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The Mamba Mentality: How I Play

By Kobe Bryant

Published by MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Legendary basketball player Kobe Bryant came to us for help translating the inner workings of his basketball philosophy and the iconic moments of his career into his first book: The Mamba Mentality. This New York Times bestseller takes readers on an unprecedented journey, through words and photos, inside the mind of one of the most intelligent, analytical, and creative athletes ever to grace the court.

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STARTING WITH PHOTOGRAPHY

As the official photographer for the L.A. Lakers, Andrew Bernstein was there on the sidelines witnessing and documenting Kobe Bryant’s career from the start. Bernstein captured Bryant’s very first NBA photo in 1996 and his last in 2016—and hundreds of thousands in between.

We worked with Bernstein to mine his archive for the most stunning images both on and off court, while also connecting them to Bryant’s most perceptive insights, memories, and analysis.

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The cover of the issue of magazine. (desktop, screen, people, collage, business, technology, illustration, internet, no person, recreation, spherical, picture frame, woman, man, art, color, bill, display, monitor, equipment)

UNDERSTANDING THE BLACK MAMBA

We worked with Bryant to understand and help articulate the mental and physical strategies he employed to reach all-star levels of success, while also collaborating with Bernstein to select more than two hundred photos that captured the most pivotal moments in Bryant’s twenty-year career.

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PERSONAL DETAILS AND ICONIC DESIGN

The dynamic page design breaks down Bryant’s famously detailed approach using chalkboard-style handwritten markups, spotlight-style silhouetting, and provocative first-person headlines.

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INSTANT AND CONSISTENT BESTSELLER

The result is unlike any sports book published before. The Mamba Mentality spent several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into more than seven languages.

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