The Life And Death of Kobe Bryant

You have probably heard of the sad and untimely death of Basketball Superstar Kobe Bryant. He died in a helicopter crash on January, 26 2020 in Calabasas California.

 Beginnings

Kobe was born on August 23,1978, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. He had been surrounded by basketball his whole life with his dad being Joe “Jellybean” Bryant and his two athletic older sisters, Shaya and Sharia. In 1984 he and his family went to Italy because Kobe’s father was playing in the Italian League. He then returned to Philadelphia in 1991. Then in high school Kobe joined the Lower Merion High School basketball team, he led this team to state championships four years in a row. After High School he went straight for the NBA. Then in 1996 in the NBA draft he was chosen by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th overall pick, but was then traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Life in the NBA

In Kobe’s second season with the Lakers he was voted a starter for the 1998 all star game, he was the youngest All-Star in NBA history at the age of 19. He then teamed up with Shaquille O’Neal to then win three consecutive NBA championships and was voted the first-team all-NBA from 2002-2004. He also got multi-year endorsement deals with Adidas, Sprite, and other top sponsors. In January 2006 Kobe scored 81 points against the Toronto raptors, the second highest single-game mark in NBA history, and he led the league in scoring that year and the next. In 2008, Kobe was named MVP and got his team to the NBA finals, but lost to the Boston Celtics. Then a year later they beat the Orlando Magic in the 2009 NBA finals. He also surpassed Michael Jordan for third all-time on the NBA scoring list in December 2014.

Retirement and other things

In November 2015 he announced his retirement and the end of the season. In his last game at Staples Center by scoring 60 points. An all-star line up of Laker icons also paid tribute to Kobe, who were O’Neal, Phil Jackson, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, and Magic Johnson. He also wrote a poem in 2015 about basketball called “Dear Basketball”. His poem then got turned into a short film and got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards.