Kobe Bryant Biography

Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player born on August 23, 1978, and passed away on January 26, 2020. He played his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association and was known as the Black Mamba. Bryant won five NBA championships, earned two NBA Finals MVP awards, was named NBA MVP in 2008, and won gold medals with the U.S. Olympic teams in 2008 and 2012. He chose not to attend college and entered the 1996 NBA draft directly after high school. After his rookie season, he received NBA All-Rookie Second Team honors and won the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. On January 22, 2006, he scored a career-high 81 points in a single NBA game. In 2018, he received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Dear Basketball, a 2017 short film he wrote and directed.