By: Michael Chang

Ever since the age of five, Raymond Lee admired Kobe Bryant. However, even after almost a decade of watching the inspirational basketball player, Raymond had never been able to pinpoint why he idolized Kobe so much.

After doing his best during three exhausting days of tryouts, Raymond did not make his school’s basketball team in his first year of high school. After hearing the disappointing and frustrating news, Raymond knew he had to improve his basketball skills, athleticism, and physique. However, he did not realize the other significant aspect of basketball he needed to progress further.

As the school year culminated, Raymond attempted to plan a basketball training routine to prepare himself for the next season’s tryouts. Unfortunately, Raymond struggled with finding a balanced and productive schedule to become a prolific basketball player. Fueling the struggle, his friends invited him to a summer party that was extremely enjoyable, tempting, and lively.

While in the indecisive mindset of uncertainty, Raymond asked himself the most lucrative question of his life. He curiously questioned, What would Kobe do?

Like any other millennial, Raymond scoured the Internet for answers to his question. He watched dozens of documentaries and interviews in which Kobe talked about his life experiences. Raymond spent an entire summer day studying Kobe’s mannerisms and words.

From this day filled with Kobe, Raymond learned Kobe’s thought process that forged him into one of the greatest basketball players of all time: the Mamba Mentality. Raymond realized that basketball is not only about how well he can dunk or how accurate his three-pointer is.

Additionally, Raymond realized that before anything happens physically, it must be thoroughly thought about mentally. Furthermore, he discovered that Kobe was the proof that if he worked harder, longer, and more intelligently than his peers, he would naturally be better than them.

Just like Kobe would, Raymond denied the party invite from his friends and dedicated himself to his obsession with basketball. Willingly, he woke up every day of the summer at 6 a.m. to go to the gym for an intense two-hour workout and increase his physical strength. Then, he returned home and ate a healthy breakfast of eggs and avocado toast. After drinking some Gatorade, Raymond returned to the gym for a rigorous two-hour basketball training session with his professional trainer. Then, for lunch, he hungrily devoured a sub-sandwich with tomatoes, lettuce, onions, provolone cheese, ham, and vinaigrette dressing. After lunch, Raymond returned to the gym for another two hours of challenging basketball training with his professional trainer. He then returned home, ate a healthy chicken dinner, and recovered in an ice bath to prepare for the next day of exhausting training.

Days, weeks, and months passed, and Raymond continued his remarkable daily training routine. Throughout the summer, Raymond learned to control his mentality and maintain determination by avoiding feelings of pain, tiredness, and exhaustion.

After the summer, Raymond saw incredible results. He was the best player on the varsity basketball team during his second, third, and fourth years of high school.

Pushing his work ethic every summer, he won a national championship at UCLA and now makes millions of dollars in the NBA. To this day, Raymond still asks himself, What would Kobe do?