Mamba Day Explained Through Kobe’s Two Jerseys

We talk through what Mamba Day really means and why 8/24 is bigger than highlights, jerseys, or nostalgia. We break down Kobe Bryant versus the Black Mamba and explain how Mamba Mentality shows up in the NBA, the WNBA, and anyone chasing a standard.  

• Why August 24 becomes Mamba Day through 8 and 24  
• The other key dates tied to Kobe’s legacy, including April 13  
• The Black Mamba as an alter ego built for focus  
• Mamba Mentality as detail, obsession, film study and learning through failure  
• Kobe’s influence on Kyrie Irving, Jason Tatum and Devin Booker  
• The Mamba family tree in the WNBA with Diana Taurasi, Jewell Loyd, Arike Ogunbowale and Sabrina Ionescu  
• Why legacy has to become story, not just highlights  
• Our favorite Kobe moments and questions for listeners  

Please make sure to hit that like and subscribe button, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show.  

Transcript

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Welcome And Mamba Day Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:08

What's up, everybody? It's your favorite show, it's favorite show, get a bucket. I'm your host, Trey, as usual. Hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Today we're gonna talk about Mamba Day. Yes, sir, it's Mamba Day, baby. If you don't know what it is, you're gonna find out. But before we do that, please make sure to hit that like and subscribe button, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. Trying to get the ratings up a little bit, you know, just a little bit. And if you're wondering where you heard this before, that's because you've been listening with me Monday through Friday at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So I greatly appreciate your

Why August 24 Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:36

support. Now, like I said, Mamba Day, right? Every year, August 24th means something different to basketball fans. 824, it's two numbers, two different eras, one player, and that's Kobe being Bryant. Mamba Day isn't supposed to be just another day, though, right? Like, like we're not just going to be posting about the 81-point game highlights, throw on a Lakers jersey. Yeah, Kobe, we rock with Kobe. That's not what this is about. Mamba Day represents something bigger because there's Kobe Bryant, and then there's Black Mamba, right? There's two, those are two different entities. And understanding the difference between those two helps explain why years after Kobe played his final NBA game versus Jazz, you watch Kyrie, Jason Tatum, Devin Booker. We saw DT before she retired, Jewel Lloyd, Arique Goombawale, Sabrina Ianescu, and countless other players, and still see a piece of Kobe Bryant. So today on 824, I want to talk about what Mama Day actually means. Because when we're talking about basketball, like my show is called Get a Bucket, right? It's very few people I could say could get a bucket better than Cobe. But it wasn't just getting a bucket, it was his mentality to getting a bucket, to playing basketball the correct way. So y'all may be wondering why is August 24th the day? Well, his jerseys were 8 and 24. So when you put them together, one, there's no 24-8. Like there's no 24th month. So it just makes sense to put 8-24. You know what I'm saying? Not everyone can do this. Not everyone can do this. Like, like, like, like all right, all right, maybe Braun can do 623. Maybe. I don't know. Like, I don't know if his jersey would actually get retired. I don't know if six will get retired, though. But Kobe had two jerseys that were retired. So hence why we we do this. But also,

Kobe’s Other Official Days

SPEAKER_00 2:30

like Kobe Bryant Day, there's another one where it was established by the city of Los Angeles in 2016. And that was only months after Kobe actually retired. So we we technically got three days. We got Kobe's birthday, which was, well, yesterday, like August 23rd. But then you also got Mamba Day, which is ironically the very next day, 824. Just say. But we're gonna talk about the other day as well, too, as time goes on. But again, he got a lot going for. So that's why August 24th, to be clear. Now, I told y'all, there's another official day, right? And the original Nike Mamba Day occurred April 13th. Again, why did why did we choose April 13th? Well, that was Kobe's final. That was Kobe's final NBA game, right? Where he dropped 60 against the Jazz. Uh he did that at a 37-year-old. You know, so I'm just like, like, I'm I'm about 34 right now. And I'm telling you right now, man, if I drop 60 points in a game, I don't care what the efficiency was. That's impressive as hell. I still remember where I was. I was in my first apartment when I was watching the game. I low-key dozed off. I missed the third quarter. I did. I can't, I woke up though. I woke up and I and I caught the fourth. I was a little upset. It was a long day. But the man was pretty special, so I had to make sure I watched Kobe's day for sure. It was an emotional day because you knew this was gonna be the last one, right? And then after this, we already know about Kobe's passing in 2020. But all three of these days mean so much more after he passed away. Because now we get to embody what he gave us, what Mamba mentality meant. And you still may be wondering what is

Kobe Bryant Versus Black Mamba

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Mamba mentality or what is the Black Mamba, in fact. Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Kobe Bryant versus the Black Mamba, right? It it's it's we got Kobe, okay. We got Kobe the person, and we got Black Mamba. That was the alter ego, to be clear. Kobe kind of explained that he developed the black mamba during his extraordinary difficult time in 03-04, right? When we had that little scandal pop up. And I ain't here to speak on that, you know what I'm saying, especially not on Mamba Day. But that's what led to creating the Black Mamba, right? Focusing on the task at hand and leaving the outside noise on the outside. You still gotta deal with the outside, but we got jobs, we got goals, we have purposes, ladies and gentlemen. We should not let outside noise deter us from being great for our in our purpose, in our why, right? And this is Kobe's why to play basketball and to help educate individuals on how to play basketball, but also how to look at life as well, too. So that's that's what birthed the black mamba. And ever since then, the man went on a tear. Like again, Kobe is a father, a husband, a businessman, filmmaker, storyteller, coach, mentor, black mamba. Black mamba had a job, and that was destroy the competition to kill the competition, and he did just that. Now,

Mamba Mentality Beyond Hard Work

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Mamba mentality, what does that actually mean? Because again, we talked about the what. Now, oh, we'll talk about the who release. Now, what does it actually mean? Some like not even some. A lot of people always try to attribute it as work really hard. That that that's that is part of it, I will say, but it's incomplete because mamba mentality, it was also about obsession with improvement, attention to detail. Like Kobe created this show called Detail, where he's talking about athletes in detail, right? Studying your weaknesses, studying your opponents, accepting failure, learning, repeating all of these things we saw Kobe do. He didn't care about failure. He actually said there's no he doesn't believe in failure because eventually you're gonna get it right if you keep trying at it. Now it's a little bit insane, but you need insanity sometimes to be great. So when I'm thinking about Mamba mentality, it's not just working hard. Like we saw Kobe's influence travel so easily into the next generation, or Kobe's influence, I'm sorry, travel deeply into the next generation. You know, you don't have to shoot form like like Kobe. You ain't gotta play a two-guard. You don't even have to wear the number eight or 24

NBA Players Carrying The Legacy

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to try to take on his legacy, what Mamba mentality means. And we've seen players do that. Kyrie Irving, right, is a whole point guard. Well, he's a two-guard trapped in the point guard's body. But his relationship with Kobe went much deeper than admiration. And Kobe became a genuine mentor to Kyrie Irving. Kyrie was I remember seeing Kyrie talk about how he was gonna beat Kobe one-on-one at the USA practice. Then they actually play. You know, Kobe did lock him up right fast. But again, like Kobe's also better than Kyrie, but Kyrie studied Kobe. Kyrie loved Kobe, and you could tell that Kobe rocked with Kyrie. Again, the mentality was very similar. They were obsessed with their craft, with trying to become better on and off the field, or on and off the court, to be clear. So even someone like Kyrie, who's known to have the best handles in the NBA, that's coming from Kobe Bryant. That passion, that desire that's coming from Kobe Bryant, another player, Jason Tatum. We all know JT loved himself from Kobe. Like everybody in A mama knows this. Like, we know that Kyrie Irving tried to study Jason uh Kobe Bryant's footwork, right? Jason Tatum tried to study Kobe Bryant. Like when I looked at Jason Tatum, I started to get the same comparison that Kobe had to MJ. Oh, Jason Tatum sometimes looked like Kobe Bryant. Especially in 2018, the rookie season. Kobe actually trained Jason Tatum. And like they worked together on the floor. And this is after Kobe had already analyzed Jason Tatum's game on that detail show that I was telling you about. So Jason Tatum's working on footwork, creating space, post-positioning, angles, all of that is just coming from a simple fact that he wasn't he admired Kobe so much. Speaking of admiration, Devin Booker. In Kobe's final season. Devin Booker, hey, he got to play against Kobe. And I ain't gonna hold you. It was a good one. Because Booker did something similar to Kobe that Kobe in fact did to Jordan. Did one of Jordan's moves on Kobe. Well, D Book scored on Kobe in a similar manner. And this is like a young D Book, too, at the time, about 19. So you gotta keep in mind, again, this is last year, Kobe's last year. So he's just trying to impart wisdom now. So when D Book makes the bucket, you know what I'm saying? Like Kobe eventually gives Booker a pair of shoes with the message, be legendary. Again, trying to usher in this new era of basketball, you gotta appreciate Kobe for things like that. Like Kobe's

The Mamba Impact In WNBA

SPEAKER_00 9:55

legacy isn't just an NBA story, ladies and gentlemen. It's not. It's also applied to the WNBA. Like we're calling Kobe the Black Mamba, right? Well, did you know that in the WNBA there's a player that has the nickname the White Mamba? And she actually plays in a similar capacity, a similar role to Kobe. Now, this is Diana Tarasi, for those of y'all who don't know, she's been considered as the GOAT for the WNBA, right? But again, being called the White Mamba, Kobe actually gave Diana one of the ultimate compliments in calling her that. And keep in mind there's a connection where DT grew up in Southern California watching Kobe. Tarasi has actually described how Kobe's approach helped normalize playing with that extreme competitive edge, which if you watch DT, you knew she had. But then here's the flip side to it, too. It's crazy because DT grew up watching and admiring Kobe Bryant to the point that we have a full circle moment because Kobe Bryant's daughter, Gigi, the one that did pass along with him, right? She ended up looking up to DT. So she kind of sort of is still looking up to the black mamba in Kobe Bryant because the white mamba was inspired from the black mamba. So and again, it's just another full circle moment, ladies and gentlemen. Like we're affecting the NBA and WNB, but it doesn't, it doesn't just end there, it keeps going. We have Jewel Lloyd, the gold mamba, right? Like Jewel Lloyd is look, you may call Jewel Lloyd a Jack, but in in in on the Seattle Storm, bro, she was smooth, man. She was one of them ones. And even Jewel Lloyd idolized Kobe. Now I jokingly said the word Jack because people tried to attribute the word Jack to Kobe Bryant because he was you might try to assume that he was a shot chucker, right? But every day, Jewel Lloyd would write Mamba mentality on her shoes in college. And eventually she began to develop a relationship with Kobe, and he helped her game out. And Kobe was the one that gave her the nickname Gold Mamba. Now, after Seattle won the championship in 2020, right? You remember emotions for the high because this is when Kobe and GG and the rest of the and the rest of the crew had passed away. She ends up giving a shout-out to Kobe. Because again, Kobe's impact as a mentor affected that championship moment. Arike Agumbawale, another player who Kobe admired, right? I think Arike was in 2018. She went to the Final Four, beats UConn, ironically, and she's on Notre Dame, by the way, and she get and she gets them out the way off of a buzzer beater, a game-winning buzzer beater, right? Then in the national championship, she does the exact same thing. And Kobe's supporting Yukon, but publicly congratulates Rike, saying Mamba mentality, hashtag Mamba Mentality on social media, right? Again, stuff like this is what funnels and fuel, like fuels a younger generation to care about the game of basketball. That's Mamba mentality. Sabrina INSQ, this one's personal. This could be the most emotional connection there is with the Mamba family tree. Because not only did she practice and train with Kobe, but she genuinely loved and rocked with Gigi. And I don't know Sabrina from Adam, right? And so you might be saying, well, how do you know she actually loved her? Action speak louder than words, bro. And you could see that there was an admiration of Kobe and Gigi. It's not like she's trying to use Gigi to get to Kobe. She genuinely rocked with both. And you saw that because Kobe's not going to put up with no BS. Again, he worked directly with Sabrina on basketball details, including teaching her aspects of his stepback, shot art, foot angles, how to generate power. So it makes sense that she would form some sort of a bond with Gigi, who also plays basketball. And I would have loved to see Gigi go up against Sabrina when she went to the when she entered the WNBA. That would have been a surreal full circle moment. Seeing Kobe on the floor, that would have been great. But again, Kobe's legacy, this Mamba mentality, it has impacted not only just the NBA, but the WNBA, college, high school players. It impacted so many people, it impacted so many people. So again, I told y'all about the Mamba family tree, right? We got Kyrie, Jason Tatum, Devin Booker, Diana Tarasi, Jewel Loyce, Brini Anescu, Orike Agumuwale, even players like Gabby Williams, KatieLou Samuelson, like he's worked with them and they're pretty decent. Even Candace Parker has spoken about Mamba mentality. And she's considered the GOAT

Legacy After Highlights End

SPEAKER_00 14:55

by some players as well, too. So when we're talking about Mamba Day, right, and why it matters to fans. For Kobe fans, you got 824, and that can be complicated. It's a celebration, it's nostalgia. There's still sadness attached to it. Like we remember the championships, five of them things, right? You remember 62 points through three quarters against Dallas, the 2008 MVP when we should have got Mo, by the way. The Olympic gold medals, 2009 championship, 2010 game seven against Boston.

unknown 15:29

Right?

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Remember the three peep with Shaq and them, the Achilles free throw, the 60, the 60-point game. But eventually the highlights do end. And all there's left is to celebrate what we watched, what we heard from others. That's where Mama Day becomes important, ladies and gentlemen. Because the legacy can't really be, it can't really depend on highlights forever. Like the highlights are gonna help, but the story is what's gonna matter. And eventually, there will be basketball fans who never watched Kobe Bryant play live. Like we we talk about that with Jordan as is. Oh, y'all don't care. Y'all never saw Jordan. How can you tell that he's really the GOAT? And I I actually do I'm I'm a little nervous about that day. I really am. Like they'll they'll not know the name as well as it should be. They'll see the numbers hanging in the Lakers arena, 824. They'll watch the YouTube highlights. They got some games out there, but it's different watching them live. So what actually does live forever? Well, what does is Kobe Bryant's career ended April 13th, 2016. The black mamba did not. And every time a player studies film when everybody has gone home, every time Devin Booker looks to be legendary, every time Jason Tatum remembers these work, those workouts he had, Kobe, every time Kyrie thinks about the mentor he could call, every time Jewel Lloyd talks about the gold mamba, every time Daniel Tarazi gets called the white mamba, every time Enrique wants the ball, the game on the line, every time Sabrina talks about what Kobe and GG meant to women's basketball, you're seeing a piece of the Mamba. And maybe that's what August 24th is really about. Not pretending that Kobe was perfect, not pretending that he never failed, not pretending everybody has the has to rank him in exactly the same place historically, but if you don't got him second place, I don't know to tell you. Mamba Day is about recognizing the impact that he had. And after 20 years in the NBA, the black mamba gave basketball something that it it just doesn't have a retirement date on it. It's a mentality, it's a standard, it's a challenge. How good can you become if you're willing to obsess over getting better? I don't know, man. August 24th, 824, two jerseys hanging in the rafters, one basketball icon, and generations of players carrying pieces of what he taught them. Kobe was the man, bro. Black Mamba was the mentality, and that is why Mamba Day still

Favorite Kobe Moments And Closing

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matters. Mamba forever, man. So, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I am curious what's your thoughts of Mamba Day? What's your thoughts of the man Kobe Bryant? And I'm also curious what's your favorite moment of Kobe Bryant? I'll tell you right now, my first one was my first interaction, not interaction, but my first sighting of Kobe. So I'm doing a 360 dunk against Portland Trail Blazers in 1998. I was hooked ever since. With him and the Lakers, to be clear. He was my favorite player ever since, because of that 360 dunk. And that's my favorite team. So I'm curious, ladies and gentlemen, what's your favorite thought? What's your favorite moment of Cobe? Let me know. But ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that does conclude the end of the episode. So please make sure to one, remember the the man, the myth, the legend. And try to implement Mamba mentality into your lifestyle somehow, some way, in any aspect. And two, please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey, I'm the host of Get a Bucket. I hope you were all having a good one. Take care.