Shane Battier’s “Humility” Tactics Against Kobe Bryant Backfired When Mamba Mentality Took Over – “He Was Always Playing Mind Games”

We are all aware of the Mamba Mentality and how much locked-in Kobe Bryant was. He would not even give an inch to his opponent. And that feeling couldn’t have been described better by Shane Battier. “That was the purest level of competition that I faced in all my years of basketball, and I miss him,” Battier shared.

On The OGs podcast with Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, Battier shared a heartwarming story. The former Miami Heat player would always refer to analysis and read about players’ weaknesses. Yet he didn’t think he could wear down Bryant Mentally. “He was brilliant, obviously, and a killer. The only way I could ever have a chance against Kobe was to play smart…”

Kobe had his share of weaknesses and Battier shared them. ” but I knew that when he went left, and I kept him out of the paint, it was a 42% shot versus when he went right and got in the paint, it was a 62% shot.” Haslem and Miller were quite astonished that Battier could remember the numbers. “He gave me nightmares. Of course, I knew those numbers!” Battier stressed.

But the 2xNBA champion never said he would be the one to stop Bryant since that would just p*ss him off. Battier admitted that he and Bryant never had a relationship off the court. They would exchange pleasantries here and there but never had anything beyond that. ” You know Kobe he was always plays mind games with me.”

Explaining further, he said, Bryant would greet him one day and then won’t speak to him the other. Thus creating that doubt in the mind and playing mind games with Shane Battier and other opponents.  Bryant also mentioned about Battier in his book.

The healthy battle between Kobe Bryant and Shane Battier

Even though Battier never said he would guard Bryant, he did fairly well against him on the court. He even called himself Kobe’s “human yellow light.” “I just played by the book and tried to make Kobe play to his weaknesses. I had some—I wouldn’t say great success, but I was like a human yellow light against him.” 

Talking about the book where Bryant mentions Kobe Stoppers and the story about Battier – “Shane did something very smart where he never said he could guard me and always downplayed his ability to play me. But I saw that as false humility and I attacked him because of it.“

At the end of the day, one could say it was all a game within a game within a game about which only Bryant and Battier knew that they were playing it. What they had was a healthy respect for one another as competitors. To this day, Bat shares that he still cherishes the times they battled on the court.

“Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato had to say about the marketing genius, watch this video.”