Kobe Bryant

Bio:

Kobe Bryant (born Kobe Bean Bryant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 23, 1978) was an American professional basketball player. He began playing professionally right after high school and was picked up by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996. One week later, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he played for the rest of his career. He has won five NBA championships and is considered one of the most coveted players of this generation. At the age of 34, Kobe became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points. Bryant retired from the NBA in 2016. In 2018, he won an Oscar for Best Animated Short for his film Dear Basketball, based on the poem he wrote in 2015 before his retirement. That same year he also published a book The Mamba Mentality: How I Play, which took a look back on his decades-long career through photos and personal reflections. On January 26, 2020 Bryant and his 13-year-old Gianna passed away in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.

Best Known For:

Kobe Bryant is best known for being one of the best basketball players of all time, and for being the cornerstone of the Lakers. Bryant was the official ambassador for After-School All-Stars (ASAS), an American non-profit organization that provides comprehensive after-school programs to children in thirteen US cities. He also started the Kobe Bryant China Fund which raised money within China earmarked for education and health programs.

Personal Life:

Kobe married Vanessa Bryant in 2001. They met when she was 17, and he was 21. They had four daughters, Natalia and Gianna, 13, Bianka, and Capri. Vanessa filed for divorce in 2011, which they called off in 2013. In 2003, Kobe was arrested for sexual harassment, but the charges were later dropped.