Mamba Mentality
On Jan. 25, 2020, my good friend Kerwin Walters was on top the world. His insurance business was thriving, he finally was building the swimming pool his wife wanted, he was the coach of the Sage Hill high school girls’ basketball team, and on the team was Kobe Bryant’s daughter, Gianna.
(Disclosure: I’m one of the Founders of Sage Hill, a small private high school near the top of Newport Coast Drive, whose unofficial motto is: “Excellence and Diversity in Equal Measure,” and 10% of our annual budget goes to Financial Aid.)
In any case, Kerwin slowly was becoming close to Kobe and was part of Kobe’s plan to build a Mamba League and Academy. It was to start with girls’ basketball, and then expand; with a to-be headquarters located within Irvine’s Great Park—and with Kobe’s 100% backing, it would have become reality. After all, Kobe was The Mamba, and nothing, ever, stopped him.
Then on Jan. 26, 2020, a helicopter carrying Kobe and 8 others to a Mamba event crashed and killed everyone aboard. About half were girls Kerwin was coaching and the other half were their parents.
Kerwin’s world collapsed.
For months, he wandered around as though in a nightmare. The thing that kept him going was the girls’ basketball team that remained. He still was coach and even with the Covid lockdown, he was putting together a team that had the talent to go places.
Last Friday, his team played for the CIF-Southern Section Division 3AA Championship. It was at Sage Hill, sold out and jammed with screaming supporters from both teams.
The sheer athleticism of the girls blew me away. The dribbling, passing, and shooting was spot on. The other team shot the three-ball and they were dropping. Kerwin’s team played the inside game, feeding the tall girls inside for easy lay-ups and rebound pushbacks. Only two points, not three, but that was Kerwin’s style. Discipline. Follow the game plan. Do not get over-excited and make stupid errors.
The game went back and forth, with other team always ahead, and at the beginning of the four quarter, Sage fell behind by nine points, an almost unbeatable lead. As one girl later said, “We thought we were going to lose but we have that Mamba Mentality to keep going and push until the end.”
Throughout the remainder of the game, Kerwin’s team gained on the opposition by doing it the Mamba Way. Use what works. Keep going inside for those two points and defend like demons. Never stop.
Then with 1:12 minutes left in the game, Sage went on a 5-0 run and won the Championship 62-55. After one great shot, Kerwin—who never displays emotions—jumped up and down for joy.
The Sage Hill crowd roared.
Kerwin had coached the team the Mamba Way: never give up, never give in to easy temptation (like throwing up hopeless threes with two minutes left), and never, ever, stop.
Later that night, I called Kerwin. His excitement jumped through the air: he was so proud of those girls he could burst.
The next day on another call, Kerwin was subdued. He did not say it, but I knew what he was thinking. All those helicopter victims were still dead. The girls still were dead. Their parents still were dead. Kobe still was dead. And the whole expansive Mamba League vision had become another dream within a dream.
But the Mamba Mentality is alive and well. Kerwin is teaching it to anyone who will listen. Never give up. Never.
Michael is co-founder of Orange County School of the Arts and The Discovery Cube.
