is looked up to by an entire generation of athletes who grew up watching the NBA from the late 1990s to the mid 2010s. For them, Bryant was their version of Michael Jordan as he was the closest thing to him in terms of the way he approached the way and the way he played it as well.
During his playing career, Kobe never really fraternized with other players in the league. He kept to himself the same way Giannis Antetokounmpo said he never trains with other NBA stars during the summer. Bryant wanted to keep the men he competed with at arm’s length away from him and understandably so as he was the ultimate competitor.
As time went on however and Kobe’s time in the NBA was coming to an end, he took a litany of players under his wing, instilling ‘Mamba mentality’ within them. His love for younger athletes prospering bled into other sports as well, such as the NFL.
Desean Jackson is an NFL wide receiver who appears frequently on ‘I Am Athlete’. He recently sat down with Paul Pierce, Brandon Marshall, and Lesean McCoy to take about a variety of topics, most of which centered around ‘The Truth’.
One story however, that had the entire group in splits was when Desean claimed Kobe came over to him courtside at a Lakers game he attended to give him his shoes. Lesean however, would hilariously shoot down this anecdote, claiming this never happened, leaving the rest of the group in stitches.
Lesean would then go on to clarify that while they were sitting courtside, Desean retelling of the story where Kobe approached them after the game was not true. It’s not clear exactly what parts of this story are true but it was clearly funny enough for Shaquille O’Neal, Bryant’s old Laker teammate, to share to his Instagram story.
After Kobe’s untimely passing, the price of his shoes with Nike shot up tenfold. Prior to his passing, Kobes were collecting dust at Nike outlet stores, being sold for $100 or so and only a select few colorways reaching heights of around $300-500.
Now, most of Kobe’s shoes on StockX or Kickscrew aren’t anything below $250 and the ones that are, are his takedown models such as the ‘KB Mentality’ or the ‘Mamba Fury’.
Kobe 4s, 5s, 6s, and more are all above $500, with that being the bare minimum.
