Kobe Bryant

Basketball Player

• Born: August 23, 1978
• Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Died: January 26, 2020
• Place of death: Calabasas, California

Bryant was widely regarded as one of the best basketball players not only of his generation but also of all time. A key member of five Los Angeles Lakers championship teams, Bryant made numerous All-Star Game appearances and was named the National Basketball Association’s most valuable player.

Early Life

Kobe Bean Bryant (KOH-bee) was born on August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The youngest of Pam and Joe Bryant’s three children, he also was the only boy. Kobe’s father, Joe, was a professional basketball player who struggled to find his place in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Joe was a six foot nine forward with the ball-handling skills of a guard, a mixture that was unique at the time and baffled conventional coaches.

Joe became a journeyman, logging 606 games with four different teams between 1975 and 1983. Kobe Bryant thus grew up around basketball and developed an intense love for the sport. He often mimicked his father’s moves. In 1983, Joe signed a contract to play in Italy, where Bryant effectively grew up. As he adjusted to the new environment, Bryant found solace in playing basketball and spending as much time as he could with his father, rarely missing the opportunity to attend practices or games. During summers, the Bryants would return to Philadelphia to spend time with friends and family, which also offered Kobe the chance to play in the noted Sonny Hill League.

After Joe retired in 1992, the family returned to the United States and he accepted an assistant coaching job at La Salle University. Although Bryant felt awkward joining his American peers in the classroom, his transition was made easier by his ability to play basketball. By his junior year at Lower Merion High School, Bryant had made a name for himself. He frequented the gym at Temple University, playing pickup games with the school’s basketball team. With his father’s tutelage, he already was a relatively mature player.

By Bryant’s senior year, prominent universities such as Duke, North Carolina, and Michigan were offering him basketball scholarships. However, Bryant chose to go directly to the professional ranks. Some debated his ability to play in the NBA straight out of high school, yet most observers felt he would be a first-round draft selection.

Life’s Work

The Charlotte Hornets chose Bryant with the thirteenth overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft, but traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Vlade Divac. The Lakers chose to bring Bryant along slowly in his first year, but when injuries depleted the roster, he became the youngest starter in NBA history. While he gained playing experience, the season was a lackluster one; the injury-riddled team lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The next year, Bryant was installed as the Lakers’ sixth man, playing twenty to thirty minutes a game. He displayed an ability to score with ease but had a tendency to ignore his teammates. The team went to the Western Conference Finals, where it was eliminated by the Utah Jazz. The next season, Bryant became part of the starting lineup and averaged 19.9 points while also showing defensive tenacity. When the Lakers failed to reach the NBA Finals again, the management made a coaching change, bringing in Phil Jackson, who had worked with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls during their six championship seasons.

The change was just what the team needed. Bryant flourished in Jackson’s offense and the team responded by breaking through to reach the Finals. The Lakers defeated the Indianapolis Pacers to claim the team’s twelfth championship—and Bryant’s first. The Lakers matched the success of the 1999–2000 season by reaching the Finals the next year, this time beating the Philadelphia 76ers in five games. At the age of twenty-two, Bryant already had won two NBA championships. He added a third when the Lakers beat the New Jersey Nets at the end of the 2001–2 season. The Lakers’ attempt at a potential fourth straight title was derailed by an injury to center Shaquille O’Neal. O’Neal was injured most of the season, and the team failed to develop a sense of chemistry.

Bryant grew into a prolific scorer as well as a defensive specialist. In 2001, he married Vanessa Laine. His squeaky-clean reputation combined with his on-court prowess to make him a sought-after product endorser. However, his popularity suffered greatly when he was accused of sexual assault in 2003. Bryant admitted to committing adultery with the accuser but denied assaulting her. The case played out amid intense media scrutiny—both of Bryant and his accuser—but ultimately was dismissed. Bryant and the woman settled a civil lawsuit out of court.

After the sexual assault case was resolved, Bryant worked hard to reinvent himself and reestablish his reputation. He also had been hurt by a feud with teammate O’Neal, and the two superstars ultimately proved unable to coexist. O’Neal was traded in 2004, leaving Bryant as the Lakers’ lone star. He continued to improve his game and led the NBA in scoring in 2005–6 and 2006–7. In 2006, he scored eighty-one points in a game against the Toronto Raptors, the highest point total since Wilt Chamberlain’s famous one hundred-point game in 1962.

Despite his scoring prowess, Bryant continued to hear criticism that he had not won a championship without O’Neal. In 2008, Bryant partnered with Pau Gasol to lead the Lakers to the NBA Finals and was named most valuable player in the league. Although the Lakers lost the championship to the Boston Celtics that year, they returned to the Finals the next two seasons and won both times. By 2010, Bryant had won five NBA championship rings.

Though the Lakers failed to return to the NBA Finals during Bryant's later tenure with the team, Bryant accrued numerous personal accolades and accomplishment, despite several debilitating injuries. Before the 2012–13 season the Lakers acquired all-star center Dwight Howard and point guard and two-time league MVP Steve Nash, seemingly poising the team for another championship. However, Nash fractured his left leg in the second game of the season and never was able to make an impact during his three seasons in Los Angeles. Furthermore, Howard and Bryant never coalesced as teammates, and the former left the Lakers after only one season. Late in the 2012–13 season Bryant tore his Achilles tendon, ending his year. After attempting to return the following fall, Bryant injured his knee, effectively ending his season. The 2014–15 season marked the third consecutive year that Bryant's season was cut short by injury, as he was forced to have shoulder surgery in early 2015. Bryant's was under contract with Lakers for the 2015–16 season.

Despite enduring two of the worst seasons in Lakers history and a string of injuries, Bryant continued to add to his career statistical totals. In 2012, he became the youngest player to reach 30,000 points in a career, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, and Jordan, as the only players in history to amass such a point total by that time. In 2014, he passed Jordan to become third on the list of top scorers. His record was surpassed by LeBron James in 2020.

After months of fielding rumors of his retirement, Bryant officially announced that the 2015–16 season would be his last in a poem titled "Dear Basketball" that he published in The Players' Tribune on November 29, 2015. He reportedly told Lakers' coach Byron Scott in the middle of a game. Bryant ended his career as an eighteen-time All Star and five-time NBA champion with a total of 33,643 points.

Following his basketball career, Bryant undertook a number of business ventures, including the launch of the venture capital firm Bryant-Stibel, with Jeff Stibel, in 2016. In 2018, Bryant launched the Mamba Sports Academy—a multi-platform athletic facility that provides basketball training and youth camps—in conjunction with Sport's Academy CEO Chad Faulkner. He also served as his daughter's youth basketball coach. Through his multimedia company Granity Studios, Bryant also ventured into film and writing. Bryant wrote and provided the voiceover for the animated short film Dear Basketball (2017). Directed and animated by Glen Keane, the short won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The same year, he published the autobiography The Mamba Mentality: How I Play (2018). In 2019, he began collaborating with multiple authors on several children's chapter books, including the New York Times best seller The Wizenard Series: Training Camp (2019), with Wesley King, and Epoca: The Tree of Ecrof (2019), with Ivy Claire.

Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, had four daughters: Natalia Diamante, born in 2003, Gianna Maria-Onore, born in 2006, Bianka Bella, born in 2016, and Capri Kobe, born in 2019. On January 26, 2020, Bryant died in a helicopter crash just north of Los Angeles. His daughter Gianna, as well as several other passengers, also died in the crash. The day after his death, it was announced that Bryant would be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020.

Significance

Bryant was considered one of the best basketball players ever, a prolific scorer and intense defender. A perennial all-star and member of the all-defensive team, Bryant rebounded from controversy to raise his career to elite status. In addition to his five NBA titles, he appeared on eighteen All-Star teams and won two Olympic gold medals playing for the United States. He will be remembered on the record books for his record-breaking scoring, as well as for his work ethic. His partnership with Shaquille O'Neal remains one of the most successful in NBA history. Along with his successes on the court, Bryant will also be remembered as a polarizing figure. His fans are many, but he was known as a difficult and demanding teammate.

Bibliography

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Heisler, Mark. Kobe and the New Lakers Dynasty. Chicago: Triumph, 2012. Print.

Jenkins, Lee. “Dynasty: Beginning or Ending?” Sports Illustrated 112.27 (2010): 40–44. Print.

Keh, Andrew. "Kobe Bryant Announces Retirement." New York Times. New York Times, 29 Nov. 2015. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.

Layden, Joe. Kobe: The Story of the NBA’s Rising Young Star Kobe Bryant. New York: Harper, 1998. Print.

Lazenby, Roland. Mad Game: The NBA Education of Kobe Bryant. Lincolnwood: Masters, 2000. Print.

Posnanski, Joe. "Kobe Says Goodbye." NBC Sports. NBC Sports World, n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2016.

Shapiro, Jeffrey, and Jennifer Stevens. Kobe Bryant: The Game of His Life. New York: Revolution, 2004. Print.

Stein, Marc. "Kobe Bryant's Brilliant and Complicated Legacy." The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/sports/kobe-bryant-obituary.html. Accessed 27 Jan. 2020.

Taylor Fleming, Anne. "The Kobe Factor." Los Angeles Magazine (2015): 60–62. OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 25 Sept. 2015.