Happy birthday, Kobe Bryant.
To help commemorate the late basketball legend’s 42nd birthday on Sunday (Aug. 23), Nike teamed up with Kendrick Lamar for a 90-second video highlighting Bryant’s Mamba Mentality of always striving to be better.
In the inspirational video, appropriately titled Better, Lamar spits rapid-fire spoken word over a montage of clips from Bryant’s unforgettable career, mixed with footage of recent protests across the United States.
“Better friend. Better fighter. Better rider. Better eater. Better leader. Better generation. Better nation,” Lamar says over a soft piano melody. “Just be better. Can you do that?”
In a post on its website, Nike described the video as a celebration of the “universal relevance of progress and highlights Kobe’s prolific desire for improvement. The Mamba Mentality is about getting better, every day, in everything we do. In his own words, Kobe described his Mamba Mentality by saying, ‘It’s to constantly try to be the best version of yourself.'”
Bryant, 41, died on Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash that also claimed the lives of either others, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. He was five-time NBA champion and legendary shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Watch Nike’s birthday tribute to Bryant below.
