“New Name, Same Mission” Sports academy drops “Mamba” out of the respect for Kobe Bryant

It has been about three and a half months since the world mourned the death of Kobe Bryant along with 8 other passengers including his daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant”. After Kobe’s retirement, he was heavily involved in other ventures like commentating sports, producing films, and training at the mamba sports academy. As of May 12th, 2020, the Mamba sports academy has announced to revert back to the original name “sports academy” dropping mamba out of the name. According to the sports academy, “this is not a decision we came to lightly or on our own. It was a mutual agreement made in accordance with the wishes of his estate”.

Fans are pretty upset about this name change and are threatening to remove their support of all sports academy affiliations.
Though they have turned off the comments from the official announcement post on Instagram, fans still expressed their disappointment in this name change leaving comments on other posts.

CEO Chad Faulkner said that this change is actually to honor and respect Kobe’s legacy. “We were fortunate to learn from Kobe. We will carry on much of those learnings in a respectful way”, he told the Undefeated on Tuesday morning. Chad Faulkner also says he is open to having memorials placed at both locations at Redondo Beach and Thousand Oaks.

In December of 2018, “Mamba” was added to the name sports academy when a collaboration with Kobe Bryant transpired to enhance the academy athletic training business. The academy has supported over 50,000 athletes since its initial opening in 2016.

The sports academy locations are both currently closed due to Coronavirus.