When the Dodgers were courting Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese baseball phenomenon, 2024 World Series champion, MLB MVP and Associated Press ‘Athlete of the Year’, the Californian franchise found some reluctance in the Japanese player, who was reluctant to betray the Angels, neighbours of Los Angeles. It was not a question of loyalty or money that prevented the signing. Ohtani, uninterested, had agreed to defer payment of the $700 million for 10 years (a record at the time) in exchange for the Dodgers’ management having enough salary cap room to strengthen the team each season.
It wasn’t that. The Japanese was convinced by the magic of seeing on his side, in his future team, a historic sporting figure. At a time when negotiations with the pitcher-batter were hanging by a thread, the Dodgers showed Ohtani a video of Kobe Bryant and his family celebrating a victory at Dodger Stadium while the NBA legend was showered with blue and white confetti. “It was one of the moments of the meeting, one of the great highlights. I received a strong and moving message,” he said. And he signed. Five years after his tragic death in a helicopter crash, which occurred on January 26, 2020, Kobe’s legend continues to grow, as if his permanent commitment to improvement and excellence, one of his hallmarks in life, would accompany him after death.
Unique mentality
The memory of the fierce competitor that Kobe Bryant was after 20 years in the NBA, where he won five championships with the Lakers (his only team, a unique case of permanence for so long in a franchise) and achieved numerous records, has given way to a higher state, that of the cultural and sporting icon that inspires millions of people and athletes around the world. Bryant’s style, the exclusive dedication to cultivating the sublime in an obsessive way (24 hours, seven days a week) that he adopted as a way of life, “trying to be the best at everything you do”, which has become known as ‘Mamba Mentality’, is still present today.
Kobe’s spirit is everywhere. It can be found in the manufacture of Nike sneakers with some of the current NBA stars such as Devin Booker, DeMar DeRozan or Haliburton; in the business activity that Vanessa, his partner, continues; in the proliferation of murals, each one better than the last, in honor of his person (like the worship of a deity); in the installation of several statues next to the court where he played (two can be seen next to the Crypto.com Arena, but four are planned), in the appearance of awards with his name, in the NBA -to the MVP of the All Star Game- and in the WNBA, a competition of which he was one of its great promoters before the arrival of the phenomenon Caitlin Clark, a player who also idolizes him. Kobe lives on in tattoos, gestures, in plays that he helped to dimension after the Jordan era (NBA basketball), jerseys, awards, university studies, in cinema (he won an Oscar for a documentary), in urban art…
Kobe gives his name to a Clippers player, Kobe Brown, and an NFL Seahawks cornerback, Coby Bryant (who wears the No. 8). He appears wherever you can imagine, on the tattooed back of Ja Morant, the Grizzlies star, and in a recent study by Harvard University. The issue was not the feat of scoring 81 points in a game (Wednesday marked the 19th anniversary of the feat), or his two Olympic gold medals, with the Spanish national team as a victim. His business leadership is valued for multiplying the profits of an energy drink by 67 times, BodyArmor, which competed with Gatorade being tiny and ended up in the hands of Coca-Cola after an extraordinary sale. Bryant invested six million dollars in 2011 and achieved more than 400 in the transaction after dragging with his influence and vision to other athletes, such as James Harden, whom he convinced to dress as a pirate in a spot that was directed and written by himself. That’s how Kobe was, a Leonardo Da Vinci 3.0, whose legacy continues to motivate athletes to be more than just athletes. He led by many examples.
I feel like he’s watching me every time I step on the court, I know I’m not alone, he’s my hero, the reason I play basketball
His influence knows no borders, sports or rivalries. “He’s our GOAT. He’s the Michael Jordan of my era. He did it all. He was the leader of the basketball I grew up with and he motivates me every day,” says Jrue Holiday, point guard for the Celtics, the old enemy of the Lakers, where Kobe is already considered the best of all time ahead of Magic Johnson, although the debate exists. “I can still hear his voice when I think about the workouts I did with him. He was my hero, my idol, the reason I started playing basketball. I know he’s watching us, I’m trying to continue that legacy, and I know I’m not alone. He watches me every time I step on the court,” says Jayson Tatum, the Celtics star who announced a few days ago a new nickname: “The Green Mamba”. There’s no need to explain it. He already wore a purple armband with the number 24 on a visit to L.A. with the Celtics.
He’s our GOAT, he’s the Michael Jordan of my era. He did it all. He was the leader of the basketball I grew up with and he motivates me every day.
Sports reference
Patrick Mahomes, an NFL star who will play in the AFC Championship Game with the Chiefs, says he watches videos of Kobe before playing in the Super Bowl. “I do it to motivate myself,” he said. As if Kobe’s disappearance awakened a latent drive and tenacity in many players to give their best, when he was alive he went on to first emulate his hero (Jordan) and then forge his own path, awakening a singular admiration in an unequivocal horizon of greatness. The hatred of his enemies, he had dozens of them, served as fuel (look at the Nike ad). He also provoked happiness with small gestures, even in rival players who disputed the rings with him. Klay Thompson, now with the Mavericks, recognizes that the best day of his life as a basketball player was not when he won titles with the Warriors (he has four) but in a game in 2014, when after scoring 41 points against the Lakers in Oakland, Kobe, his idol, patted him on the back. “Well done, he told me. And I was happier than ever.”
Host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel goes beyond sports. He says Bryant’s connection to art is unmistakable. He refers to the 630 murals spread across 43 countries around the world. “They are the work of artists who were inspired not because he was a great basketball player but because Kobe was an artist.” One of the most famous, the one that appears on the streets of downtown L.A, in the so-called Fashion District, along with his daughter Giggi and angel wings was about to be demolished. There was a popular mobilization with 90,000 signatures until 2K Games bought the building to prevent it from disappearing. A New York fan paid 1.5 million at auction for the locker he used between 2003 and 2016 and which was changed by the remodeling works of the Krypto.com Arena. From the skies he is the fifth best-selling basketball shoe player after Jordan, LeBron, Durant and Curry. The story is endless. It will continue. He already predicted it with his article in The Players Tribune in 2017. “A lion has to eat. Run with me or run from me.” And they started running.
