Por Que Kobe Chamado De Black Mamba?
(CNN) -- Kobe Bryant estaba en la cima del mundo en 2003 cuando lideró a los Lakers de Los Ángeles en una racha de victorias. Pero todo se vino abajo después de que la estrella fue acusada de agresión sexual.
Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers celebrates victory with his family following Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Orlando Magic at Amway Arena on June 14, 2009 in Orlando, Florida. The Lakers won the National Basketball Association champio...
"I always aimed to kill the opposition," wrote Bryant (via The Players' Tribune). "The main thing LeBron [James, Bryant's Team USA Olympics teammate] and I discussed was what constitutes a killer mentality. He watched how I approached every single practice, and I constantly challenged him and the rest of the guys. I remember there was one half when we were messing around. I came into the locker room at half-time and asked the guys — in a less PG manner — what in the hell we were doing. In the second half, LeBron responded in a big way — he came out with a truly dominant mindset. And I've seen him lead that way ever since."
"I had to separate myself," Kobe said during the documentary. "It felt like there were so many things coming at once. It was just becoming very, very confusing. I had to organize things. So I created the 'Black Mamba.'"
The Lakers' Kobe Bryant drives his way to the basket around 76ers' Andre Iguodala in the second quarter Sunday night, December 31, 2006 at Staples Center. (Photo by Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Nike también celebró un "Día de la Mamba" para honrar su retiro en 2016, y cuando murió, la marca emitió una declaración que decía: "Era un miembro querido de la familia Nike. Lo extrañaremos mucho. Mamba para siempre".
In his 2015 documentary Muse, Kobe revealed that he created The Black Mamba alter-ego to help him deal with the difficulties during the lowest point of his life in 2003 and 2004. Per Kobe:
"It was just f*** everyone. I'm destroying everybody that steps on the court," he said in Muse. "I had all this pent-up frustration that I just needed to let out. It was an avalanche, man. There was nothing that was going to get in the way. There was nothing that was going to stop me."
Un alter ego inspirado en 'Kill Bill'
While on the foul line shooting two free throws with 43.4 seconds left in the game, the Staples Center crowd began chanting MVP-MVP-MVP. Although the Lakers didn’t have much luck that season, Bryant would soon put the Lakers back on the NBA map.
While hundreds of millions of people across the globe recognize Bryant's face and name, many may not be aware of his Black Mamba epithet, what it actually means, or how it came to be. Here's the real reason why Kobe Bryant was called Black Mamba.
Bryant's alter ego certainly did him quite a few favors throughout his stellar NBA career. He utilized the assassin-like mentality to drill shots against his opponents and came up in the clutch in the most crucial of the moments.
LA Lakers guard Kobe Bryant gestures before the Boston Celtics went on to win 103-94 in game two of the NBA finals at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on June 6, 2010. The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers are not only seeking their 16th N...
Bryant expanded on these thoughts in his book The Mamba Mentality, describing how he channeled his alter ego in constructive ways to encourage his fellow pro basketball players to strive for excellence.
It can be recalled that in 2003, Bryant was charged with sexual assault in Colorado. Although the case was dropped on September 1, 2004, Bryant said in the documentary that his family came close to breaking up after the incident.
As it happens, Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill also inspired the name of Bryant's alter-ego. Bryant shared with The New Yorker's Ben McGrath in a March 2014 profile that he watched Kill Bill, which follows a woman on a path of revenge after her lover (the titular Bill) and his team of assassins attempt to kill her and her unborn baby, and found it cool that the main character, Uma Thurman's Bride, used the code name "Black Mamba." Bryant revealed that after seeing the film, "I read up on the animal and said, 'Wow, this is pretty awesome.' This is a perfect description of how I would want my game to be."
Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers celebrates victory in the closing moments of Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Orlando Magic at Amway Arena on June 14, 2009 in Orlando, Florida. The Lakers won the National Basketball Association champio...
So, there you have it: Kobe Bryant's "Black Mamba" nickname began as an alter ego used to re-focus his mind and evolved into something much bigger and more profound. The late basketball icon (and Academy Award-winning film writer) should also be remembered as such: much more than just a superstar athlete.
"The length, the snake, the bite, the strike, the temperament," Bryant said during the interview. "'Let me look this s--- up.' I looked it up — yeah, that's me. That's me!'"
Shane has been writing online sports articles since 2013. If he isn't telling basketball stories on BN, he's just chillin' at home with his wife and three Golden Retrievers named Ranger, Horry, and Fisher.
Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers celebrates victory with his daughter following Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Orlando Magic at Amway Arena on June 14, 2009 in Orlando, Florida. The Lakers won the National Basketball Association champ...
It makes sense that Bryant would pick the black mamba as the creature to symbolize his more animalistic side: black mamba snakes, native to the savannas and hills of certain areas of Africa, are described as "lethally venomous," "highly aggressive" when threatened, and among the deadliest snakes in the world (via National Geographic). Bryant himself once explained that black mambas have a near-perfect accuracy rate for striking "at maximum speed, in rapid succession," and that that's "the kind of basketball precision" he was aiming for (via The Los Angeles Times).
"It's not an attitude, per se, but it's a way to live, which is just trying to get better every single day," he detailed. "It's not something where you live with a bravado or anything like that. It's just the simplest form of just trying to get better at whatever it is that you're doing [...] That's all my mentality is, is just trying to get better every single day."
Kobe Bryant (L) and Derek Fisher celebrate after defeating the Orlando Magic in Game 5 of the NBA finals at Amway Arena on June 14, 2009 in Orlando, Florida. The Lakers won the National Basketball Association championships defeating Orlando 99-8...
Inspirado por el nombre en clave de una asesina mortal en la película de 2003 de Quentin Tarantino Kill Bill, Bryant adoptó el apodo para separar su vida dentro y fuera de la cancha, según una entrevista de 2014 con The New Yorker.
The lawsuit was ultimately settled out of court, but the experience had a lasting effect on Bryant, who built the "Black Mamba" persona as a way to "separate" himself into two parts and gain some control over his life.
Creando la marca 'Mamba'
Y junto a él se fueron 20 años de legado y una carrera excepcional, que lo pone a la par de Michael Jordan como uno de los mejores de la historia. Así, de esa magnitud es la estrella de Black Mamba.
"El nombre [Kobe Bryant] solo evoca una emoción tan negativa", dijo Bryant a la revista. "Dije: 'Si creo este alter ego, entonces cuando juego esto es lo que sale de tu boca, separa las cosas personales, ¿verdad?' No estás viendo a David Banner, estás viendo a Hulk".