The Mamba Mentality: How I Play
by Kobe Bryant
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Photos and footage of Bryant with motivational voiceover
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Spoiler:
In this montage of reflections, stories, and motivational quotes, we see Kobe Bryant evolve from a pre-teen who didn't score a single point in an entire summer of team basketball to the scoring machine and 5-time NBA championship winner he became. Crediting his parents with teaching him that hard work reaps results, he urges us to “never rest in the middle” because we can rest at the end. The video, made after his death, also shows mourning fans and fellow players in disbelief over the loss of an icon.
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Bryant explains Mamba mentality over game footage
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Spoiler:
In this short motivational video, Kobe Bryant talks about his habit of getting up at 3:00 a.m. to start training at 4:00. Breaking the day into 2-hour training sessions plus recovery, he shows how this gives him an unbeatable edge over the competition, given how many more sessions he can get in than somebody who starts at 11:00 a.m. He explains that Mamba mentality means simply being the best possible version of yourself.
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Book summary and review in animated format
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403
Apr, 2021
Spoiler:
Asserting that the book is not just for basketball fans but for anyone who wants to reach their goals, the narrator of this animated review shares motivational quotes from the book and describes how Kobe Bryant prepared, mentally and physically, to be the best he could be on the basketball court. The video mentions that one thing that sets this book apart from others in its genre are photographer Andrew Bernstein’s gorgeous shots of the late NBA star.
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Publications
The Washington Post: For NBA, no timeline for healing — but adopting Mamba Mentality is good place to start
CBS Sport: How Kobe Bryant's 'Mamba Mentality' changed the NBA
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"To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?"
“My biggest problem was that I had succeeded, at least in the pursuit of building my company. Where I had failed was with the rest of my life.”
"I wanted to coach women to be the best in the world, but without subscribing to the dominant paradigm that athletes are disposable and that winning was worth just about any price."
"Between 1942 and 1944, an estimated six tons of dental gold were deposited in the vaults of the Reichsbank."
“This book is for... every immigrant who has crossed, who has tried to, who is crossing right now, and who will keep trying.”
"My biggest discovery was that you can literally re-create your life. You can redefine it. You don’t have to live in the past."
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"Over and over, the answer is the same, isn’t it? Love, love, love. The salve and the cure."
"We now have the power to control our genetic future, which is awesome and terrifying. So we must move forward cautiously and with respect for the power we’ve gained."
"Catching greenlights is about skill: intent, context, consideration, endurance, anticipation, resilience, speed, and discipline."
"When you lift up women, you lift up humanity."
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"When you think you're done, you're only at 40% of what your body is capable of doing. That's just the limit we put on ourselves."
"For me, becoming isn't about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self."
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"The minute you start compromising for the sake of massaging somebody's ego, that's it, game over."
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"My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs."
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"The ability to make connections across disciplines—arts and sciences, humanities and technology —is a key to innovation, imagination, and genius."
"I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over."
"I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills."
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."