Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to a few consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002. A heated feud between the duo and a loss in the 2004 NBA Finals was followed by O'Neal's commerce from the Lakers after the 2003–04 season. Following O'Neal's departure Bryant became the cornerstone of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. He led the NBA in scoring in the course of the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons, setting numerous scoring data in the course of. In 2006, Bryant scored a career-high eighty one factors against the Toronto Raptors, the second most factors scored in a single sport in NBA history, second solely to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point sport in 1962. He was awarded the common season's Most Valuable Player Award in 2008.

Bryant was also the cover athlete for NBA 2K17 and NBA 2K10. At the age of six, the game grew to become part of my nature. Everything I saw, heard, learn, or felt was considered via the lens of growing as a basketball player. This perspective makes me curious about everything, makes every little thing attention-grabbing, and implies that life is a dwelling library where all I must do is listen. This meant that geometry class was seen as understanding the angles of the game.

In that first-person article, Bryant talked about how he 'obsessively hunted' Allen Iverson after AI annoyed him after an everyday season recreation in Philadelphia. The life they led — half fairy tale and part extended family drama — would explode in the summer of 2003 when Bryant, visiting Colorado to rehab from a knee surgery, was accused of raping a 19-year-old hotel employee. Bryant’s curious background might also have set him aside from different gamers who grew up underneath very completely different conditions. He was recognized to maintain to himself on the staff bus, listening to music or speaking on the cellphone. Some teammates considered him as distant and even aloof.

On January 26, 2020, a helicopter carrying former pro basketball participant Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and 7 others crashes in Calabasas, California, roughly 30 miles north of Los Angeles; everyone on board dies. Bryant’s demise despatched shockwaves via the American sporting world. Bryant was an avid helicopter commuter who began utilizing this novel transport methodology throughout his Los Angeles Lakers days. Unfortunately, this time one thing went badly mistaken. According to eyewitnesses, the helicopter's engine had began "sputtering" earlier than happening. All 5 folks on board, together with Bryant himself and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, perished in the fiery crash.

For showing us that there’s no such factor as magic but solely exhausting work. Thank you for making us smile, laugh, yell, cry, jump out of our seats, and chew on our jerseys. Thank you for enjoying the sport the means in which it was meant to be performed. Thank you for educating us to believe in ourselves even when nobody else does. The reason for the crash continues to be unknown, because the helicopter was not equipped with a black field. The Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, and the FBI have launched investigations into the crash.

In addition to future animation projects, he had been in talks with animator veteran Bruce Smith for the last six months earlier than his dying about starting his personal animation studio. He performed at a 1997 live performance by Sway & King Tech and recorded a verse for a remix of Brian McKnight's "Hold Me". Bryant even appeared on Lakers teammate O'Neal's Respect, starting the monitor "three X's Dope", although Bryant's name was not listed on the credits.

He was also the primary guard in NBA history to play no less than 20 seasons. His 18 All-Star designations are the second most all time, while it is the record for many consecutive appearances as a starter. Bryant's four All-Star Game MVP Awards are tied with Bob Pettit for probably the most in NBA historical past. He gave himself the nickname "Black Mamba" within the mid-2000s, and the epithet became extensively adopted by most people. At the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, he gained two gold medals as a member of the us national group. In 2018, he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for his 2017 film Dear Basketball.

He idolized Elgin Baylor — “the footwork king” — and admired the way West could fireplace a quick bounce shot or smoothly reduce to the basket. His greatest admiration was reserved for Johnson, who had a sixth sense on the court docket, anticipating performs as they developed, delivering the ball exactly where it needed to be. Lakers star Kobe Bryant stands subsequent to coach Phil Jackson throughout a playoff sport towards the Phoenix Suns in April 2006. Los Angeles Lakers Karl Malone, left, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton and Shaquille O’Neal before their preseason opener with the Los Angeles Clippers. It was Bryant’s first game since sexual assault costs were filed in opposition to him in Colorado.