Kobe Bean Bryant is a professional basketball player from America who had a career of 20 years. He played for National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Los Angeles Lakers. When he was in high school, he took a direct entry in NBA and won five championships. Bryant has been an 18 time all-star, 15 time member of all NBA team and 12 time member of All defense team.
Early Life and Background
Kobe was born on 23rd August, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the youngest sibling amongst the three of them. Kobe finished his high school course from Lower Merion High School situated in Ardmore, Philadelphia. He won many awards because of his unique basketball skills. Having a score of 1080 in SAT exams, Bryant never visited any campus despite having such a good score.
Family
Marriage
Kobe Bryant is married to Vanessa Laine Bryant. He has two daughters Natalia Diamante Bryant and Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant. Bryant and Vanessa first met each other at a music recording building. Within a span of six months i.e. on May 2000, they got engaged. The marriage ceremony took place on April 2001, without the presence of Bryant’s family members and none of his professional contacts arrived. This was because of several reasons; one of them being that his parents did not want him to get married at such an early age. Another reason was that his parents wanted him to get married to an African American girl.
Parents and Siblings
Bryant’s father Joe Bryant and mother, Pam Bryant raised him in the Roman Catholic religion. Kobe’s father has a height of six foot and nine inches. Joe Bryant was born on 19th October, 1954 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He completed high school education from John Bartram High School and finished his college course from La Salle. He played basketball from 1975-1992 in Center and power forward position. After his career as a basketball player he started his coaching career from 2003. He married Pam Cox, who is also the sister of NBA player Chubby Cox. Together they have 3 children Shaya, Sharia and Kobe.
Joe is also the uncle of John Cox IV, a basketball player. Joe has coached in many countries like Japan, Italy and Thailand. As a coach, he accepted the offer for his college La Salle, Los Angeles Sparks team, Tokyo Apache, Bangkok Cobras, Chang Thailand Slammers, Boston Frenzy, Levanga Hokkaido and Rizing Fukuoka.
Career
Kobe debuted in Summer Pro League situated in Long Island, California where he made a score of 25 points. He became the youngest player to play for NBA. In 2007, he became the youngest player to achieve 20,000 points against New York Knicks. During his career lifetime, he has had several injuries because of which he could not play 25 matches. His career also came to a pause because of a sexual assault case in the following years.
The announcement of his retirement was made at the beginning of the 20th season. He informed the media that he would retire after the season finishes. He is the youngest player to have reached a mark of 30,000 points in the history of the league.