Later within the season, it was reported that Bryant would change his jersey quantity from eight to 24 at the start of the 2006–07 season. Bryant's first high-school number was 24 before he switched to 33. After the Lakers' season ended, Bryant mentioned on TNT that he wished 24 as a rookie, however it was unavailable because it was worn by George McCloud, as was 33, retired with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Bryant wore 143 on the Adidas ABCD camp and chose 8 by adding these numbers. In the primary spherical of the playoffs, the Lakers performed well enough to succeed in a 3–1 series lead over the Phoenix Suns, culminating with Bryant's overtime-forcing and game-winning shots in Game 4. They came inside six seconds of eliminating the second-seeded Suns in Game 6, nonetheless, they misplaced that sport 126–118 in overtime.

Through Shakespeare, I discovered concerning the nature of mankind. From The Iliad, I began to question on the age of 12 if I recognized with the hero Hector or Achilles. Taking exams helped me regular my pulse and assume clearly underneath duress.

On January 26, 2020, the basketball legend, his daughter Gianna and 7 other passengers died when their helicopter crashed and caught fireplace in Calabasas, California. The chopper was on its way to Kobe’s Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks ahead of a recreation. The Oscar winner coached Gianna’s Athletic Amateur Union team. USA TODAY Sports is marking the primary anniversary of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others with a six-day sequence of stories, pictures and videos trying back on the Lakers legend and the aftermath of his death. Bryant established a popularity for taking pictures in the closing moments of tight games, even when he was double or triple-teamed, and was famous as one of many premier closers in the NBA.

However, he was once once more sidelined after knee surgery and didn't participate within the 2006 FIBA World Championship. The 1998–99 season marked Bryant's emergence as a premier guard within the league. With starting guards Van Exel and Jones traded, Bryant began each recreation for the lockout-shortened 50-game season.

The first guard to ever be taken out of highschool, Bryant was chosen as the thirteenth total draft pick by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996. According to Arn Tellem, Bryant's agent at the time, Bryant enjoying for the Charlotte Hornets was "an impossibility". However, Bill Branch, the Hornets' head scout at the time, stated that the Hornets agreed to commerce their draft selection to the Los Angeles Lakers before choosing Bryant. The groups agreed to the trade the day before the draft and the Lakers informed the Hornets whom to pick five minutes before the decide was made. Branch mentioned that prior to the trade settlement, the Hornets by no means even considered drafting Bryant.

Relive your favorite eras as a GM or Commissioner in MyNBA. Experience next-level gameplay and lifelike visuals together with your favourite NBA and WNBA groups in PLAY NOW. At the age of six, basketball grew to become a half of my nature. Since 2003, Bryant partnered with Nike, taking part in a leadership role designing footwear and main storytelling associated to Kobe Bryant product traces. In 2006, he launched the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation to provide younger folks entry to sports activities, mentorship and financial empowerment.

It is rare for an athlete on this trendy era of sports to spend their entire career with one group. I was lucky that I was current to doc each step of Kobe's twenty-year journey from a teenage rookie phenom to a five-time NBA champion, chief, veteran, husband and father. His legacy of onerous work, fixed curiosity and relentless pursuit of the following level of greatness will live within me forever. He was as obsessed with his craft as I was with mine. Our book collectively was the best accomplishment of my profession. I will at all times be grateful for his belief and his friendship and loyalty.

Both numbers he wore throughout his career, eight and 24, have been retired by the Lakers on December 18, 2017. In his first year of eligibility, Bryant was named a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, weeks after his dying, before being elected a couple of months later in April 2020. His formal induction was delayed till 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2021, Bryant was honored as one of the league's greatest gamers of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. The Lakers swept the Utah Jazz in the second spherical and advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they confronted the Phoenix Suns. In Game 2, Bryant finished the sport with thirteen assists, setting a brand new playoff career-high; it was probably the most assists by a Laker in the playoffs since Magic Johnson had thirteen in 1996.