Kobe Bryant

Introduction

Kobe Bryant is an American and a renowned professional basketball player. Kobe is the youngest of 3 children born to Joe Bryant and Pamela Cox Bryant. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was an NBA player who later migrated with his family to Italy to continue his professional basketball career. This enabled the young Kobe to learn fluent Italian and Spanish. His parents were Roman Catholic. Kobe Bryant plays in the National Basket Ball Association for the LA Lakers and has been with them for his entire career till date. Bryant entered the NBA straight from college and has risen to be one of the foremost basketball stars of the present era.

Kobe Bryant’s Early Exploit in Basketball

Kobe Bryant was a highly successful high school basketball player in Pennsylvania. In fact, Kobe was recognized as the foremost high school basketball player in the U.S., during his high school days. After graduating from high school, Kobe Bryant declared himself eligible for the NBA draft and was the 13th overall pick in the NBA draft of 1996 by the Charlotte Hornets. He was then sold to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Career Achievements of Kobe Bryant

He has won five NBA championships with the L.A Lakers and has been selected for the All Star team on seventeen different occasions. In addition, Kobe has been chosen in the All NBA team on fifteen different occasions and twelve times for the All-Defensive Team. He has been top scorer in the league on two different occasions and he is third on the NBA’s All-Time scoring charts and also third on the post-season All-Time scoring charts. Kobe’s father, Joe Bryant was a former NBA player.

Bryant announced himself big time as a rookie by winning the slam dunk contest of 1997. In 2006 he scored 81 points in a game against the Toronto Raptors. This was the second highest ever points in a single game in the history of the NBA. The highest ever being the 100 points scored by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. Kobe Bryant became the youngest player in the history of the NBA to reach 30,000 career points and he is the all-time leader in scoring charts of the L.A Lakers history. He has won the All-Star most valuable player award on four different occasions which is the joint highest ever. He won Olympic gold medals as a member of the national basketball team of the United States in 2008 and 2012 and has been recognized as the top basketball player of the 2000s by TNT.