Jada Williams reveals biggest takeaway from Kobe Bryant's mamba mentality that inspired her to push the limits

Geoff
Jada Williams (left) and Kobe Bryant (right) (Image Sources: IMAGN; Kobe Bryant
Jada Williams (left) and Kobe Bryant (right) (Image Sources: IMAGN; Kobe Bryant's Instagram account)

Arizona guard Jada Williams revealed that overcoming every struggle in life, whether on or off the basketball court and working your heart out, are the biggest takeaways from having the same mindset as her idol, Kobe Bryant.

Williams tackled the lessons she learned from adapting the mamba mentality that the LA Lakers star had, during the "2Legendary podcast with Shedeur Sanders" that aired on Tuesday.

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The five-foot-eight guard answered Deion Sanders Jr's question on the key lesson she took from that personal relationship with the five-time NBA champion. She emphasized Bryant's work ethic as the key takeaway from that personal connection with the late basketball great.

"It was just the mentality of like ... the outlook he had on life. He could do no wrong. When he spoke it's like he got it all figured out," Williams said [37:12-37:19].
"It was overcoming everything... The mentality you have going into certain situations. Everybody knows he was a dog on the court but off the court, it was just like his insane work ethic. He also carried that same work ethic whatever it had to be," the Arizona guard added [37:23-37:54].

Jada Williams talks about NIL in women's hoops

During the podcast, Jada Williams and the Sanders brothers touched upon NIL in women's basketbal,l and the Arizona guard believes it's booming.

As per On3.com, Williams' value is pegged at USD421,000, but she only takes deals based on her preferences and doesn't accept offers that she feels would harm her credibility as a player.

She feels like the NIL had helped the team and motivated them to perform better for the sake of the sponsors. Their performance handed them a qualification in last year's NCAA Tournament.

Williams also discussed the downside of NIL and admitted that it's not equal for every player and based on how their social media is working to their advantage.

"The downside is people get jealous about ... you could be doing the same thing, the same video for the same brand and you still not going to get the same amount of money," she said. [31:23-31:28]

Williams is expected to lead an Arizona team that lost four of its top scorers due to graduation or opted to transfer to other schools.

She will have returning teammates Breya Cunningham, Skylar Jones and Isis Beh on her side. But the Wildcats are laden with freshmen and transfer players who still have to adjust to the team's system with only a few months remaining before the start of the new season.


Will Arizona make the 2025 NCAA Tournament despite the departure of its top scorers from last season? Let's know your views in the comments section

Dawn Staley, Geno Auriemma, or Kim Mulkey - who is NCAAW's highest-paid coach? Find out here

Edited by Geoff
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