This offseason, Kobe Bean Bryant has been promoting his new shoes by challenging various NBA players to live up to his own “Mamba Mentality”. For example, Kobe challenged Isaiah Thomas to make All-NBA First Team in this upcoming season, and he challenged Richard Sherman to break the Seahawks single season interception record. Ever the striver, Giannis Antetokounmpo decided that he wanted in:
Still waiting for my challenge.. @kobebryant
— GiannisAntetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) August 24, 2017
That was a few days ago, on Thursday. Kobe didn’t respond initially, presumably because he was hunting down and choking out online commenters who think Shaq had more to do with that Lakers 3-peat than Kobe did. Kobe must have gotten through them all, though, since he finally responded to Giannis:
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) August 27, 2017
Wow. The most important thing to note here is that this is by far the biggest challenge ol’ Bean has issued to anyone so far. I mean, he only challenged IT to make All-NBA First Team. In other words, it seems safe to say that Kobe is as much of a Giannis truther as any of us are.
Think about it this way. To Kobe, “Mamba Mentality” is all about working your tail off and living up to (and even outclassing) your potential. He thinks if 28-year-old Isaiah Thomas really puts his mind to it, he should be able to be one of the five best players in the NBA this upcoming season, and presumably for a few years to come.
On the other hand, he thinks that 22-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo’s potential is being the best player in the league, and setting any other goal is aiming too low. To be fair, if Giannis wins MVP this season, he would be 23 by the time the trophy was awarded. To put that in perspective, Kobe was 30 by the time he won his only MVP. Michael Jordan and LeBron James were each 25 when they won their first MVP awards.
This means Kobe thinks that if Giannis pushes himself, he should be able to win his first MVP award a full two years before the consensus greatest pair of players in NBA history were able to do it. If he can win an MVP award at 23 (which would tie him with Wes Unseld for the youngest NBA MVP winner in history), he would surely be expected to dominate the league for about 10-15 years to come. In other words, Kobe Bean has basically just challenged Giannis Antetokounmpo to begin his path to becoming the greatest NBA player in history.
Excited for the season yet, Bucks fans?