Shoe Ad - Kobe VII System: Different Animal, Same Beast

Someone was asking what Kobe Bryant meant by:  "Different animal, same beast".  Well, according to this article, this how I've interpreted it.


He means that you’re the same player as an individual but as you develop your skills and proficiency, you become a better player version of yourself.  Hence, you’ve always been the beast that you were but now you can play like an animal that you couldn’t have when you first started.  

For the first 10 years of his NBA career, Kobe wore #8 to represent the early stages of his game.  For the last 10 years, he wore #24 to represent the evolution of his game.

This expression was also used as a slogan for one of his shoe commercials as shown below.