USA's Hailey Van Lith Channels 'Kobe Mentality' to Win 3x3 Olympic Bronze Medal

The 2024 Paris Olympics was all about perseverance for Hailey Van Lith and the United States women's 3x3 basketball team, and she believes Kobe Bryant would have been pleased to see the Americans overcome an 0-3 start in group play and difficult semifinal loss to still win the bronze medal.

"I think Kobe would be proud as heck of me for not losing that game," Van Lith said after defeating Canada for the bronze on Monday. "Sometimes you can't control the outcomes, like that last game. I'm not gonna lie, it was tough. It was a tough situation for us to win it, and we just didn't soak it in. That's the Kobe mentality. It's like 'f--k it and go out and win the next game.'"

That the Red, White and Blue was even playing for a medal is notable considering the way the Games started.

The team that consisted of Van Lith, Dearica Hamby, Cierra Burdick and Rhyne Howard dropped its opening three games to Germany, Azerbaijan and Australia and was in jeopardy of not even making the knockout rounds.

However, it bounced back with four consecutive wins over Spain, Canada, France and China to reach the play-in round, where it defeated China again. Yet that momentum finally ended in the semifinals with a difficult 18-16 loss to Spain in overtime that saw the victors go 6-of-7 from the free-throw line.

The free throws carried plenty of weight in a format where baskets are worth one and two points in a game that ends after either 10 minutes or one team reaches 21 points. Spain clinched the win on the free-throw line.

To the Americans' credit, they bounced back and defeated Canada 16-13 in the bronze-medal game.

Van Lith scored a team-high six points in the win to help secure a medal for her side.

Bryant knew a little something about delivering with Olympics medals on the line, as he helped lead the United States men's basketball team to triumph in the 2008 and 2012 Games. He averaged 13.6 points per game across those two Olympics and left with gold each time.

Van Lith said she channeled that Mamba mentality, and the result was a medal of her own.