When Michael Jordan was playing for the Washington Wizards, he faced off against the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant who was in his prime.
Ironically, Kobe wore some Jordan brand shoes as admiration for his idol.
Jordan said, “You can wear the shoes, but you’ll never fill um.”
After the game, the Laker room was silent. For the next two weeks, Kobe was quiet.
The team asked former Lakers head coach, Phil Jackson, “what’s wrong with Kobe, is he mad at us?”
Jackson said, “No, he’s getting ready to go after Jordan (paraphrasing).”
Kobe took a mental note of the memory and put it into his cookie jar, a phrase I borrowed from Navy Seal, ultra-athlete and all-around badass, David Goggins.
When they met again mid-season, Kobe ended up with 55 points (42 in the first half), and Jordan passed the symbolic torch of GOAT (greatest of all time) for that era to Bryant.
There was never animosity between Jordan and Kobe, just a tight bond of love around their competitive spirits, and this was seen in its truest form during Jordan’s last words in his speech at Kobe’s Memorial, when he said, “Please, rest in peace little brother.”
At times, we need to reach into our cookie jar and pull out a throwback memory and let it fuel our fire so we can tackle our goals.
This blog post is dedicated to Kobe “Bean” Bryant.
Thanks for sharing the Mamba Mentality.