Early life
Kobe Bryant is the youngest child and only son of Joe and Pam Bryant. His parents named him after a kind of steak: the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu. At the age of six, Kobe, his parents and two older sisters, Shaya and Sharia, moved to Italy, where his father began playing professional basketball. He became accustomed to the lifestyle and became fluent in Italian. At an early age, he learned to play soccer and his favorite team was AC Milan. Bryant once said that if he had stayed in Italy, he would have stuck with soccer and would have tried to become a pro soccer player. In 1991, the Bryants moved back to the United States. A spectacular high school career at Lower Merion High School in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, brought national recognition. While his SAT score of 1080[2] would have ensured his basketball scholarship to various top-tier colleges, the 17-year-old Bryant made the controversial decision to go directly to the NBA.
Early NBA career
1996 Draft
Even before he was chosen as the 13th draft pick overall by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996, the 17-year-old Bryant had made a lasting impression on then-Lakers general manager Jerry West, who immediately foresaw the potential in Bryant's basketball talent during pre-draft workouts. West stated that Bryant's workout was one of the best he had ever witnessed. West continued his quest to return the Lakers to championship status and startled spectators by offering and completing the trade for starting center Vlade Divac to the Hornets for Bryant.
Growing pains
During his first season with the Lakers, he mostly came off the bench behind guards Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel. Bryant played limited minutes initially but this changed as the season continued. He earned himself a reputation as a high-flyer and a fan-favorite by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest.
In Bryant's second season (1997-98), he received more playing time and began showing more of his abilities as a talented young guard. He was the runner-up for the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award, and through fan voting, he also became the youngest NBA All-Star starter.
While his statistics were impressive for his age, he was still a young guard who lacked the experience to complement Shaquille O'Neal and significantly help the team contend for a championship.
Championship years
However, Bryant's fortunes would soon change when Phil Jackson became coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. After years of steady improvement, Bryant had become one of the premier shooting guards in the league, a fact that was evidenced by his annual presence in the league's All-NBA, All-Star, and All-Defensive teams. The Los Angeles Lakers became perennial championship contenders under Bryant and O'Neal, who formed an outstanding center-guard combination. Their success gave the Lakers three consecutive NBA championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002.
End of a dynasty
In the 2002-03 NBA season, Bryant averaged 30 points per game and embarked on a historic scoring run, posting 40 or more points per game in nine consecutive games while averaging 40.6 in the entire month of February. In addition, he averaged 6.9 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.2 steals per game, all career highs up to that point. For the first time in his career Bryant was voted on to both--All-NBA and All-Defensive 1st teams. After finishing 50-32 in the regular season, the Lakers floundered in the playoffs and lost in the Western Conference Semifinals to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs in six games.
In the following 2003-04 NBA season, the Lakers were able to acquire legends Karl Malone and Gary Payton to make another push at the NBA Championship. With a starting lineup of four potential Hall of Fame players in Shaquille O'Neal, Malone, Payton, and Bryant, the Lakers were able to reach the NBA Finals. In the Finals, they were eliminated by the Detroit Pistons in 5 games. In that series, Bryant averaged 22.6 points per game, shooting 35.1% from the field, and 4.4 assists per game.
Conflicts and turmoil
Bryant, following his arrest in 2003In 2003, Bryant's reputation was tainted by criminal charges, in which Katelyn Faber, a young woman from Colorado, accused Bryant of sexual assault. With his image badly tarnished, the public's perception of Bryant plummeted, and his endorsement contracts with McDonald's, Nutella, and Ferrero SpA were terminated. Sales figures from NBA merchandisers indicated that sales of replicas of Bryant's jersey fell far off of their previous highs.
Even before being arrested for rape, Bryant was known to publicly feud with his teammates, including Shaquille O'Neal, Samaki Walker and Karl Malone. In an isolated incident, he allegedly punched teammate Walker in the face outside of the team bus.[citation needed] In 2004, a dispute between Bryant and former teammate Malone became public prior to Malone's expected re-signing with the Lakers. Bryant claimed Malone had made inappropriate comments to Bryant's wife. Malone claimed the comments were in jest and that Bryant was overreacting [1]. In the subsequent months, rather than re-join Bryant and the Lakers, Malone turned his attention to the possibility of joining another team, but ultimately decided to retire.
Unquestioned leader
When O'Neal was traded, Bryant became the Lakers' unquestioned leader of the team going into the 2004-2005 season. As it turned out, however, his first season without O'Neal would prove to be a very rocky one. With his reputation badly damaged from all that had happened over the previous year, Bryant was closely scrutinized and criticized during the season.
A particularly damaging salvo came from Phil Jackson in The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul. The book detailed the events of the Lakers' tumultuous 2003-04 season and has a number criticisms of Bryant. In the book Jackson also calls Bryant "uncoachable."
Then, midway through the season, Rudy Tomjanovich suddenly resigned as Lakers coach, citing the recurrence of health problems and exhaustion. Without "Rudy T," stewardship of the remainder of the Lakers' season fell to career assistant coach Frank Hamblen. Despite the fact that Bryant was the league's second leading scorer at 27.6 points per game, the Lakers floundered and missed the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. This year signified a drop in Bryant's overall status in the NBA by not making the NBA All-Defensive Team and being demoted to All-NBA Third Team.
2005-06 season
The 2005-06 NBA season would mark a crossroads in Bryant's basketball career. Despite past differences with Bryant, Phil Jackson returned to coach the Lakers. Bryant endorsed the move, and by all appearances, the two men worked together well the second time around, leading the Lakers back into the NBA Playoffs. Bryant also resolved his conflict with former teammate Shaquille O'Neal. The team posted a 45-37 record, an eleven-game improvement over the previous season, and the entire squad seemed to be clicking. In the first round of the playoffs, the Lakers played well enough (3-1 series lead) to come within a game of eliminating the second-seeded Phoenix Suns before finally falling short. Even with Kobe Bryant's remarkable game winning shot in Game 4, the Lakers broke down, falling to the Suns in Game 7. In the following offseason, Bryant had knee surgery, preventing him from participating in the 2006 FIBA World Championship tournament.
Accomplishments
In many ways the team's improvement in 2005-06 was often overshadowed by the individual scoring accomplishments posted by Bryant which resulted in the finest statistical season of his career:
On December 20, Bryant scored 62 points despite playing only three quarters of play against the Dallas Mavericks. Entering the fourth quarter Bryant had, by himself, outscored the entire Mavericks team 62-61, the only time a player has done this through three quarters since the advent of the 24-second shot clock.
On January 22, Bryant scored 81 points in a 122-104 victory against the Toronto Raptors. In addition to breaking the previous franchise record of 71 set by Elgin Baylor, his point total in that game was second in NBA history only to Wilt Chamberlain's legendary 100-point game in 1962.
Also in January, Bryant became the first player since 1964, and the only player aside from Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor to score 45 points or more in four consecutive games.
For the month of January, Bryant averaged 43.4 per game, the eighth highest single month scoring average in NBA history, and highest for any player other than Chamberlain.
By the end of the season, Bryant had also set Lakers single-season franchise records for the most 40-point games (27) and most points scored (2,832), among others.
Bryant won the league's scoring title for the first time, posting the highest scoring average (35.4) since Michael Jordan's 37.1 average in 1986-87.
Bryant finished in fourth-place in the voting for the 2006 NBA Most Valuable Player Award, but also received 22 first place votes — second only to winner Steve Nash, and by far the highest number of first-place votes Bryant had ever received in his career.
Other notable events
When the Lakers faced the Miami Heat on January 16, 2006, Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal made headlines by engaging in handshakes and hugs before the game, signifying the end of the feud that had festered between the two players since O'Neal's acrimonious departure from Los Angeles. A month later, at the 2006 NBA All-Star Game, the two laughed and joked together on several occasions.
Bryant's jersey.Late in the season, it was reported that Bryant would change his jersey number from #8 to #24 at the start of the 2006-07 NBA season. #24 was Bryant's first high school number, before he switched to #33.[3] After the Lakers' season ended, Bryant said on TNT that he wanted #24 as a rookie, but it was unavailable, as was #33, retired with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He said the switch to 24 signified the start of the second half of his career. Bryant took number 8 after his favorite Italian league player, Mike D'Antoni. The Lakers guard grew up watching D'Antoni as a star point guard in the Italian league, where his father, "Jelly Bean" Bryant, also played.[4]
Player profile
Bryant is a shooting guard who is also capable of playing small forward. As of 2006, he is considered one of the premier players in the NBA, being elected into the All-NBA Teams en bloc from 1999 on an featuring eight NBA All-Star call-ups. Bryant was a vital part of the three most recent Lakers' championships.
He is a prolific scorer, averaging 23.9 points per game for his career, and also scores 4.5 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. The 1997 NBA Slam Dunk Champion Bryant is capable of both dunking on opposing big men or scoring with his fadeaway jump shot, able to hit the shot from mid-range to long three pointers (.335 from beyond the arc). His versatility was especially showcased in the 2005-2006 NBA season, where Bryant averaged 35.4 points per game to secure the first NBA scoring title of his career, including his 81-point game and his 62 points in 3 quarters-game. In addition, Bryant also maintains a reputation for clutch performances in games, able to rise to the challenge and hit the difficult shot.
On his own half of the hardwood, Bryant plays tenacious defense. He has made the All-NBA Defensive Team a total of 6 times, and has established himself as one of the best perimeter defenders of his generation.
A controversial side of his game is his tendancy to show the behaviour of a ball hog: in his record-setting season, he racked up 2173 shot attempts in 80 games (avg. 27.1). However, fans and experts widely agree that Bryant is one of the best two-guards of his generation.
Private life
In November 1999, 21 year old Bryant met 17 year old Vanessa Laine while she was working as a background dancer on the Tha Eastsidaz music video[5] " G'd Up " (In the video Vanessa is in the convertible in a silver bikini). Bryant was in the building working on his debut musical album, which was never released.
The two began dating and were engaged just six months later in May 2000,[6] all while Laine was still a senior at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, California. Due to the media, she finished high school through independent study.[7] According to Vanessa's cousin Laila Laine, there was no prenuptial agreement. Vanessa said Kobe "loved her too much for one". [8].
They married on April 18, 2001 in Dana Point, California. There were only about 12 guests at the wedding. Neither Bryant's parents, his two sisters, longtime advisor and agent Arn Tellem, nor Bryant's Laker teammates attended. Bryant's parents were opposed to the marriage for a number of reasons. Reportedly Bryant's parents had problems with him marrying so young, especially to a woman who wasn't African-American[9]. This disagreement resulted in an estrangement period of over two years, during which Kobe Bryant did not have any contact with his parents.
The Bryants' first child, a daughter named Natalia Diamante Bryant, was born on January 19, 2003. The birth of Natalia influenced Bryant to reconcile his differences with his parents. Vanessa Bryant suffered a miscarriage due to an ectopic pregnancy in the Spring of 2005. In the Fall of 2005 the Bryants announced that they were expecting their second child. Their second daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, was born on May 1, 2006. Interestingly, Gianna was born 6 minutes ahead of former teammate Shaquille O'Neal's daughter Me'arah Sanaa, who was born in Florida.[10]
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