“The Mamba Mentality” by Kobe Bryant
This book is the inner workings of what makes Kobe Bryant a legend. It is his fundamental philosophy, his attitude and mentality, the calculated actions that he take, and ultimately the book is about how he reads the game of basketball and massively prepare for them.
It gets very technical after around the mid point, after well-defining the Mamba Mentality in the first half of the book, which could be the most invaluable piece of information to learn from if you’re an aspiring basketball player or even just a fan of the sport.
Oftentimes, the book shed a light into how Kobe conducted the research into different types of teams and individual opponents, the tactics and mind games he employ to face them, and the practice to perfect them, all of which goes nearly unnoticed when we watch it in the game (with all the analyses clearly show a making of a maestro).
Indeed, basketball matches are pretty much a tactical battlefield for the professionals, and this book is like a memoir by a retired military general reminiscing about his war stories and the successful strategies he implemented, or like Sun Tzu laying out his Art of War for the younger generation of warriors to learn from.
Have I said invaluable? Know what you stand for and what you’re fighting for, establish solid fundamentals, train so damn hard and focus on the process, and know your enemy and every single detail about them. That’s the Mamba Mentality.
EDWIN SETIADI 