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Trevor Ariza details Kobe Bryant's reaction after the 2008 Finals loss, which showed his true greatness
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- Trevor Ariza details Kobe Bryant's reaction after the 2008 Finals loss, which showed his true greatness
Kobe Bryant built much of his career around how he responded when things did not go his way. He won five NBA titles, two Finals MVPs and an MVP award during his 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers , but that did not mean he didn't deal with plenty of losses along the way.
The Black Mamba reached the NBA Finals seven times and finished with five championships. Two losses came against the Detroit Pistons in 2004 and the Boston Celtics in 2008, with the latter coming during his first Finals appearance without the dominant Shaquille O'Neal.
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That season, the Lakers had put together a strong showing behind Kobe and Pau Gasol , but Boston's Big 3 of Paul Pierce , Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen just had too much in a seven-game series.
Trevor Ariza was part of that Lakers team and knew how L.A. struggled to deal with the Celtics' physicality throughout the series. But he also saw how the Mamba mentality worked in handling the loss once the series was over.
The Black Mamba didn't dwell on the loss
Kobe was never one to take time away from basketball or sit back and overthink what went wrong; his mentality made him think about his next moves. Which is why Bryant's immediate reaction stood out to Ariza – there was very little time between the end of the season and the challenge that lay ahead.
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"His reaction to that loss was immediate, actually. It wasn't even a time when he was dwelling on it – or he felt sorry for our team. You know, a lot of times when you lose those games or your season is over and you feel like you could have gone further, you try to take time away just to refresh yourself, to rebuild the love for the game," Ariza explained on the Straight Game podcast.
"But nah, that bro immediately was like, 'This is what we doing. This is what we got to do. This is how we going to do it. This is what I need from you, you, you, you… If you're not down with this, then this is probably not the space for you.'"
There was a lot for Kobe and the Lakers team to think about after that series. They had blown a 24-point lead in Game 4 before the Celtics pulled away, and Game 6 was even worse. Boston won 131-92 at TD Garden to close out the series, handing the Lakers a 39-point loss.
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Kobe went 7-for-22 from the field in that game, but the loss only led him to figure out what the Lakers needed to do differently. And that approach became important because the team was back in the Finals next season.
He averaged 32 points, 5.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists against the Orlando Magic as the Lakers won the series in five games, and Bryant got his hands on his first Finals MVP trophy.
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The loss to Boston became part of what came next
The motivation that Kobe had after the Finals loss to the Celtics got the Lakers to run it back-to-back. After winning the 2009 title, they returned to the Finals stage in 2010 and faced the Boston Celtics again, but this time won the series in seven games. Kobe averaged 28 points, eight rebounds and four assists and took home his second Finals MVP award.
The 2008 loss had exposed many problems for the Lakers, particularly against the Celtics' physical play style, but Kobe had understood the solutions. He went to the 2010 Finals with a clear idea of what he wanted from the likes of Gasol, Ron Artest , Derek Fisher and others.
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That's exactly what Ariza saw in 2008 and it's what separates Kobe's Mamba mentality from many others when it came to coming back from a loss.
Related: Arn Tellem says Kobe Bryant instructed him to make sure the Lakers take him on Draft day
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Sep 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
