One of the best basketball players was successful in school, family, and sports.
His favourite team was the Los Angeles Lakers, and he was fortunate enough to get drafted into the same club, where he spent his whole two-decade career, becoming THE BEST LA player in team history.
Broaden your basic sports knowledge and find more interesting Kobe Bryant facts in the text below.
Kobe Bean Bryant ID
(A.K.A The Black Mamba, Kobe Wan Kenobi, Mr. 81)
Profession: Basketball Player (1996-2016)
Born: August 23, 1978, Philadelphia
Died: January 26, 2020, California (aged 42)
Nationality: American
Position: Shooting Guard
Teams: L.A. Lakers
Estimated Net Worth: $800 million (his wife Vanessa is the successor)
Interesting facts about Kobe Bryant
1. He was named after a Japanese steak (Kobe).2. Kobe almost became a hip-hop star, releasing the popular K.O.B.E. single back in 2000.
2. He spoke fluent Italian.
3. He almost sued an entire Japanese city (Kobe) for the exclusive rights of their steak name that collided with his name – claiming he would have the right to rename their speciality.
4. His favourite dish was frog legs dipped in honey-mustard sauce.
Childhood Facts
5. On August 23, 1978, Kobe was born in Philadelphia as the youngest child of Pamela Cox and professional basketball player Joe Bryant, who played for Philadelphia for 76 years.
6. Even his mom has “N.B.A. roots” – her brother Chubby Cox was playing for the Wizards back in the 80s (then they went under the name Washington Bullets).
7. Kobe started playing basketball at the age of 3, growing to be one of the prominent young fans of the one of the most valuable sports teams, the L.A. Lakers.
8. After 8 N.B.A. seasons, his father starts playing in Italy, moving the entire family there for 8 years, resulting in Kobe’s Italian primary education.
Related: How many people watch the NBA?
High School and College facts:
9. As a high school athlete in Lower Merion High School in the U.S.A., he has achieved the National High School Player title.
10. He was named Pennsylvania Player of The Year, attracting great college offers from Duke, North Carolina, Michigan and Villanova.
11. During his senior year in High School, he won the national championship with his basketball team, though he decided not to go to college but to start professionally instead.
12. At 17, he was chosen into the N.B.A. by the Charlotte Hornets but was quickly moved to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he spent the rest of his career.
Basketball Career Facts:
13. His first N.B.A. in-game debut was on November 3, 1996, against the Timberwolves, in which he didn’t score anything and played just 6:22 minutes.
14. On January 3 1997, he played his most successful game till then against the Kings, scoring 21 points out of 22-minute gameplay, starting to get noticed by a wider audience.
15. Kobe was the youngest player to start an N.B.A. game at the time (18 years and 2 months old).
Did you know? The NBA is one of the most profitable sports leagues in the world
Championships Facts
16. Kobe won 5 championship titles wearing the LA Lakers 24 jersey.
17. He won 2 consecutive N.B.A. championships in 2009 and 2010 as the team captain of the L.A. Lakers and was named M.V.P. in both year’s finals.
18. In 1997, he was N.B.A. Slam Dunk Champion.
19. Kobe holds the most M.V.P. awarded All-Star Champion in the history of the N.B.A. league.
High Scoring Facts
20. Kobe holds the record for most points scored within the L.A. Lakers team, with 33,643 points, and the 4th in the all-time best N.B.A. scorers.
21. He holds 2nd place in most points scored in a single game, with an astonishing number of 81 points. The record of 100 points in a single game was set in 1962 by Wilt Chamberlain and is still not broken.
22. He was the youngest player to achieve a 26,000 points career milestone. He set a record for the future best young players to try and break it.
23. Kobe was named N.B.A., scoring Champ in 2006 and 2007.
24. Kobe is a 2-time Olympic Gold Medalist, winning the basketball Olympics with the U.S. national team in 2008 and 2012.
Business and Entrepreneurship Facts
25. He started venture capital company Bryant Stibel, which has further invested in Epic Games, a sector currently on the rise.
26. Kobe’s shoe sponsorship deal is still one of the biggest shoe sponsorship deals in the NBA to this day. Kobe signed with Nike for a whooping Kobe $250 million.
27. He invested in the sports drink Body Armor, recently sold to CocaColaCompany for $5.6 billion.
28. He launched Granity Studios, focusing on creative storytelling related to sports background, and creating content for sports news outlets, such as E.C.P.N.
29. He started The Mamba Sports Academy for further development and helped train young athletes in various sports fields.
30. He had signed many marketing agreements with one of the biggest sports brands in the world that accumulated around $350 million in his wealth, especially Nike, Mercedes Benz, Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Turkish Airlines and Nintendo.
Related: Who are the coaches with the most NBA titles?
Family facts
31. He met and married Vanessa in 2001 when he was barely 21, and she was 17, attending her senior year in high school.
32. Kobe’s parents didn’t attend their wedding, as a denial of his early marriage, which was the first obstacle of their further torn-apart relationship.
33. He even sued his mother later in 2013, trying to ban her from selling his early basketball belongings, such as jerseys and uniforms – though the matter settled out of court.
34. Kobe had 4 daughters in his marriage with Vanessa – Natalia, Gianna, Bianka and Capri, who was just 7 months old when her dad and sister passed away.
35. The couple struggled with Kobe’s infidelity and alleged affairs after Vanessa filed for divorce in 2011 but settled to continue fighting for their love and family.
36. There wasn’t any public acknowledgement or some other act of reconciliation between Kobe and his parents to the very last tragic day of his death.
Friends facts
37. Kobe’s best friend Rob Pelinka was his agent and became L.A. Lakers general manager. He was also Gianna’s godfather.
38. Famous gambling addict and probably the greatest basketball player Michael Jordan was one of his close mates, aside from sharing his basketball passion.
Related: What are the hand sizes of Shaq and Michael Jordan?
Accident
39. On January 26, 2020, Kobe, his daughter Gianna and a group were travelling for a girl’s basketball game (Gianna shared his basketball passion).
40. The helicopter crashed over the city of Calabasas, California, leaving all 9 people dead.
41. The group was headed to the Mamba Sports Academy, where Kobe was supposed to coach Gianna’s team to a game that never came to reality.
42. On February 7, Kobe and Gianna were buried in a private funeral in Pacific View Memorial Park, Newport Beach.
Memorials
43. Two hundred people wearing his L.A. jersey and holding up a basketball came to the hill’s accident location.
44. Hours before the Grammy Awards, an impromptu memorial was conducted by people down at the Staples Centre, where celebrity Alicia Keys and Boyz to Men II performed “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye Yesterday”.
45. Worldwide landmarks, including Madison Square Garden, LA International Airport, Empire State Building, State Ana Water Tower, and Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, were coloured in purple and gold in honour of the L.A. giants tragic death.
46. On January 26, 2022, on the 2nd anniversary of the crash, a bronze statue of Kobe and Gigi was placed at the helicopter crash location to remind people and visitors forever.
A Hard Goodbye
A world-class celebrity that was always true to himself, and never let fame take away his focus and glory, has suffered a tragic death alongside his teenage daughter, which left the world on its knees.
But, without a doubt, these Kobe Bryant facts prove he was and will remain one of the greatest N.B.A. players of all time, and a Laker to the bone, with the exclusive 24 and 8 jerseys forever belonging to his name.
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