Kobe Bean Bryant, named after the Japanese beef, is the shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. This American All-Star, along with Shaquille O’Neal led the team to three consecutive NBA Championships form 2000 to 2002, making both of them household names.
When Shaq left in 2003, Kobe Bryant became the star of the Lakers, leading the NBA in scoring in 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. Kobe is an 11 time NBA All-Star, 3 time NBA Champion and voted the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2008. This basketball hero won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics for the US Men’s Basketball team.
Bryant has spent his entire life around the sport; his father was a player for the Philadelphia 76′ers and also coached the Los Angeles Sparks while Kobe was a child. Basketball almost lost Bryant to soccer when the Bryant family moved to Italy and he took an interest in soccer.
Upon returning to the US in 1991, he began playing basketball on his high school team. Despite being a high achiever academically, Bryant opted to enter the NBA draft at the age of 17. His parents had to co-sign his contract with the Lakers since he was still too young to do so on his own! Kobe Bryant was in fact the youngest player to start in an NBA game.
In his first year, he earned a spot on the NBA All Rookie second team and gained recognition by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. By 1998-99, he was a premiere guard in the league and being compared to basketball greats like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. In 1999, with new coach of the Lakers, Phil Jackson, he started his rise to the elite class as one of the best shooting guards in the league.
In the 2002-2003 season, he achieved a stunning 30 point per game average and even posted 40 or more points in nine consecutive games. This season saw Bryant being voted to the NBA All Defensive 1st Team and the ALL NBA Team. It seemed he was destined for ever greater things; however, an arrest for sexual assault before the beginning of the 2003-2004 season greatly damaged his reputation.
His coach complained that Kobe had become uncoachable in the 2003-2004 season. His stock further declined with the failure of the Lakers to make the playoffs, the first time this had happened in more than a decade.
Bryant underperformed in the next two seasons until breaking a franchise record of 81 points (!) in a single game and achieving the second highest career point total in NBA history. In the 2006-2007 season, his jersey became the top selling jersey in both the US and in China. In December 2007 when he was only 29, he became the youngest NBA player to score 20,000 points in his career.
In 2008, with his Olympic career, he became an internationally known basketball star. While it was his first time going to the Olympics, he was certainly no rookie when his team won the gold medal. Kobe Bryant is a basketball great who has set many milestones, despite his ups and downs.
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