January 30, 2020 

By Lauren A. Jones 

Contributing Writer 


The youngest player drafted to the NBA straight out of high school.


The youngest player to win the slam dunk contest.


The youngest player to be an All-Star starter.


The youngest player to reach 30,000 points.


Fourth in NBA All-Time scoring


Scored 81 points in one game, the second-most in NBA history.


Scored 60 points in the final NBA game he played.


First NBA player to have two jersey numbers, 8 and 24, retired by a franchise. 


Despite this impressive list of accomplishments during his professional basketball career, Kobe Bean Bryant’s life was not just about basketball and in so many ways, he was poised to surpass the milestones achieved in his first chosen profession as an athlete. 


Kobe Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant were among nine people whose lives were claimed in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, Calif. on Sunday morning. Bryant was traveling from his family home in Orange County to his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks when his helicopter crashed into a hillside in dense fog. 


The other passengers on board who also lost their lives were John Altobelli, the highly regarded head baseball coach at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, his wife Keri and their daughter Alyssa Altobelli. Christina Mauser, who was a basketball coach at Harbor Day School in Newport Beach, where Gianna attended school. One of Gianna’s teammates, Payton Chester as well as her mother Sarah Chester and the helicopter pilot, Ara Zobayan.



The victims were headed to the Mamba Sports Academy where Bryant was set to coach Gianna’s traveling basketball team in a tournament. Coaching was a major part of a post-retirement chapter of Bryant’s life evident by the photos circulating since the devastating crash. These images encapsulate a clear and focused image of a father enjoying and spending time with his family and friends and grooming his daughter Gianna, who had ambitions to play in the WNBA. 


Bryant’s new chapter included pouring into the lives of young people through the Mamba Sports Academy, which is a 100,000 square foot multisport training center for young athletes, that was rebranded under Kobe’s leadership in January of 2019.  


Born in Philadelphia and raised in Italy for the better part of his childhood, Bryant was always in a class all his own. The son of Pam Bryant and former NBA player Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, who played for the 76ers from 1975-79. Bryant has two older sisters, Sharia and Shaya Bryant.


When Bryant’s father moved his family to Italy to continue his playing career overseas, Bryant was just six years old. It was in Italy that Bryant learned to play basketball and learned the language.  Ultimately, the Bryant family would return to Philadelphia where he attended Lower Merion High School.  In his last year, he helped his high school team win the state championship. He also had his first foray into pop culture as he took singer and actress Brandy to his prom. 


Bryant’s historic journey in the NBA commenced on draft night in 1996. Picked 13th, Bryant became the first-ever guard drafted out of high school.




The same night, he landed with the Los Angeles Lakers via a trade from the Charlotte Hornets where he remained for his entire 20-year NBA career. The trade was orchestrated by former Lakers general manager, Jerry West, also known as “The Logo”. 


In his rookie season at 18-years-old, Kobe became the youngest player to win the Slam Dunk Contest during NBA All-Star Weekend. Fueled by his passion for the game and will to be great, Bryant relentlessly sought to exceed the career of his idol Michael Jordan. He was the youngest starter in an NBA All-Star game the following season at the age of 19.


Kobe’s tenacity was possibly best exemplified when he took and made his free throws with a torn Achilles heel and helped the Lakers tie the game with three minutes remaining and eventually resulted in a 118-116 victory over Golden State, an outcome the team needed to salvage a playoff berth.


During his storied career, many characterized Kobe’s demeanor as aloof, arrogant, difficult to coach, no-nonsense, but as more stories around the NBA emerge, it became apparent that he was much more complex. Many feel that the Black Mamba, his self-titled moniker, was an individual whose focus and passion for his craft propelled him to be relentless in his pursuit of excellence. 


Bryant continued to evolve over the course of his career into retirement as evidenced by his final social media post, paying his respect to LeBron James on moving past him on the NBA’s All-Time scoring list.


A singular photo of he and James sharing a moment at the last Laker game he attended with the caption, “On to #2 @kingjames! Keep growing the game and charting the path for the next.” It was a  gracious and genuine acknowledgment by one of the NBA’s fiercest competitors.


Shareef O’Neal, son of Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, also revealed that Bryant reached out to him the morning of the tragic occurrence to check in on Shareef’s welfare.


In fact, Shaq and Kobe’s relationship is legend. The storied drama-filled saga between him and O’Neal during the first three consecutive NBA championships from 1999-2000 to 2001-02, was well chronicled. The pair had a contentious, but a loving relationship that was able to be reconciled in recent years. 


There were several ironies surrounding Kobe’s shocking death. It was just a week or so before he died that he assisted in directing traffic for an accident that occurred in Calabasas.  Just one day before the deadly accident, LeBron James passed Bryant on the NBA’s all-time scoring list in Bryant’s hometown of Philadelphia in a Lakers game against the 76ers.  The Grammy Awards were being held at the Staples Center on the night of his death in the arena that many affectionately describe as the house that Kobe built. 


Upon the confirmation of his death, despite the Grammy Awards’ traffic, many were compelled to go to Staples Center to gather with other fans to commiserate and mourn the loss of a Kobe, because for many he was a fixture not only in basketball but in the culture of Los Angeles.


“There are only a handful of people that you can call by their first name and you know who we're talking about and one of them is Kobe,” veteran Los Angeles sports reporter Jim Hill told the L.A. Sentinel just ahead of Kobe’s 2017 jersey retirement ceremony.

“There's no one who can bring people together like this than Kobe, Magic and just a select few others. He's a remarkable individual and the most single driven athlete I've ever met.”


That drive, that determination, that work ethic, was displayed not only in his basketball endeavors but seemed to encapsulate who he was. In addition to the three languages he spoke fluently, English, Spanish and Italian, Bryant would speak to international media members in various languages during his press conferences. Recently, while he attended the Lakers game versus the Mavericks, Bryant reportedly “heckled” Luka Doncic in his native language Slovenian.


Kobe won an Oscar in 2018 for his collaboration in the short film “Dear Basketball”, shortly after his retirement from basketball.  After achieving such a notable accomplishment so soon after completing his basketball career, many felt that the Black Mamba had only started to excel in this new phase of his life. 


This sudden loss of life has impacted the sports world, the world, and particularly the Los Angeles community in a way that no one could have anticipated. 


In the midst of the sadness, the grieving and the reflection on Kobe’s life, the issue of his 2003 sexual assault criminal case that was dropped because the accuser refused to testify and ultimately settled a civil lawsuit has been raised and has created its own new and distinct controversies.


There were immediate vigils and memorials put in place to name a few near the crash site in Calabasas, in Orange County, at Lower Merion High School (where their gym is named after him), at the Mamba Sports Academy and at the Staples Center.


There were murals of Kobe and Gianna posted around Los Angeles within a day of his death. Landmarks and billboards around Los Angeles paid tribute to the man and his legacy from the Santa Monica ferris wheel to the pylons at LAX Airport with lights in purple and gold and neon images of Kobe.


Tributes have been ongoing and heartfelt by the athletic world, celebrities, politicians, and just fans and they continue on social media.

Perhaps one of the other ironies is that while so Kobe had a reputation for being detached and aloof, so many individuals both basketball fans and members of the public have commented that Kobe felt like family seemingly because the Lakers and his 20-year tenure with the team sort of ensconced him in the fabric of the city. 


The focus, for the most part, has remained though on the tragic loss of life not only that of Kobe Bryant’s, but of his daughter and the other seven passengers who perished.  The families of these individuals are the true victims in this so real-life loss of life.



Bryant is survived by his, Vanessa, and their three daughters: Natalia (17), Bianka (3), and Capri (7 months), his parents, and his sisters.





The NBA announced that the Lakers versus Clippers game that was scheduled to be played on Tuesday evening would be postponed in the wake of such tragedy.


Former Laker great Kareem-Abdul Jabbar in his social media post perhaps summarized the legacy of Bryant best, “Most people will remember Kobe as the magnificent athlete who inspired a whole generation of basketball players,” wrote Jabbar, who stands alongside Bryant as one of the top five highest point scorers in NBA history. 


He continued, “I will always remember him as a man who was much more than an athlete.” 


One particular image comes to mind, it is Kobe, a huge figure, with his back in view as he walks into a shadowed light and you cannot help but think of his words in his speech following his last game in a Lakers uniform when with that infectious smile he uttered “Mamba out” and dropped the mic.








He shook up the world of basketball and transcended the sport by helping expand the game globally over his 20-year professional career, all while solidifying his spot in NBA history with five championships, 18 All-Star selections, the second-most in NBA history, a regular-season Most Valuable Player Award in 2008, two NBA Finals M.V.P.s and two Olympic Gold Medals.


It was announced on Monday that without a vote, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame has decided to posthumously induct Kobe Bryant as a first-ballot Hall of Famer into the 2020 class.


What’s been coined the Mamba Mentality can be summarized into one of Bryant’s most famous quotes, “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.”

Category: Sports