The NBA is awash with semi-superstars and the like. This review is about the star shooting guard Kobe Bryant and the five NBA championships he has won with the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant joined the Lakers in 1996 and became part of a celebrated one-two punch with All-Pro center Shaquille O’Neal.
The two led the Lakers to NBA championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002; and after O’Neal went south for the year to Miami, it was just Kobe Bryant alone really who led LA to two more NBA championships in 2009 and 2010.
* Born: 23 August 1978
* Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
* Best Known As: NBA Superstar guard of theLos Angeles Lakers
NBA Prodigy
Kobe Bryant was an NBA prodigy, transitioning straight from high school to the NBA just like Moses Malone did way back when. In one of the biggestmistakes in the NBA Draft Day history the Charlotte Hornets initially draftedKobe Bryant in 1996 but then traded the ball player to the Lakers for center Vlade Divac.
Comparisons to MJ
Kobe Bryant’s charisma and spectacular talent led some to compare him with former NBA superstar and Chicago Bull Michael Jordan. While that is a debate that will go on long after Kobe Bryant has retired and hung up his Laker Blue Nikes one fact will also remain for as long as they keep playing the game of professional basketball; that this is one of the best players to ever shoot abasketball, period.
81
Some of the best information on Kobe Bryant stems from his basketballplaying while in the NBA. One on stormy night in the City of Angels on January, 22 2006, Kobe poured in 81 points in a game against the Toronto Raptors.
This stands as the second-highest overall point production in a game and pales only to the remarkable game in which Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain scored 100. Another milestone in this great player’s career and life came when Bryant scored his 25,193 point and passed the immortal Laker himself Jerry West to become the Lakers’ all-time leading scorer. Kobe Bryant was also named the NBA’s most valuable player for the 2007-08 season.
Not Extremely Tall at All
The amazing aspect of Kobe’s game is not how he seemingly at-will can drive to the basket against any player no matter how tall or wide but that he does all this with a 6’7″ frame. A great information on Kobe Bryant piece of trivia that many sports buffs get stumped on is the fact that Kobe Bryant started out wearing number eight for the first four years of his NBA career before switching permanently to his beloved number twenty-four.
Japan and Italy Connections
If you really want to astound and amaze all of your sports-minded trivia friends at the next fantasy basketball draft day then you can dispel this littlebit of Kobe Bryant information and tell them all that he was named after a cut of steak from a Japanese restaurant. That is the truth and comes directly from the mouths of both his parents.
The genes must have been passed down from father to son as Bryant’s father Joe Bryant played eight great seasons in the NBA and also played professionalbasketball ball in Italy, where Kobe spent a large part of his childhood. Bryant is now happily married to the former Vanessa Laine and the two lovebirds tied the knot on April 2001. The couple has one child, their daughter, Natalia, who was born in January 2003.
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