Kobe Bryant Finds Outlet For Passive Aggression In Youth Basketball Team

Giri Nathan|published: 09/11/2019, 4:30pm EDT

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Kobe Bryant, when not sloppily cosplaying Michael Jordan, has been sharing occasional updates on his Mambas youth team. Two days ago, the retired Laker congratulated the girls after they beat an opponent by 88 points. Yesterday, he shared an image of a fourth-place trophy they received two years ago, noting that the girls wanted to “throw it away.” Today, Bryant shared their “fourth place ‘winners picture’ lol.”

Thanks to a , Kobe’s original caption has been preserved for posterity:

Here’s our fourth place “winners” picture lol six of the kids in the picture stayed with me and worked every single day to get better and continue to work to this day. The 7th player (not in pic) missed this game for a dance recital so that should tell you where her focus was at this time. From the original 7 we have added a player TWO years YOUNGER (6th grade now), a player who’s team in our area folded and a player who’s family moved here from Tennessee. The beauty of coaching is growing the players from the ground up. That journey continues #Mambas

Bryant had a change of heart, because the caption has since been modified. Here’s how it reads at time of writing, with updates in bold:

Here’s our fourth place “winners” picture lol six of the kids in the picture stayed with me and worked every single day to get better and continue to work to this day. The 7th player (not in pic) missed this game for a dance recital so that should tell you where her focus was at this time, meaning she enjoyed dance more than ball which is fine. Now? She eat sleeps and breaths the game. So from this original group of 7 we have added a player TWO years YOUNGER (6th grade now), a player who’s team in our area folded and a player who’s family moved here from Tennessee. The beauty of coaching is growing the players from the ground up. That journey continues #mambassador

You see, Kobe thought about it for a few minutes, and realized, with an extremely unclenched and possibly even smiling jaw, that it’s “fine.” A middle-school-aged child preferring to dance one day instead of play basketball? It’s definitely fine. He’s happy for her, really.

Update (9:19 p.m. ET): Uh huh.