WHEN you’re one of the greatest basketball players of all time, there’s really nothing much that can impress you anymore.
So getting Kobe Bryant excited is something special.
That’s what Kat Tan managed to do in 2016 when she conquered Kobe’s challenge at the end of his Nike training camp in his last visit in Manila.
Kat was one of the 24 players chosen to be part of the training camp where they took part in simple, yet lung-busting drills that Kobe personally perfected in his 20-year career that saw him become a five-time NBA champion, 15-time All-NBA team member, two-time Finals MVP, and the 2008 NBA MVP, among other awards.
To cap off the camp, Bryant put up a challenge: one player from his “Mamba Army” would have the task to take a three-pointer from the top of the key. Making the shot would mean freeing everyone from running suicides. But missing the shot would mean having to do the punishment.
The twist: the player who would miss the shot wouldn’t have to run, but watch helplessly as the other players complete the consequence.
Not one to back down from the challenge, Tan stepped up and responded to the cheers of her teammates.
The former De la Salle Zobel varsity player who thrived with just one arm that got her the moniker “One-Armed Mamba”, took a few dribbles, gathered, then launched the shot that eventually found the bottom of the net and left Kobe and the rest in attendance in awe.
It’s been four years since then, but Tan still can’t help but still be amazed when she looks back on that proud moment.
“It was a moment that I felt so pressured,” Tan said. “I really didn’t expect anything out of it. Coming from just playing simple basketball, I just played the game. I really just love basketball. And to have that kind of experience, just to be part of that Mamba Army, of that camp, it was already an accomplishment for me, but to even conquer his challenge, I guess it just gave me more confidence in myself, like I can do whatever.”
“For me to be able to show it, show my game to him, and see how proud he was after I made the shot, parang I was really in cloud nine that moment,” she added. “I could have never imagined that ever happening. Parang it’s not every day you get a chance like that. I’m just grateful that it happened.”
Taking the challenge, alone, was already an achievement, considering the other 23 players with all their limbs intact who could’ve taken the shot instead. Making the shot was the icing on the cake for Tan.
She insisted it would’ve had a different script if she didn’t make the shot.
“Actually, I always think about it, like everything would’ve been a different story If didn’t make the shot. But you know, things happen for a reason and I’m just grateful for it,” Tan said.
And she always looks back on that proud memory whenever she would have a bad day, like the time his idol and his daughter Gianna passed away in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles last January.
“Whenever I feel down or whenever I feel lost, I just reminisce those times that I had with him, especially that moment,” Tan said. “It just brings me back to who I am – as a person and as a player. It made me tougher. I just felt that I could do anything.”
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