Hours ahead of Monday's memorial for Kobe Bryant, the man who chronicled all 20 years of Bryant's NBA career in photographs recalled one moment in particular that captured athlete's famed competitive mindset.
Andrew D. Bernstein, the Los Angeles Lakers team photographer, said a January 2010 picture of an injured, exhausted Bryant preparing for a game "really sums up the Mamba mentality in one photo."
The photo shows Bryant in the visitors' locker room ahead of a game against the Knicks in New York's Madison Square Garden.
A few things to know: Bryant had just played the night before, scoring 31 points in a 87-93 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
His body was far from its best — he had a broken finger. But nevertheless he was gearing up to play at MSG, one of basketball's grandest stages, and the Lakers — the league's defending champions — were in a tight race for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
Bryant sits on a bench, his eyes closed, his feet soaking in an ice bucket, his head resting on his palm, his elbow pressing onto his knee.
Bryant ended up playing 42 minutes, and led the Lakers in scoring with 27 points in a 115-105 win.
The Lakers would go on to win the NBA title that year, defeating the Boston Celtics in seven games. It was Bryant's fifth and final NBA championship.
Bernstein's photos appear in Bryant 2018 book, "The Mamba Mentality: How I Play."
