1978-2020
Who was Kobe Bryant?
Basketball great Kobe Bryant won five NBA championships and the 2008 MVP Award with the Los Angeles Lakers, establishing himself as one of the league’s greatest players. Bryant spent his early years in Italy and joined the NBA straight out of high school. Although his later seasons were marred by injuries, Bryant—a dominant scorer—surpassed Michael Jordan on the NBA all-time scoring list in December 2014 and now ranks fourth overall. He retired in 2016 after scoring 60 points in his final game. In 2018, Bryant earned an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Dear Basketball. On January 26, 2020, Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash that killed his 13-year-old daughter Gigi and seven others.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Kobe Bean Bryant
BORN: August 23, 1978
DIED: January 26, 2020
SPOUSE: Vanessa Bryant (2001-2020)
CHILDREN: Natalia, Gianna, Bianka, and Capri
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Virgo
HEIGHT: 6 ft., 6 in.
Early Life
Kobe Bean Bryant was born on August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Named after a city in Japan, Bryant is the son of former NBA player Joe “Jellybean” Bryant.
In 1984, after ending his NBA career, the elder Bryant took the family to Italy, where he played in the Italian League. Growing up in Italy alongside two athletic older sisters, Shaya and Sharia, Bryant was an avid player of both basketball and soccer. When the family returned to Philadelphia in 1991, Bryant joined the Lower Merion High School basketball team, leading it to the state championships four years in a row. With an eye on the NBA, he also started working out with the local 76ers.
NBA Draft and Career
Though he boasted good grades and high SAT scores, Bryant decided to go straight to the NBA from high school. He was selected by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th overall pick of the 1996 NBA draft and was subsequently traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Bryant quickly proved his jump to the pros was the right decision. In his second season with the Lakers, Bryant was voted a starter for the 1998 All-Star Game, becoming the youngest All-Star in NBA history at 19. The shooting guard then teamed up with superstar center Shaquille O’Neal to win three consecutive NBA championships and was voted first-team all-NBA from 2002-2004. He also inked multi-year endorsement deals with Adidas, Sprite and other top sponsors.
Although the Lakers struggled after O’Neal left in 2004, Bryant performed brilliantly. He scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006, the second-highest single-game mark in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 100, and led the league in scoring that year and the next.
In 2008, Bryant was named Most Valuable Player and carried his team to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics. In the 2009 NBA Finals, the Lakers beat the Orlando Magic to win the championship. Shortly afterward, Bryant was part of the memorial service to honor friend and music superstar Michael Jackson. The following year, the Lakers won their second straight title by defeating the Celtics.
After suffering a torn Achilles tendon in April 2013, Bryant worked hard to return to the court before fracturing his knee just six games into the 2013-2014 season. The veteran All-Star surpassed Michael Jordan for third all-time on the NBA scoring list in December 2014, but his season ended due to injury for the third straight year when he sustained a torn rotator cuff in January 2015.
Retirement and Final NBA Game
Although Bryant returned in time for the start of the 2015-2016 NBA season, he personally struggled alongside his young Lakers teammates. In November 2015, Bryant announced his retirement from the Lakers at the end of the season with a poem on The Players’ Tribune website, titled “Dear Basketball.”
“This season is all I have left to give,” he wrote. “My heart can take the pounding. My mind can handle the grind but my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.”
The announcement drew a strong reaction, particularly from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “With 17 NBA All-Star selections, an NBA MVP, five NBA championships with the Lakers, two Olympic gold medals and a relentless work ethic, Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest players in the history of our game,” Silver said in a statement. “Whether competing in the finals or hoisting jump shots after midnight in an empty gym, Kobe has an unconditional love for the game.”
On April 13, 2016, Bryant dazzled a sold-out crowd at the Staples Center and fans everywhere in the last game of his career, scoring 60 points and leading the Lakers to a win against the Utah Jazz. It was Bryant’s sixth 60-point game of his career.
After the game, Bryant spoke to the crowd. “I can’t believe how fast 20 years went by,” he said. “This is absolutely crazy ... and to be standing at center court with you guys, my teammates behind me, appreciating the journey that we’ve been on—we've been through our ups, been through our downs. I think the most important part is we all stayed together throughout.”
An all-star lineup of Laker icons also paid tribute to Bryant, including O’Neal, Phil Jackson, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and Magic Johnson. “We are here to celebrate greatness for 20 years,” Johnson said. “Excellence for 20 years. Kobe Bryant has never cheated the game, never cheated us as the fans. He has played through injury, he has played hurt. And we have five championship banners to show for it.”
Olympics
Bryant played on both the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams, winning consecutive gold medals with teammates Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, among several other top players.
The NBA star captained the 2008 U.S. team in Beijing, which became known as the “Redeem Team” because of its mission to win gold after a surprise loss in the 2004 Athens Games. Bryant started in all eight of the team’s games and averaged 15 points, including a 20-point performance in the gold medal game against Spain.
Stats
Bryant was known primarily for his scoring prowess and confidence in clutch moments during his career. As of January 2026, he ranks fourth in NBA history in points behind only LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Karl Malone. He also has six career games of 60 or more points, second to Wilt Chamberlain.
Equally adept on defense, Bryant was selected to 12 all-NBA defensive teams during his 20 seasons.
Here is a breakdown of Bryant’s career numbers, according to Basketball Reference:
- Games played: 1,346
- Points per game: 25.0
- Total points: 33,643
- Field-goal percentage: 44.7%
- Assists: 6,306
- Total rebounds: 7,047 (5,548 defensive; 1,499 offensive)
- Free throws made: 8,378
- Steals: 1,944
- NBA titles: 5
- NBA Finals MVP awards: 2
- All-star selections: 18
Academy Award for Dear Basketball
With pro basketball behind him, Bryant sought the best in other fields to turn his 2015 retirement poem into a short film, including Disney animator Glen Keane and composer John Williams.
The result was a beautifully rendered five-minute, 20-second film also titled Dear Basketball, which debuted at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Oscar voters took note, leading to the unexpected sight of Bryant accepting an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 2018 ceremony.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s short films and animation branch also extended an invitation for Bryant to become a member of the organization. However, in June 2018 it was revealed that the Academy’s governors committee had rescinded the invitation, saying the retired basketball great needed to show more efforts in the field before being considered for membership.
Sexual Assault Charge
Amid the peak of his basketball stardom, Bryant was the subject of less savory headlines away from the court.
In July 2003, Bryant was charged with one count of sexual assault on a 19-year-old female hotel worker in Colorado. Bryant said he was guilty of adultery, but innocent of the rape charge. The case against Bryant was eventually dismissed in 2004, and he settled the civil lawsuit filed by the hotel worker against him out of court.
Bryant later addressed the incident in an interview with Los Angeles Times columnist J.A. Adande and answered the question of whether he was concerned with his image. “No and yes. It’s important that the image that’s out there is the real image of who I am as a person, not something that’s fabricated, not something that’s gossip, you know what I’m saying? From that standpoint, I care about it,” he said.
Later in his career, Bryant was fined $100,000 in April 2011 after television cameras caught him using a gay slur towards a referee during a game. Bryant spoke to the official after the game and apologized. “My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period,” he said in a separate statement. “The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings towards the gay and lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone.”
Wife Vanessa Bryant and Daughters
Bryant married 19-year-old Vanessa Laine in April 2001. The couple met in November 1999, when Vanessa was only 17 years old and still in high school. Working as a backup dancer in music videos for artists including Snoop Dogg and Krayzie Bone, she was hired to appear in a video for Bryant’s debut hip-hop album.
“It was a two-day video shoot, and I was always looking for her, like I wanted to know where she was. I would finish a take and go to my trailer but I would wonder where she was the entire time,” Bryant recalled. “Then I would come out of the trailer and just wanted to talk to her some more, in between takes and stuff like that.”
The couple became parents to four daughters: Natalia (born in January 2003), Gianna (May 2006), Bianka (December 2016) and Capri (June 2019). Gianna, or “Gigi,” shared her father’s passion for basketball and dreamed of playing in the WNBA. Kobe coached his hoops-driven daughter at his own Mamba Sports Academy training center.
Sadly, Kobe and Gigi would also be linked through a deadly tragedy.
Death and Autopsy
On January 26, 2020, Bryant was onboard a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter that crashed in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas. Nine people, including Bryant and then-13-year-old Gigi, died. The helicopter was on its way from Orange County to Thousands Oaks, California where Bryant was scheduled to coach a tournament game at Mamba Sports Academy.
“We are completely devastated by the sudden loss of my adoring husband, Kobe—the amazing father of our children; and my beautiful, sweet Gianna—a loving, thoughtful, and wonderful daughter, and amazing sister to Natalia, Bianka, and Capri,” Bryant’s wife Vanessa posted on Instagram. “There aren’t enough words to describe our pain right now. I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved. We were so incredibly blessed to have them in our lives. I wish they were here with us forever. They were our beautiful blessings taken from us too soon.”
Bryant and his daughter were laid to rest in a private funeral on February 7, 2020. On February 24, they were honored in a memorial service at the Staples Center, with Beyoncé and Alicia Keys delivering musical tributes and Michael Jordan, his former teammate Shaquille O’Neal, and wife Vanessa among those sharing emotional recollections of the basketball great.
In May 2020, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner released autopsy results for all nine victims of the crash, including Bryant and Gigi. The cause of death was certified as blunt trauma, and the manner of death was certified as an accident.
In February 2021, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled that pilot Ara Zobayan was “flying under visual flight orders, or VFR, which legally prohibited him from penetrating the clouds,” likely causing him to be disoriented.
Honors and Legacy
On April 4, 2020, Bryant was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Lakers have added multiple memorials to Bryant outside the team’s home building—now known as Crypto.com Arena—in the years following his death. In February 2024, the team unveiled a 19-foot bronze statue depicting the hoops legend pointing toward the sky following his 81-point game in 2006.
Soon after, another statue was introduced of Bryant embracing daughter Gigi with the pair surrounded by angel wings. “In honor of Kobe and Gigi, I ask you this: Give young girls your time. Give them your support. Tell them they can do anything any man can do and tell them they can exceed that, because they can, they have and they will,” Vanessa Bryant said during a dedication ceremony.
The city of Los Angeles also annually celebrates “Mamba Day,” an ode to Bryant’s nickname. Made a city holiday beginning in 2016, the day occurs on August 24—referencing both of Bryant’s famous jersey numbers, 8 and 24.
Among his philanthropic endeavors, Bryant partnered with the non-profit After-School All-Stars as part of the Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation. He also ran an annual summer camp called the Kobe Basketball Academy.
In January 2025, CNN aired a three-part docuseries titled Kobe: The Making of a Legend, which chronicled how “his mononymous name became a household symbol for legendary basketball.”
Quotes
- Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.
- Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no gray area. No almosts.
- Doubt is such a strange thing, there’ll be times where you succeed and there are times that you fail, so wasting your time doubting whether you’re gonna be successful or not is pointless.
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