The Mamba Mentality: How I Play

by Kobe Bryant

May you find the power in understanding the journey of others to help create your own.

One of the qualities that has made Kobe so successful, and always will, is his attention to detail. He always used to tell us: if you want to be a better player, you have to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more.

Kobe knew that to be the best you need a different approach from everyone else.

When everyone else was thinking it was time for bed, his mind was telling him it’s time to get ahead of the competition.

James Naismith is credited with having said “basketball is an easy game to play, but a difficult game to master.”

if I wanted to implement something new into my game, I’d see it and try incorporating it immediately. I wasn’t scared of missing, looking bad, or being embarrassed. That’s because I always kept the end result, the long game, in my mind.

I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my game, but I also wasn’t willing to sacrifice my family time. So I decided to sacrifice sleep, and that was that.

I went from watching what was there to watching for what was missing and should have been there. I went from watching what happened to what could have and should have happened.

By reading, by paying attention in class and in practice, by working, I strengthened my focus. By doing all of that, I strengthened my ability to be present and not have a wandering mind.

The key, though, is being aware of how you’re feeling and how you need to be feeling. It all starts with awareness.

If you really want to be great at something, you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it. A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness. They have other concerns, whether important or not, and they spread themselves out. That’s totally fine. After all, greatness is not for everybody.

greatness isn’t easy to achieve. It requires a lot of time, a lot of sacrifices. It requires a lot of tough choices. It requires your loved ones to sacrifice, too, so you have to have an understanding circle of family and friends.

That’s the best advice I can give: listen to your body, and warm up with purpose.

My cardio workouts centered around recovery—that is, the time it takes to recover in between sprints.

It wasn’t a matter of whether it was an option or not. It was, if I want to play, this is what I have to do, so I’d just show up and do it.

You have to enter every activity, every single time, with a want and need to do it to the best of your ability.

It’s safe to say I would not have been able to play as well or as long without her as my physical therapist.

had to, even on one ankle, keep the advantage in my court and never let the defense force me to do something I didn’t want to do. That was the key here, and that’s the key always.

After researching the matter, it became apparent that tap dancing was going to be the best way to build up my ankle strength while simultaneously improving my foot speed and rhythm.

One of the main takeaways was that you have to work hard in the dark to shine in the light.

if you want to win championships, you have to let people focus on what they do best while you focus on what you do best. For him, that was rebounding, running the floor, and blocking shots.

The mindset isn’t about seeking a result—it’s more about the process of getting to that result. It’s about the journey and the approach. It’s a way of life. I do think that it’s important, in all endeavors, to have that mentality.

How did I respond to that? By getting on an intense weight-training program. By the start of the next season, my legs and arms were stronger and I was ready to get it on.

Yes, you might have known I preferred to go one way. That didn’t ultimately matter, because I could just as easily go the other way. Yeah, you might have also thought you knew my cadence and rhythm, except—I didn’t have one.