Along with LeBron James, he was one of many first two players to publicly named to the 2006–2008 U.S. preliminary roster in 2006 by Jerry Colangelo. However, he was as quickly as once more sidelined after knee surgical procedure and didn't participate in 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 every sport for the lockout-shortened 50-game season. During the season, Bryant signed a 6-year contract extension price $70 million.

Kobe had been my basketball idol more than half of my life. So seeing him within the flesh was a reasonably cool second for me. So I’m shooting round and there’s still about forty five minutes until tip.

Bryant acknowledged he was a extra targeted defender when he had a difficult defensive task as opposed to when he played off the ball towards weaker players. His defense disrupted opponents and freed Nash from unfavorable matchups. After beginning the season 1–4, coach Brown was fired. On December 18, in a 101–100 win over the Charlotte Bobcats, Bryant scored 30+ points in his seventh consecutive sport, the longest streak by an NBA player after turning 34 years old; it was the fourth-longest such streak in his profession.

Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, died in a helicopter crash three years in the past today. The two had been flying with seven others—John and Keri Altobelli and their daughter Alyssa; Sarah Chester and her daughter, Payton; Christina Mauser; and pilot Ara Zobayan—to a youth basketball event close to Los Angeles. Bryant has turn into the modern avatar of profitable to a era of basketball fans and athletes too young to remember Michael Jordan. Championships, Olympic gold medals, Oscars, it didn’t matter.

I mentally prepare myself for a justifiably surly, potentially uncommunicative sociopath. Bryant scored thousands of factors within the NBA, but some individuals might be shocked by just what number of factors he had and the place he stands in the rating of top-scoring players. He ranks fourthas of 2022 with a whopping 33,643 points and is only surpassed by Karl Malone, LeBron James, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. On April 12, 2013, Bryant tore his left Achilles tendon throughout a sport towards the Golden State Warriors. Many believed this damage would put the nail within the coffin for his career.

Tabloids speculated in regards to the Bryants in search of a divorce, which they denied. When a fan shouted at him from the stands of a sport in opposition to the Clippers, she jumped up and obtained right into a confrontation. Their first daughter was named Natalia Diamante, in deference to Vanessa’s style for diamonds.

In 2018, Bryant earned an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Dear Basketball. On January 26, 2020, he was in a helicopter crash that killed Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gigi and 7 others. As of June 2012, Bryant ranks third and fifth on the league's all-time post-season scoring and all-time common season scoring lists, respectively. He can be the all-time leading scorer in Lakers franchise history. Since his second 12 months within the league, Bryant has been chosen to begin out every NBA All-Star Game that has been held within the last fourteen years.

It wasn’t even preseason yet, but Kobe was going full speed. Somehow he made it look as if he was just gliding around. I don’t assume he had performed all summer season because of his harm, however he still killed everybody. The first possession, he caught the rock alongside the baseline and hit a turn-around jumper in my face … a shot I’ve seen him hit actually a thousand times on TV. “Hey, don’t hurt yourself, younger fella,” Kobe uttered to me. I skilled a couple of of these moments throughout my rookie 12 months.