Elsa/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — “Mamba mentality” is more than a mantra uttered by ambitious athletes — it was the driving force behind Kobe Bryant and his efforts to inspire and foster player development, particularly within women’s basketball.
The basketball legend tragically died along with eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., on Sunday while en route to a youth basketball tournament at his Thousand Oaks, Calif., training facility, Mamba Sports Academy.
Sunday was part of the first weekend of 2020 games in the inaugural Mamba Cup tournament, and the event was canceled in the wake of the news.
Kobe Bryant’s involvement in youth and pre-professional basketball
After his storied 20-year NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers ended with his 2016 retirement, the five-time NBA champion began to coach Gianna’s middle school basketball team.
“We’ve been working together for a year and a half and they’ve improved tremendously in that time,” Bryant said in an interview with “Entertainment Tonight” in 2018. “I’ve got a group of great parents, a group of really, really intelligent, hardworking girls, and — they’re all seventh graders, they’re all 12 years old — but they’ve been playing so well.”
The two-time Olympic gold medalist continued to grow the game he cherished for generations to come through youth programs in Southern California.
In 2018, he announced a partnership with a multi-sport training facility in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and re-branded it as the Mamba Sports Academy. The academy opened in 2019.
Game on.