Kobe Bryant Laughed Off An Unflattering Shirtless Picture As Him Being ‘#MambaThick’

Kobe Bryant has jumped into retirement with the same intensity that got him through a 20 year NBA career. It’s only been a year since Bryant retired following his incredible 60-point performance in his final game, but there’s no sign of a Bryant comeback in the works.

Instead, Kobe’s busy with his family, investments, and being hands-on in running his media production company and more. Bryant insists he doesn’t think that much about basketball anymore or miss it, and most recently laughed off the idea that he was influencing Kyrie Irving’s decision to request a trade from the Cavaliers.

There’s also physical evidence that Bryant isn’t planning to rejuvenate his career anytime soon, as a recent picture of a shirtless Bryant at the pool hit the internet showing him with a few extra pounds from his playing days.

First things first, no one should be surprised that someone no longer playing in the NBA would be more out of shape a year after retiring than he was during his playing days. Bryant was — for a brief bit — a very good sport about it, posting the image to his Instagram with a hilarious caption, in which he refers to himself as “#MambaThick,” although it has unfortunately been deleted.

A fun fact for you is that before today, no one had ever used #MambaThick on Instagram, but since his since deleted post, 27 accounts have used the very specific hashtag. He’s a true influencer, on and off the court.

Bryant vowed to get his body back in 30 days and get back to being #MambaBeast, but we’ll forever remember this as the #MambaThick Instagram post. Why Bryant deleted it is a mystery. Maybe it was a social media handler that did it and Bryant wasn’t thrilled with the joke, or maybe it was a brand thing, considering he represents a performance drink with Body Armor, but either way it is gone from his account. Unfortunately for Bryant — and fortunately for us — the internet retains all things in the form of screenshots and we can always remember the time Kobe poked fun at himself for being a bit too thick.