Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player. He spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association. He was an 18-time All-Star, a 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, and the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player. He won two gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics as a member of his U.S. national team. He died at age 41, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California in 2020.
About Kobe Bryant in brief
Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association. He was an 18-time All-Star, a 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, and the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player. Bryant is the all-time leading scorer in Lakers franchise history. He died at age 41, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California in 2020. In 2018, he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for his 2017 film Dear Basketball. Bryant was born in Philadelphia, the youngest of three children and only son of former NBA player Joe Bryant and Pamela Cox Bryant. His parents named him after the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu. His middle name, Bean, was derived from his father’s nickname \”Jellybean.\’ Bryant’s family was Catholic and he had always practiced his faith. Bryant started playing basketball when he was three. When he was six, his father retired from the NBA and moved his family to Rieti, Italy to continue playing professional basketball. After two years, they moved to Reggio Emilia, then to Pistoia, where he became accustomed to his new lifestyle and learned to speak Italian. He learned more about basketball and soccer from his grandfather, who would mail him videos of NBA games for him to study. Bryant began to play basketball seriously while living in Italy and he considered some of his best childhood memories to be made there.
He won two gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics as a member of his U.S. national team. He is the first guard in NBA history to play at least 20 seasons. He led the NBA in scoring during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. In 2006, he scored a career-high 81 points; the second most points scored in a single game in league history, behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in 1962. In 2003, Bryant was charged with sexual assault following an accusation by a young female hotel clerk. He issued a public apology and admitted to a sexual encounter but denied the assault allegation and said it was consensual. He continued to be among the top players in the league through 2013, when he suffered a torn Achilles tendon at age 34. Citing physical decline, Bryant retired after the 2015–16 season. He gave himself the nickname ‘Black Mamba’ in the mid-2000s, and it became widely adopted by the general public. In 2008, he was named NBA Finals MVP on both occasions. He also led the team to two consecutive championships in 2009 and 2010, and was named All- NBA Team and All-Defensive Team. His 18 All-star designations are the secondmost all time, while it is the record for most consecutive appearances as a starter. His four All- Star Game MVP Awards are tied with Bob Pettit for the most inNBA history.
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This page is based on the article Kobe Bryant published in Wikipedia (as of Feb. 09, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
