In his retirement, Kobe Bryant has softened the killer instinct that defined his NBA career and has gone on to become an Oscar winner, accomplished author, and passionate poet. But it's hard for someone like Bryant to stay away from the basketball court altogether. So when it comes to coaching his daughter's AAU team, Kobe puts on his black mask and reintroduces the Mamba Mentality, which was on full display when Bryant spent several days celebrating the Mambas' massive victory.
On Monday, Kobe posted a picture of his AAU team celebrating their 115-27 victory. While there's much to be said about Bryant letting his team run up the score, anyone that's followed Kobe's career knows that he'll take any chance he can to enact revenge. Especially when the Mambas lost to the same team two years ago by one point, which Kobe pointed out in the photo's caption.
For any normal parent, that would be enough. But, Kobe was just getting started. In another post, he explained that two years ago, the team won a fourth-place trophy. Bryant told the team not to throw the trophy away, but to look at it every day and use it as fuel and motivation.
"Cry about it or be about it was my message," Kobe wrote. "They chose to be about it."
The following day, Kobe posted a picture of the team that "won" fourth place in 2017. From the image, his followers noticed that the players weren't pleased, and Kobe's face showed that he wasn't satisfied either. He also proved that his vengeful memory shows no age limit as he sent a slight shot at the players that chose to pursue other passions over basketball.
"Here’s our fourth place 'winners' picture lol six of the kids in the picture stayed with me and worked every single day to get better and continue to work to this day," Kobe captioned the post. "The 7th player (not in pic) missed this game for a dance recital so that should tell you where her focus was at this time. From the original 7 we have added a player TWO years YOUNGER (6th grade now), a player who’s team in our area folded and a player who’s family moved here from Tennessee. The beauty of coaching is growing the players from the ground up. That journey continues."
There's no reason that Kobe shouldn't be excited about his team's progression. Still, some people joked that he was going a little too hard for a youth basketball tournament. But honestly, it's crazy to expect anything less from a guy who scored 63 points as an 8-year-old.
It wasn’t long before Kobe caught wind of the mini-backlash, and began responding to various tweets.
