Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has demonstrated the like a good bottle of fine wine, his game just gets better with time.
It's pretty clear that this isn't the same Bryant from year's past, and Bryant has taken notice to it as well. After leading the Los Angeles Lakers a 99-98 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, Bryant took to Twitter to shed his former nickname "Black Mamba" and share his new nickname to all his followers:
"Vino" is the Italian and Spanish word for "wine." It suggests that, like a good wine, Bryant gets better with age.
Bryant, 34, is currently doing better in 9 of 13 statistical categories compared to his career averages listed on NBA.com. He is averaging 27.3 points per game, nearly two more than his career average of 25.5. Kobe's followers on Twitter had mixed reviews of the potential "Vino" name change.
Defensively he is playing well also, averaging 1.3 steals per contest.
Bryant previously assigned himself the nickname of "Black Mamba", saying he wanted his basketball skills to mimic the namesake snake's ability to "strike with 99% accuracy at maximum speed, in rapid succession."
Bryant's announcement led many of his Twitter followers to assume he was drunk as the All-Star tends to tweet a lot between the hours of 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Here are some Twitter reactions to Kobe's name change:
