Bryant, Kobe << KOH bee >> (1978-2020), was one of the most exciting players in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Bryant, who stood 6 feet 6 inches (198 centimeters) tall, played guard for a record 20 seasons for the Los Angeles Lakers .
Bryant’s athletic skills and acrobatic shots near the basket excited fans. He won the 1997 NBA slam dunk title and was one of the league’s finest all-around players. He was named to the NBA All-Defensive Team a record-tying nine times. On Jan. 22, 2006, Bryant scored 81 points in one game, the second highest total in NBA history behind the 100 points scored in a game by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. Bryant led the NBA in scoring for the 2005-2006 season with an average of 35.4 points per game and again in 2006-2007 with a 31.6 average. He was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the 2007-2008 season.
Bryant helped lead the Lakers to five NBA championships. He also starred on United States national basketball teams that won the gold medal at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games . On Dec. 5, 2012, Bryant became the fifth—and the youngest—player in NBA history to score 30,000 points in a career. On Dec. 14, 2014, Bryant scored his 32,293rd point, passing Michael Jordan for third place among all-time leading NBA scorers, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone . He retired after the 2015-2016 season with 33,643 career regular season points. LeBron James surpassed Bryant for third place on Jan. 25, 2020.
Bryant was one of the few players in NBA history to succeed in professional basketball without first attending college. He was drafted directly out of high school by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1996 NBA draft. He was the youngest player ever drafted in the NBA. Charlotte selected Bryant as the 13th pick and then traded his rights to Los Angeles for center Vlade Divac.
In 2003, Bryant was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in Colorado. Bryant disputed the charge, and it was dismissed at the request of the prosecution in 2004, before the case went to trial. In 2005, a civil suit the woman brought against Bryant was settled before it went to trial.
Bryant was born in Philadelphia on Aug. 23, 1978. His father, Joe Bryant, played in the NBA from 1975 through 1983. In 2018, Kobe Bryant won an Academy Award for the animated short film Dear Basketball. The film was adapted from a poem he wrote in 2015 to announce his retirement from the NBA. He shared the award with the animator Glen Keane. Bryant died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020. One of his daughters, 13-year-old Gianna, and the seven other people aboard the craft died as well. Bryant was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in April.
