And now the Cleveland Cavaliers are NBA champions because of it.
Kyrie Irving dared to take and make that winning shot during Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, acing the ultimate final exam in his "Mamba Mentality" graduate course. It was a class Tyronn Lue, upon becoming the Cavs head coach, had demanded Irving take.
"I told him, 'You want to have a Kobe mentality?'" Lue recalled to Bleacher Report. "'Kobe didn't give a f--k. He don't care. Whatever the outside is saying, he don't care. Kobe's going to be Kobe.