Kobe Bryant & Daughter Gianna: A Tragic Loss to the World - Essay Sample

Introduction

On January 26, 2020, the world fell to its knees after the death of Koby Bryant and his daughter Gianna (Botkin, 2020). Several nations, personalities, media houses, and national basketball federations mourn the demise of the American basketball legend. Even though the incident has left law enforcement officers with a massive investigation sphere to cover, some of the media houses and basketball teams in the U.S. morn the legend, not only for his on-the-field achievements, but for the inspirational move that guides millions of basketball athletes, up-coming athletes, and the commons through his book "Mamba Mentality" (Bryant, 2018). "Mamba Mentality" is a self-mythology that reflected on Bryant's attitude and attributes that reflected his relentlessness, confidence, dedication, and self-efficacy (Herbert, 2010). Therefore, the paper analyzes the link between Kobe Bryant's death and his self-mythology "Mamba Mentality" concerning the motivational theory of self-efficacy.

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According to the American Psychological Association (APA) authors Carey and Forsyth, self-efficacy is a person's belief in his or her capabilities to implement necessary behavior to produce individual performance attainments (2020). The authors highlighted that self-efficacy was the self-confidence in the ability to perform control over a second party's motivational, behavioral, and social attributes (Carey & Forsyth, 2020). In other words, it is a cognitive ability used by one to self-evaluate influence related to human experience, goals, and aims established by people to enable them to succeed, and the stretch to which they are willing to go to expand their spheres of behavioral performance. The theory defines Kobe Bryant attributes as portrayed by The Players' Tribune article entitled "Mamba Mentality wrote by Kobe Bryant. For example, Bryant learns about his posture and the balancing mistake he made in 1998 against Michael Jordan. In his reflection, Bryant learned how he was disadvantaged with the same skill, but to improve the implemented the motivational doctrine of self-efficacy, corrected the posture and balance issue, and after the modifications were a lot harder to function against him (Bryant, 2018).

Also, Kobe Bryant is celebrated because of his ability to implement self-efficacy for personal, NBA, and community gain. Rather than choose away from utilizing his talent to prove to the world of his basketball skills, in rear occasions, he exploited an opponent's weakness and made it strength (Carey & Forysth, 2020). In his philosophy, Bryant enjoyed using his advantage over opponents, for example, his height. While facing a tough and talented player such as Allen Iverson who is small in size, it was smallness and the height that contributed to Bryant's success, since he opted to shoot over his opponent than to try any moves such as backing him down (Bryant, 2018). His height gave him the advantage of a clear and clean short. Moreover, Bryant is celebrated for using brains rather than strength in the case of settling for jumpers since they were unable to stop him from receiving the ball. The legend used his tactics and education on his opponent's games to strengthen his moves (Berryhill, 2020). For instance, after analyzing the strength of the Sixers for fronting and trapping the opponent, he mitigates better approaches of overcoming their forces by introducing a tactical plan of possessing the ball and shooting (Bryant, 2018).

Apart from his basketball tactics and in-the-field performance, Bryan was known as one of the most inspiring personalities among children as well as other athletes (Berryhill, 2020). His "Mamba Mentality" came into existence because of how he handled each of his days, for instance, discipline, dedication, and tenacity enabled him workout regularly and also assisted in mentoring personalities such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, among other who tried to emulate the technique (Bryant, 2018). What inspired most about him was the fact that he never had formal learning after high school. Still, his discipline, curiosity, and tenacity made him more educated than most anticipated, since he dined with icons such as Steve Jacobs and J.K. Rowling to learn from them (Berryhill, 2020). His brilliance made him untouchable since he was eager to learn and improve daily. The "Mamba Mentality" made him untouchable and unstoppable because of his duties as a father, husband, coach, mentor, and author, among others (Berryhill, 2020). His passion for assisting others and passing information to the current generation led the founding of the Mamba Sports Academy, a legacy left by him to steer the current generation forward.

Conclusion

To conclude, the shock of Kobe Bryant is still a shock to the U.S. community, basketball community, and athletes, among others. Even in death, many organizations such as the basketball federation and media houses speak and celebrate him in high esteem. What made him a legend was his self-efficacy legend that ensured to pass down to the present generation and next generation of basketball stars. Like other athletes, Bryant had his goals and ambitions, but he was different since it focused on self-efficacy; thus, making him the best out of all his mistakes present and past. Moreover, his dedication and tenacity to improve himself made him inspire key figures in the world. For instance, the "Mamba Mentality" based on the motivational theory of self-efficacy was emulated by stars such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Wood. Nonetheless, his legacy will be remembered as a man, regardless of having a formal education after high school, had so much to offer to the community, in terms of innovation, creativity, inspiration, and coaching.

References

Berryhill, E. (2020, January 29). How Kobe Bryant's Mamba Mentality influenced the world. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/29/how-kobe-bryants-mamba-mentality-influenced-the-world/

Botkin, B. (2020, January 29). Kobe Bryant death: Latest news, updates, reactions as Lakers legend, NBA icon dies at 41 in a helicopter crash. CBSSports. Retrieved from https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/kobe-bryant-death-latest-news-updates-reactions-as-lakers-legend-nba-icon-dies-at-41-in-helicopter-crash/live/

Carey, M., & Forsyth, A. (2020). Teaching Tip Sheet: Self-Efficacy. American Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pi/aids/resources/education/self-efficacy

Herbert, J. (2020, January 29). How Kobe Bryant's 'Mamba Mentality' changed the NBA. CBSSports. Retrieved from https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/how-kobe-bryants-mamba-mentality-changed-the-nba/

Kobe, B. (2018, October 27). Mamba Mentality. The Players Tribune. Retrieved from https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/kobe-bryant-lakers-photos-andrew-bernstein