Kobe Bryant Highlights

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Kobe was my favorite NBA player because of his spectacular moves. For me, he is the next Michael Jordan.
Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978) is an NBA basketball player.

Biography

Kobe Bryant is the son of NBA player Joe Jellybean Bryant and his wife Pamela Cox, sister of NBA player John Chubby Cox.

Kobe Bryant entered the NBA at the age of 18 after a spectacular high school career in the Philadelphia Main Line suburb of Lower Merion, and was originally selected by the Charlotte Hornets.

Kobe Bryant never played for the Hornets; within weeks of being drafted, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Though young and somewhat introverted, Bryant's immense talent made an immediate impression with his teammates on the practice court.

Bryant's career trajectory as an NBA player out of high school has been exceptional. By 24 years of age, Bryant had won many individual awards, and had been named to the All-NBA team multiple times. He is regarded as one of the best players in the NBA. Bryant helped the Los Angeles Lakers to three NBA championships.

Bryant's youth, style, good looks and accomplishments on the basketball have made him one of the most popular and most marketable players in the NBA. He speaks fluent Italian and Spanish; he spent much of his childhood in Italy when his father played professional basketball there.

Kobe Bryant married Vanessa Cornejo Ubrieta Laine on April 18, 2001 in Dana Point, California. Kobe's father Joe Jellybean Bryant broke relations with his son because he objected to this marriage on the basis of the bride's race.

Kobe Bryant's daughter Natalia was born on January 19, 2003.

On July 17, 2003, he was charged with s--ual assault by the Eagle County, Colorado District Attorney's Office, after allegedly performing nonconsensual s-- acts on a Colorado woman who was visiting Bryant's hotel room. Bryant was set for a crucial court on October 9, 2003.

Although these charges were eventually dropped in the fall of 2004 and a civil suit that followed was settled, Bryant's tarnished image continued to plummet. His endorsement contracts with McDonald's, Nutella, and Ferrero SpA were terminated. Furthering Bryant's blemished reputation was the public rift through the Laker core of Bryant, O'Neal, and coach Phil Jackson. In well-documented episodes throughout their careers together on the Lakers, mainly over leadership of the team, O'Neal and Bryant have feuded in dramatic fashion. The 2000-era Lakers were built around the dominant center in O'Neal but Bryant seemed to tire of his formal role as "second fiddle" on the team. Bryant and O'Neal would often launch jarring verbal attacks at each other, including O'Neal's allegations of Bryant as a greedy ball-hog and Bryant's maligning of O'Neal as "fat." What is considered to be one of the largest blows to the relationship between Bryant and O'Neal, as well as a serious blow to Bryant's personal reputation among other NBA players, was the release of a police transcript of Bryant being questioned by Colorado police during the s--ual assault investigation. When the transcript was publicly released, it was shown that Bryant had brought up O'Neal's own alleged extramarital affairs in an attempt to deflect questioning from police investigators, as well as detailing the specific s-- acts that Bryant had performed with and requested from Faber during their encounter.