Kobe Bryant has always been all about challenges. Come anything that may come forth, Kobe would be willing to accept the challenge and wring it till he can achieve the most out of it. This formed the core of his ‘Mamba mentality’ philosophy, which continues to inspire generations of athletes.
Many of Kobe Bryant’s former teammates have highly spoken of the Mamba’s work ethic, which they witnessed first-hand while playing for the Lakers. In a 2021 appearance on the KarterKast Podcast, former Lakers point guard Chris Duhon revealed a hilarious story of the Mamba betting $5000 with him to score a triple-double in a game.
The years between 2012 and 2013 marked the dawn of Kobe Bryant’s career, with him handling most of the scoring for his team and accepting a veteran role to mold the younger players recruited to the Lakers. Hence, scoring triple-doubles was something Bryant hardly used to do anymore. Challenging Kobe to score a triple-double, Duhon recalled,
“I was sitting next to him at the time and I was like ‘LeBron gets another triple-double.’ ‘Your a– ain’t never gonna get one of those, your a– don’t pass.'”
Kobe, being himself, took this challenge personally and was ready to prove otherwise. Duhon further recalls, “He starts laughing. ‘ I’ll bet you $5000 I get a triple-double the next game.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, bet it.’ Sure enough, he was one assist and one rebound shy at halftime.”
In the next game, Bryant scored 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists. Duhon was quite in awe of Mamba’s resilience in overcoming and living up to challenges. He added, “We talked after the game and it just goes to his mindset. ‘If I wanted to, I could get a triple-double every game. But my team needs me to score, and I want to take the hearts out of anyone that’s guarding me. That’s just the Mamba Mentality.'”
This gives us quite a fair picture of how Kobe’s thirst for winning and proving himself never rescinded till the last game of his career. There is a reason why Kobe scored 60 points in his last NBA game, marking an incredible farewell for himself from the league. Though Kobe may not remain with us today, he is still regarded as arguably one of the greatest players to set foot on the court.
