Kobe Bryant Is Still the Most Lethal and Deadly NBA Player

Kobe Bryant's nickname is the "Black Mamba." There's a reason for that. 

When I was in high school, my father was a diplomat and, as a result, we were living in Liberia, West Africa form 1982-1984. The area we lived was an area called "Mamba Point." In fact, my younger brother even wrote a book by that title, inspired by our experience there. 

There was an area on the US Embassy compound that was chained off. We called it "the rocks." On the other side of that gate was the reason it was called "Mamba Point." There were real live mamba living there.

That's why I knew about the mamba before I ever heard of Kobe Bryant or Rikki-Tikki Tavi. 

"The Rocks" were a bunch of boulders and whatnot in a large hill. Then down below there was a lot of brush vegetation, then a small beach before it got the ocean. In fact, you can see the area right here. It was just above where the letter "A" is on the map. 

One day some of my buddies and I jumped the fence, and we saw the mamba about 20 feet below us so we started throwing some rocks at the mamba. It was about this time the mothers of one of my friends, who also happened to be my English teacher, happened by. 

She just about threw a tantrum. At that time, we were forced to learn how deadly the mamba were. She took us into their house and forced us to watch some national geographic tape (remember, this was the '80s) about how deadly the mamba were. 

The general gist was this: If you get bit by a mamba, you die. The untreated mortality rate is 100 percent. 

Granted, in Liberia we only had the western green mamba to worry about and not the black mamba, but their venom is pretty much the same. They'll still kill you. 

The bottom line with mamba is that they are far more dangerous when provoked. 

The moral of the story here is this: Don't throw rocks at the Mamba. 

Kobe Bryant struck with awe-inspiring deadliness last night, dropping 48 points against the Phoenix Suns in a blowout win. 

Bryant had been the subject of much criticism of late for shooting too much and was ranked by ESPN "only" as the seventh-best player in the world. Over his last five games, Bryant is now averaging 36 points per game. 

When the carnage was counted and the game was over, Kobe jokingly said, “Not bad for the seventh-best player in the league”

Lesson learned. Don't throw rocks at the Mamba.