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Few athletes in history, no matter the sport, can boast a career like Kobe Bryant. Even fewer can say they transcended their chosen sport the way the LA Lakers superstar did during his 20 years in the NBA.
Kobe Bryant's career stats
- Drafted 13th in 1996 by Charlotte (traded to Lakers)
- NBA MVP ('08)
- Two-time Finals MVP ('09, '10)
- 18-time All Star ('98, '00-'16)
- 11-time First team All NBA ('02-'04, '06-'13)
- Two-time scoring champion ('06, '07)
- Championships: 5 ('00-'02, '09,'10)
- Points: 33,643 (fourth)
- Field goals made: 11,719 (sixth)
- Wins: 836
- Games: 1,346 (14th)
- Minutes: 48,637 (seventh)
Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash aged 41 on Sunday (US time), ended his career with the LA Lakers in 2016 as a five-time NBA champion, 18-time All Star, 11-time All-NBA First Team, two-time finals MVP and one-time league MVP.
His 33,643 points make him the fourth-highest scorer in NBA history — he was surpassed by LeBron James only hours before his death — and his 1,346 games played has him 14th on the all-time list.
Bryant played with two genuinely great Lakers teams and won multiple titles with both. He and Shaquille O'Neal formed one of the most dominant partnerships in league history en route to three straight NBA titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002, before he led a newer generation of Lakers to titles in 2009 and 2010, winning the Finals MVP in both years.
Famed for his overwhelming will to win and all-encompassing pursuit of perfection, Bryant is one of the small handful of players to have entered into the conversation of "best player of all time".
Destined for greatness
Kobe was a sensation before he stepped foot on an NBA court.
A high school phenom, Bryant made the leap directly to the professional game at just 17 years old, forgoing the usual stint at college. The Lakers had gained pick 13 in the 1996 draft while trading assets to make a move for All Star O'Neal, and in Bryant saw the perfect foil for the big man.
At 18 years and 72 days, he became the youngest player in history to play an NBA game at the time, but took a season or so to find his feet in the league. The Lakers eased the teenager into his career, before unleashing him in his second year.
Kobe's output doubled in his second season, and he became the youngest All Star starter in league history. He had begun to make a name for himself as a prolific scorer and fierce competitor, and his partnership with Shaq was blossoming.
Early comparisons to Michael Jordan, whose career with the all-conquering Chicago Bulls had only just ended in 1998, were inevitable, but it was not until his fourth year that Kobe truly broke out.
A champion player on a champion team
The Lakers' era of dominance coincided with the emergence of Bryant as one of the NBA's most dominant guards. Alongside O'Neal, who was MVP in 1999, and under new coach Phil Jackson, who had led the Bulls to six championships, the team and Kobe went to a new level.
On the court, Kobe was a picture of grace. He moved with an undefendable speed and precision, was equally capable of the powerful and the poised, and possessed an improvisational streak that took the breath away.
Off the court, nobody worked harder. Even at a young age, Byrant's workouts became the stuff of legend. He worked on his game meticulously so it would stand up under pressure, and over the course of his career became feared for his late-game prowess.
Case in point: his Game Four performance in the 2000 finals against the Indiana Pacers, when he took over the second half of the match in Shaq's absence and led the Lakers to a crunch victory, hitting the game-winning shot in overtime. It was the catalyst for the Lakers to go and win the title, Kobe's first and the Lakers' first since 1988.
The high school prodigy had become a genuine NBA star. The Lakers team of the early 2000s forged a dynasty in Kobe and Shaq's image and cruised to a second straight title in 2001.
By the 2002 season, Kobe had begun to make the team his own. No longer was Bryant content with playing second fiddle to the imperious O'Neal, he was leading the Lakers in their push for a three-peat.
It was a push that faced obstacles — the Sacramento Kings pushed the Lakers all the way in the Western Conference finals — but culminated in a sweep of the New Jersey Nets in the finals. Bryant averaged 26.8 points, 5.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds through the series, but the numbers did not tell the full story — his influence late in games, in that series and the entire playoffs, was telling.
At 23 years old, Bryant had three NBA titles. He was the first player to ever be able to say that.
Controversy threatens to derail career
After scaling such heights so early in his career, a descent seemed somewhat inevitable for Kobe. On the court, this was barely perceptible, but controversy had seeped into his life off it.
The Lakers remained dominant throughout the 2003 season but fell short in the Western Conference finals. While Kobe's play remained excellent, trouble was brewing in his relationship with O'Neal.
What once seemed a match made in basketball heaven soon became one fraught with infighting and public pettiness, as the pair played the media against each other in a bid for LA supremacy.
Shaq told the press Kobe needed to pass more and made frequent references to the Lakers being "his team". Kobe told ESPN O'Neal had returned to training before the 2004 season "fat and out of shape" and had a history of exaggerating injuries.
It led to a stand-off in which it became clear LA was only big enough for one megastar. Both threatened to leave, with Bryant seemingly on the brink of a move to local rivals the Clippers, but it was Shaq who would head to the Miami Heat in a massive deal that saw him get a massive pay rise and leave the Lakers in the custody of Kobe.
Meanwhile, in the background to all this basketball drama, Bryant faced allegations of sexual assault in a hotel in Colorado. Bryant denied the reports, and the case was dropped after the accuser refused to testify.
He offered something of an apology in the aftermath, saying "although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognise now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did". The two settled a subsequent civil lawsuit privately out of court.
The rebuilding of the Black Mamba
With his reputation at its lowest point and the Lakers in transition, Bryant responded with a single-minded focus to be the best basketballer he could be.
He scored at an even greater rate than he had before, taking on almost all the attacking responsibility in Shaq's absence, with sometimes spectacular results, the most famous of which was his flatly ridiculous 81-point game against the Raptors in 2006. It was, and still is, the most prolific game in Lakers history and the second-most in NBA history.
In that 2006 season, Bryant's scoring had reached historic proportions. He had regular games of more than 40 points and averaged over 35 for the entire season.
Little changed the following year, except the 40-point games became 50-point games. He topped the half-century mark 10 times in the 2007 season and for the second year in a row won the NBA's scoring title.
His personal star had risen again, but the team had been struggling, with Kobe's one-man efforts not enough to propel the Lakers beyond the early rounds of the playoffs since Shaq — who won the 2006 title with the Heat — had left.
Kobe's greatest hour
For the first time, Bryant was named the league's Most Valuable Player in 2008.
He led a rejuvenated Lakers team to their first serious post-Shaq playoffs push and won through to the NBA finals for the first time since a 2004 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Kobe's opponents were the Boston Celtics, the age-old rivals of the Lakers and the most celebrated match-up in the history of the NBA.
But his Lakers were outmatched by the star-studded Celtics. Bryant averaged 25.7 points a game to comfortably top the scoring in the finals, but LA lost in six as finals MVP Paul Pierce led Boston to a first title since 1986.
It seemed like a fork-in-the-road moment for Bryant, who had achieved the greatest individual honour of his career but fell agonisingly short of what would have been his greatest team accomplishment. For a player whose motivations had often been brought into question, Kobe's response in 2009 was likely to be telling.
So it proved. He missed out on the MVP to rising star LeBron James, but his Lakers team went from strength to strength. Having reached the finals for a second straight year, this time LA could not be denied — Kobe's Lakers beat the Orlando Magic in five as Bryant was named Finals MVP for the first time.
Despite an injury-interrupted title defence, Bryant once again took the Lakers to the finals for a rematch with the Celtics in 2010.
It was a pulsating series. Kobe upped his scoring even further to combat the Celtics' trio of superstars, and having stared at an early game six elimination forced a game seven.
Billed as the defining moment of his career, Kobe initially struggled. He shot poorly throughout the night, making only six of his 24 shots, but crucially he did not let that define him.
Bryant rallied in the last quarter, scoring 10 of his 23 points in crunch time. He finished with 15 rebounds as he threw his mind, body and soul at the game. The Lakers won by four points, 83-79. Kobe had beaten the Celtics, defeated his demons, earned another Finals MVP and secured his ultimate triumph.
Saying goodbye with a bang
2010 was Kobe's zenith. It was a peak he would spend the next six years unsuccessfully trying to reach again.
He would battle injury while on sub-par Lakers teams for the rest of his career, but for the most part kept his own high standards intact. Now into his 30s, Kobe spent the twilight of his career ticking off records and racking up acclaim.
In 2011 and 2012, his scoring numbers remained superb but his Lakers would never get past the second round of the playoffs. He spent the 2013 season in a one-man mission to bring the Lakers back to the summit of the game, pushing his body to unheard of limits out of sheer desperation.
It was shaping up to be his finest season, until age and the immense weight of work took its toll on Kobe's body. His Achilles tendon snapped in April, and his season, along with the Lakers' chances, was over.
Bryant played on but was never the same. He was a leader of a young Lakers team that failed to make the playoffs for the remaining three years of Kobe's career.
His slow march towards a reluctant retirement gloriously crescendoed in one last Kobe night for the ages.
Bryant had announced his retirement in a poem titled "Dear Basketball" in November, revealing this was to be his last season. He tried to avoid the sort of retirement tour that past NBA greats had been afforded, but his pleas were ignored as fans and franchises across the country paid tribute to a great.
In his last game, on April 13, 2016, against the Utah Jazz in LA, Kobe went off.
He scored 60 points, 23 of them in the last quarter, in the sort of encore display of individual brilliance that only he could be capable of. The Lakers won the game completely on the back of Bryant's effort and a legendary career ended in spectacular fashion.
More than a basketballer
Kobe's self-created nickname was Black Mamba. It became his alter-ego which he used in his career's most difficult times to channel the killer instinct that made him unique.
His talent was obvious, but his mindset was what made him extraordinary. His intense motivation and perfectionism rubbed some up the wrong way, but those who committed and joined him in his pursuit of excellence were duly rewarded.
Kobe owned an era. He was the great superstar of the 2000s, taking the NBA from the days of Jordan to those of LeBron. He inspired millions, and not just to play basketball. His influence transcended the NBA, transcended basketball, transcended sport.
His most endearing role was that of a father. The sight of Kobe and his daughter Gianna — who was also killed in the crash — on the sidelines of an NBA game, with father passing down wisdom to an enthralled daughter, was touching at the time and heartbreaking in retrospect.
In a 2018 interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Kobe beamed with pride as he talked about Gianna and her future.
"This kid, man," Bryan said.
"People come up to me and see 'man, you've got to have a boy, have someone to carry on your tradition and legacy', and she's like 'oi, I got this'.
"I'm like 'that's right. Yes you do. You got this'."
Bryant's post-career life was mainly spent coaching kids, teaching them the art of the game and instilling in them the sort of mentality that turns good players into champions.
He leaves behind a wife, three daughters, millions of adoring fans and a legacy of greatness.
Topics: basketball, sport, united-states
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