The nickname of the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant - who lost his life along with his 13-year-old daughter and 7 other attendees on his private helicopter - was Black Mamba.

Over the course of his career, the Los Angeles Lakers had some nicknames, such as Ocho, Kobe Wan Kenobi, Mr.81, KB-24, Kob-Me, Izzo, Neo, etc., but Black Mamba was the nickname he most identified.

Offending. The black mamba is the second most venomous snake in the world after the cobra.

The Black Mamba, mostly used simply as a Mamba, was not a simple nickname. The Black Mamba was an alterego that Kobe created to face a dark period of his life, around 2003-2004.

"I was turned into a year by a person who was at the top of the game and had everything, a man who had no idea what to do with his life," the late NBA legend said in a statement. his documentary ?Muse? (2015).

In 2003, Bryant was arrested after being charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old hotel employee. According to investigations, Bryant had been present at The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera in Eagle County, Colorado. The 19-year-old claimed Kobe raped her in the hotel room.

Bryant admitted to having sex - which was also a betrayal because he has been married to Vanessa since 2001 - but denied the sexual assault.

However, in September 2004, the case was dropped by prosecutors because the accuser refused to testify in court. Bryant then apologized saying:

"Although I believe the meeting between us was with the consent of both parties, I am sorry that she does not consider me the same as me."

The accusation certainly damaged Bryant's reputation: Public perception was shaken, contracts with McDonald's and Nutella were cut, and his jersey sales dropped sharply.

In the "Muse" documentary, Bryant did not address the issue directly, but spoke of the moment when his family was about to be torn apart.

?I hear everything the crowd says. I could hear Boston Celtics fans cheering 'Kobe, you defame it.'

Black Mamba was a nickname Bryant coined in order to withstand all media pressure. He explained to Bussines Insider in 2015 that he "had to organize things".

?I had to stand out. I felt that there were so many things that immediately appeared. I didn't know what to do. I had to organize things. So I created Black Mamba. "

Bryant explained that Kobe had to deal with the challenges of personal life, while Black Mamba had business and litigation.

He added at the time that the "savagery" in the nickname "Black Mamba" was not about opponents in the game, but about "the battle within itself".