21st Century Greats: Kobe Bryant

Everyone knows about the ending, but how did Kobe become one of the all time greats?

Over the course of the year, I will be posting biographies of 25 modern sporting greats to celebrate being a quarter way through the 21st Century. As usual, these posts will combine a summary of some of their sporting achievements mixed with my own memories of watching them. There is no order to the list, just a celebration of fantastic sportspeople.

21st Century Greats: Kobe Bryant

On the morning of January 26th 2020, Kobe Bryant, alongside 8 other people including his daughter Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles when they were making their way towards a basketball game run by Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy.

On that fateful day, the world of basketball lost one of its greatest ever talents. Bryant had already retired 4 years previously and would have gone down in history anyway, but due to his tragic end, his story will always have that bit more reverence and poignancy.

For me personally, Bryant was one of the key players that I remember following in my early days of paying closer attention to the NBA. I have previously mentioned that just prior to my teenage years I was a subscriber to the excellent biweekly Sported! magazine(I have still kept every single copy), which came from the same publishers as the football weekly Match, in which a huge variety of sports from all around the world were covered. Every time it arrived through my letterbox I would snatch it up, retreat to my room and lay on my bed flipping through the pages and soaking up all the new team names and facts that were presented.

Obviously a lot of the NBA coverage focused on Michael Jordan and his mighty Chicago Bulls team, but there were also regular features on others such as the Orlando Magic’s Shaq O’Neill and the Seattle Supersonics’ Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. It was the summer of 1996 that the magazine first came out though and quickly they picked up on a new star, fresh out of high school, called Kobe Bryant. Kobe (like LeBron James after him) didn’t feel the need for college ball, he felt he was ready for the big time and went to take his shot.

Bryant was selected as the 13th overall pick of the draft by the Charlotte Hornets but it soon became apparent that his start wouldn’t quite be that easy. In somewhat controversial circumstances (some say that a deal was agreed beforehand, others that Kobe refused to play for anyone other than the Lakers) Black Mamba (Bryant’s future nickname) would actually be headed West to the Los Angeles Lakers, having been traded for Centre, Vlade Divac. Whatever the actual truth is, history would go on to show us that one team easily got the better end of this deal with Divac only staying two years in Charlotte whilst Kobe went on to help the Lakers win multiple championships and become one of the league’s all time greats. Smart move.

It also greatly helped Kobe that Shaq had signed for the Lakers in 1996 too as it meant that he didn’t need to be the one great hope of the franchise immediately. He was afforded time to develop his game in the big leagues, show off his skill set and build his confidence, not that he was ever lacking in that. Although his minutes were carefully managed, he did become the youngest ever player to start an NBA game, and he showed glimpses of what was to come and even won the Slam Dunk Contest during All Star Weekend, becoming the youngest player to do so.

The All Star game would be one special to Kobe over the course of his career. In his second season he became the youngest ever player voted onto the team (a record that still stands), he went on to play in 18 All Star games in total and was voted the Most Valuable Player a joint record four times. All pretty impressive stats considering the wonderful players that have started in the league over the years.

By the dawn of the 21st Century, Bryant had become one of the star guards in the NBA. This also coincided with legendary Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson taking over at the Lakers for the 1999/2000 season. During the course of that year, Kobe and Shaq became a fearsome duo leading to them dominating the Western Conference standings, winning 67 games and only losing 15. Bryant led the team in steals and assists per game. The Lakers made it to the finals, edging past the Portland Trail Blazers in 4-3 in the Western Conference finals and, despite Kobe missing a game and a half through injury, they beat the Indiana Pacers 4-2 to win their first NBA title in 12 years.

This was the start of an incredible three years for the Lakers where they won three titles in a row. Memories flushed back of their 80s heyday and Kobe and Shaq were right at the centre of it. This was perhaps a blot on Kobe’s legacy at that point though as even though he was an integral part of an incredible winning team, he wasn’t the man as that title surely belonged to Shaq. It probably also didn’t help that after O’Neill left for Miami in 2004, the Lakers went through a few more fallow years by their own high standards.

Bryant also suffered some personal setbacks at this point in his life as he was arrested for sexual assault (the case was initially dropped and then settled out of court although, despite apologising, Kobe still maintained no foul play had occurred) and was also the recipient of some scathing comments by departed coach Jackson about his personality and lack of willingness to be coached. It was at this point that Kobe really began to show what he would later call his Mamba Mentality, a relentless quest to meet his goals and be the best that he could be.

Over the course of his career, Bryant worked tirelessly to improve his skills. He would often be early for training and practice things over and over again. There was a core belief that those that worked hardest were the best. Michael Jordan once commented that in an early game, Kobe asked him about how we was so successful with particular shots. He put bad experiences behind him and was keen on meditation which allowed him to refocus his thoughts.

This all came to its peak in the 2005/06 season where Kobe had arguably his best year. The Lakers did not win the title, in fact they went out in the first round of the playoffs, but individually Bryant was brilliant, leading the league with a career high average of 35.4 points per game. He also had the most ever 40+ point games in Lakers history with 27, which was highlighted by a game on January 22nd against the Toronto Raptors where Kobe scored an incredible 81 points, which is the highest in the modern NBA and certainly made more impressive as he made many of the scoring opportunities for himself from the outside.

All that was left at this point was for Bryant to lead the Lakers to the championship with him being the central focus of the team. They came very close in the 2007/08 season but were bested in the finals by a similarly rejuvenated Boston Celtics team, bolstered by the talents of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. They backed up their great performances the next year though, reaching the finals again and this time beating the Orlando Magic 4-1. Kobe had won his title as the star of his team. He also was runner up in the MVP race that year, won the finals MVP, and won the MVP in the All Star Game, ironically a joint award with old teammate Shaq.

Bryant finished the first decade of the 21st Century as the league’s top scorer for that period, amassing 21,065 points over the course of the 10 seasons. Regardless of what came next, Bryant’s Hall of Fame dynasty was already secured but he and the Lakers continued to dominate the Western Conference. By the end of the 2009/10 season, they had fought their way to their third finals appearance in a row, this time getting a chance for revenge against old enemies the Celtics. The teams were well matched and the series went to a deciding Game 7. Despite being 13 points down in the third quarter, Kobe scored 10 points in the final quarter to lead his team back to victory. He also got 15 rebounds in that game, tying a record and helping him win the finals MVP award for the second season running too.

During the remainder of his career, Bryant continued to try and push the Lakers onwards but didn’t achieve championship success again. He did however achieve many individual records and push himself up the all-time lists in different categories. He had some trouble with injuries and decided that the 2015/16 season would be his last. The Lakers didn’t have a great team that year, actually finishing with their worst ever record, but Kobe finished on a high, scoring 60 points in his final ever game against the Utah Jazz becoming the oldest ever player to reach this total. It was a fitting way for a great to finish.

Kobe Bryant has regularly been ranked as one of the top 10 basketball players of all time and also potentially the second greatest shooting guard to have played the game behind only the iconic Michael Jordan. In famed basketball writer Bill Simmons’ updated Hall of Fame Pyramid, which began in his amazing Book of Basketball (well worth a read for new fans wanting to find out more about the game), Bryant ranks ninth overall. It is inarguable that he was a true great and it is a crying shame that he was taken at such a young age.

Notable Achievements:

5 NBA Championships

2x NBA Finals MVP

1x League MVP

18x NBA All Star

Youngest ever All Star selected

4x All Star MVP (joint record)

Los Angeles Lakers all time leading scorer

33,643 career points (currently 4th all-time)

11,719 field goals made (currently 6th all-time)

8,378 free throws made (currently 4th all-time)

81 points in a single game (modern day record)

Youngest ever player to start an NBA game