Kobe Bryant revealed the real meaning of the Mamba Mentality in a text to the late John Altobelli. Bryant and Altobelli were together at the time the helicopter crash happened.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan, MLB insider, recently shared a message Kobe sent to Altobelli. He was a personal friend to Kobe, and the Black Mamba helped him out on one occasion he needed to overcome a mini-crisis with the Orange Coast College baseball team.
The text was sent on March 28, 2019:
Via ESPN’s Jeff Passan:
“By all means feel sorry for yourself. By all means make excuses. By all means feel discouraged. By all means don’t play like this game is the most important thing to you. By all means entertain yourself with other sh*t because the game of baseball will be here forever and you will have infinite opportunities to play this game. You will infinite opportunities to put on your gear, feel the glove, the ball, etc. The game of baseball will wait for you. Life will wait for you.
“It’s not as life can be taken away from you at any moment. Nooo that would be crazy, that would be cruel. Right? So, by all means, play the game as if [you] will have all the swings you can dream of and when the day comes when you realize baseball, that life doesn’t work that way, you will understand that the best [way] to play is by ANY MEANS necessary. By any means. No excuses. No waiting. F*ck patience. F*ck injuries and f*ck THEM. PLAY as if every at bat may be ur last because it very f*cking well could be. So let’s make every single f*cking one count. Lets go get these f*ckers!”
-Kobe
He lived the Mamba Mentality and never hesitated to share his philosophy to the world and the generation of athletes that came after him. Even though Kobe left this world earlier than we all wanted or expected, he made the most out of every one of his days.
