NBA: 5 most culturally impactful players of the last 20 years

Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bean Bryant won five championships in the 2000s, appearing in seven NBA Finals becoming the Michael Jordan for a generation of fans too young to see Jordan. Kobe began as the hard-nosed youngster determined to be the greatest of all time showing you were never too young to succeed winning three championships in his early 2000s alongside Shaquille O’Neal.

Even as a 19-year-old, Kobe wouldn’t back down when he had the chance to face his idol Michael Jordan going up against him and asking him for tips in the same game. It was easy for young kids to admire Kobe in the late ‘90s and early 2000s as he was the youngest player ever when he debuted, the youngest player to start an all-star game and the youngest player to win three championships leading to an incomprehensible amount of hype.

Kobe brought a different mentality to the game, known as the Mamba Mentality. This essentially involved getting in a ridiculous zone of staying present and working your tail off at all times. Dwyane Wade credited this when hitting a game-winning buzzer-beater in his final season, Giannis accepted Kobe’s challenge to win the MVP and train with him (Giannis won MVP this year) and Kyrie even face-timed Kobe in the locker room after winning the championship in 2016 by hitting one of the most clutch shots in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit with LeBron James and Kevin Love.

Kawhi Leonard, the most recent NBA Finals MVP, trained with Kobe and players such as Paul George, DeMar DeRozan and James Harden consistently credit Kobe and have also worked with him.

The Mamba Mentality was never more present then when Kobe got so in the zone he averaged 40 points for a month on four separate occasions and had the greatest scoring performance in modern history dropping 81 points on the Toronto Raptors on January 22nd, 2006. Kobe’s work ethic is the stuff of legend and singlehandedly changed the game when players saw this on the Olympic team first hand.

Every player including LeBron, Wade, Melo, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and more realized they needed to study film and work out every single day like Kobe as Kobe always showed up to the first team workout dripping in sweat from the workout he did before. During Kobe’s farewell season LeBron admitted to having Kobe’s poster on his wall and trying to dress like him, while Michael Jordan gave Kobe a thank you video (a rare appearance from Jordan these days) before Kobe dropped 60 points and a game-winner in his final game.

As a cultural figure, Kobe has been everywhere from an All That episode with a teenage Amanda Bynes to appearing in a hilarious Modern Family cameo leaving Phil Dunphy in awe. Kobe has been featured in numerous rap references including a legendary, underrated song by Lil’ Wayne titled, “Kobe Bryant,” by Lil’ Wayne at a time when Kobe was the greatest basketball player in the world and Wayne was the greatest rapper in the world about how Kobe would win his fourth championship that year…which of course he did.

If you want to know about Kobe’s influence take a look at his final game or double jersey retirement where individuals such as Alexander Ovechkin, Justin Bieber, Allen Iverson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Paula Abdul, Jack Black, Jack Nicholson, Snoop Dogg, Shaq, LeBron James, Adam Levine, Jay-Z, Kanye West and many more showed up or spoke on video to thank Kobe.