After the sexual assault allegations back in 2003, Kobe Bryant adopted the nickname/alter ego, Black Mamba, as a way of coping with the ordeal that almost derailed his career as a superstar in the NBA.
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Kobe recently gave Ben McGrath of The New Yorker an insight on his popular nickname. Kobe says that he got the idea for the nickname from Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill”:
He was the Black Mamba, a nickname he gave himself after watching Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill,” in which the snake, known for its agility and aggressiveness, was used as a code name for a deadly assassin.
“I read up on the animal and said, ‘Wow, this is pretty awesome,” Bryant recalled. “This is a perfect description of how I would want my game to be.”
Here’s a look at the scene from “Kill Bill” that inspired Kobe to take on the alter ego after his legal trouble in Colorado:
A couple years ago, Kobe also starred in a movie with director Robert Rodriguez called, “The Black Mamba”:
Along with being known as The Black Mamba, Kobe also has another nickname that he’s started to be called in the twilight of his career. Kobe was described as aging like a fine wine and therefore has also adopted the nickname, Vino.
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