, and after years of hard work, he finally reached his peak through hard work day and night. Bryant hopes that Antetokounmpo can be like him, and he can take personal honors and team honors.
"Kobe Bryant challenged me, and at first I thought he was joking with me because I felt it was too far away from me, but Kobe believed I could do it," Antetokounmpo said, "so I have to do it, I'm going to get the MVP and lead the team on a higher level." ”
In 2021, Antetokounmpo did it. Like Kobe Bryant, Antetokounmpo chose to stick to the mother team, he did not abandon the ship to escape because of a momentary failure, and he finally led the Bucks to the championship. So far, Antetokounmpo has two MVP trophies, an overall championship trophy and a finals MVP trophy.
"I didn't want to disappoint Kobe, so I worked hard, which is why I stayed with the Bucks because I didn't want to disappoint."
When the Bucks won the championship, Kobe's best friend Paul Gasol retweeted Kobe Bryant's 2019 tweet challenging Antetokounmpo, writing: "Bro, he did it. ”
epilogue
The "Mamba Spirit" does not have a complete, fixed answer, and diligence, tenacity, fearlessness, never accept defeat, loyalty, etc. can all be regarded as part of the "Mamba Spirit".
Bryant himself has explained the "Mamba Spirit" many times, and in his view, it is a mode of thinking, which is not about seeking results, but about how to achieve results, and the process from reality to goal.
So in the basketball world, you can find a lot of different mamba spiritual interpreters. It is a pity that the Slovaks have passed away, but there are so many descendants in the basketball world who are willing to inherit the spirit of Mamba, which is enough to comfort Kobe.