Arike Ogunbawale just brought out her inner Mamba Mentality on Wednesday by dominating and bringing home the 2021 WNBA All-Star Game MVP honors. In her first-ever ASG appearance, the Dallas Wings guard dropped 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting to spearhead Team WNBA's impressive 93-85 win against Team USA.

Ogunbawale, who's a huge Kobe Bryant fan, had to shout out her idol after lifting the 2021 WNBA ASG MVP trophy.

“Just representing for 24. Rest in peace, Kobe,” Ogunbowale said (via Arash Markazi):

Ogunbowale balled out from the get-go, lighting it up from all over the floor. The fifth overall pick of the 2019 WNBA Draft knew she had to represent her favorite player and go absolutely bonkers in front of Vanessa Bryant and her daughters Capri and B.B.

After being cut from Team USA's Olympic roster just last month, the guard put on quite a revenge game against the national team in the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. According to ESPN, Arike's 26-point explosion is the fourth-most in any All-Star Game in WNBA history. She's also just the second athlete to score 26 or more in a non-overtime game next to Maya Moore who dropped 30 in 2015. Take a bow, young lady.

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During the game, Ogunbowale was noticeably active on social media, giving the world updates on the game and even criticizing her lay-up. Given that things went her way on Wednesday, she mentioned that she might have to live-tweet her games more often. Clearly, the young guard was out there having fun in her ASG debut.

Surely, Kobe is up there tipping his hat to this phenomenal young talent. Keep balling out, Arike.