Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978) is an American All-Star shooting guard who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. Bryant is the only son of former Philadelphia 76ers player and former Los Angeles Sparks head coach Joe “Jellybean” Bryant. His parents named him after the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu.
Bryant and then-teammate Shaquille O’Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002. After O’Neal’s departure following the 2003–04 season, Bryant became the cornerstone of the Lakers franchise. He led NBA in scoring during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. In 2006, Bryant scored a career high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second highest number of points scored in a single game in NBA history, second only to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point performance.
Bryant was awarded the regular season’s Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) in the 2007–08 NBA season after leading his team to the 2008 NBA Finals as the first seed in the Western Conference. In 2008, he won a gold medal as a member of the 2008 Summer Olympics U.S. Men’s Basketball Team, occasionally referred to as “The Redeem Team,” a play on the name of the first Olympic team that featured NBA players, the Dream Team.
In 2003, Bryant made headlines when he was accused of sexual assault at a hotel in Edwards, Colorado by a hotel employee. Bryant admitted an adulterous sexual encounter with the accuser, but denied the sexual assault allegation. In September 2004, prosecutors dropped the case after his accuser informed them that she was unwilling to testify. Bryant’s accuser brought a separate civil suit against him that was ultimately settled out of court.
Biography
Kobe Bryant was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the youngest of three children and the only son of Joe and Pam Bryant.
When Bryant was six, his father left the NBA and moved his family to Italy to begin playing professional basketball. Bryant became accustomed to his new lifestyle and learned to speak Italian fluently. At an early age, he learned to play soccer, his favorite team was AC Milan. He has said that if he had stayed in Italy, he would have tried to become a professional soccer player; Bryant is a big fan of former FC Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard and their former player Ronaldinho.
In 1991, the Bryant family moved back to the United States. Bryant earned national recognition during a spectacular high school career at Lower Merion High School located in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion. His SAT score of 1080 would have ensured his basketball scholarship to various top-tier colleges. Ultimately, however, the 17-year-old Bryant made the decision to go directly into the NBA. Bryant has stated that had he decided to go to college after high school, he would have attended Duke University.
Player profile
Bryant is a shooting guard who is capable of playing the small forward position. He is considered one of the most complete players in NBA history, has been elected to every All-NBA Team since 1999, and has been featured in the last ten NBA All-Star games. He is a prolific scorer, averaging 25.0 points per game for his career, along with 4.6 assists, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.5 steals. He is known for his ability to create shots for himself, and is an adept outside shooter, sharing the single-game NBA record for three pointers made with twelve. He has exceptional ballhandling skills and utilizes his speed and athletic ability to elude defenders to finish at the basket. Aside from this, he is also a standout defender, having made the All-Defensive first and second team eight of the last nine seasons. After having been represented by Tellem, Kobe is now represented by Rob Pelinka.
Sexual assault allegation
In the summer of 2003, the sheriff’s office of Eagle, Colorado arrested Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by 19-year old hotel employee Katelyn Faber. Bryant had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera hotel in Eagle, Colorado in advance of undergoing knee surgery nearby. Faber accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room the night before Bryant was to have the procedure. Bryant admitted an adulterous sexual encounter with his accuser, but denied her sexual assault allegation.
The accusation tarnished Bryant’s reputation, as 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 indicate that sales of Bryant’s replica jersey fell far off from their previous highs.
During the investigation, Bryant told police that “he should have done what Shaq does … that Shaq would pay his women not to say anything” and that O’Neal already had paid up to $1 million “for situations like this.” This created controversy because Bryant and O’Neal were teammates at the time and many thought that Bryant broke “locker-room code” by revealing confidential information.
However, in September 2004 the assault case was dropped by prosecutors after Faber refused to testify in the trial. Afterwords, Bryant agreed to “apologize” to the victim for the incident, including his public mea culpa: “Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did.” Faber filed a separate civil lawsuit against Bryant, which the two sides ultimately settled with the specific terms of the settlement being undisclosed to the public. Bryant’s endorsement deals resumed again with certain companies like Nike, Spalding, and Coca-Cola.
Personal life
Bryant took R&B singer Brandy Norwood to his senior prom, though the two were/are just friends.
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 “G’d Up”. Bryant was in the building working on his debut musical album, which was never released.
The two began dating and became engaged just six months later in May 2000, while Laine was still a senior at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, California. To avoid media scrutiny, she finished high school through independent study. According to Vanessa’s cousin Laila Laine, there was no prenuptial agreement. Vanessa said Bryant “loved her too much for one“.
They married on April 18, 2001 in Dana Point, California. 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 was not African-American. 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. Their second daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, was born on May 1, 2006. Gianna was born six minutes ahead of former teammate Shaquille O’Neal’s daughter Me’arah Sanaa, who was born in Florida. In an early 2007 interview, it was revealed that Bryant still speaks Italian fluently.
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