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Name: Kobe Bryant Number: 24 Born: Aug 23, 1978 Weight: 220 lbs. / 99,8 kg. High School : Lower Merion HS (PA) Years Pro: 10

KOBE BRYANT 06 - 07 STATISTICS   PPG : 26.6 RPG: 4.90 APG: 4.5 EFF: +23.42

KOBE BRYANT PHOTOS

Kobe Bryant was born the only son of Joe and Pam Bryant. According to Bryant's NBA bio[1], his parents named him after a kind of steak seen on a restaurant menu prior to his birth. At the age of six, he, his two sisters and his parents moved to Italy, where his father began playing professional basketball. While living there, he gradually became accustomed to the lifestyle and subsequently learned to speak Italian fluently. In 1991, the Bryants moved back to the United States. After a spectacular high school career in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, at Lower Merion High School, Bryant achieved national recognition as a prodigious basketball talent. While his SAT score of 1080[2] would have ensured his basketball scholarship to various top-tier colleges, Bryant eventually scrapped his original plans of continuing on to college by making the leap from high school directly to the NBA, a bold but controversial decision made by the then 17-year-old.

A few years later, the 20-year-old Bryant met 16-year-old Vanessa Laine on the set of a music video where Laine was working as a background dancer. The two began dating and were engaged six months later. They married on April 18, 2001 in Dana Point, California, while Laine was still a senior at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, California. Bryant's parents initially were staunchly opposed to the marriage for a number of reasons, citing the couple's young age as their primary concern. This disagreement resulted in an estrangement period of over two years, during which Kobe Bryant did not have any contact with his parents.

The Bryants' first child, a daughter named Natalia Diamante Bryant, was born on January 19, 2003. The birth of Natalia influenced Bryant to reconcile his differences with his parents, and the family was once again on good terms. Vanessa Bryant suffered a miscarriage due to an ectopic pregnancy in the spring of 2005. In the fall of that same year, the Bryants announced that they were expecting their second child. Their second daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, was born on May 1, 2006, and happened to be born within 6 minutes of former teammate/rival Shaquille O'Neal's daughter, Me'arah Sanaa.

Even before he was chosen as the 13th pick overall by the Hornets in 1996, Bryant had made a lasting impression on then-Lakers general manager Jerry West, who immediately foresaw the potential in Bryant's basketball talent during pre-draft workouts. West stated that Bryant's workout was one of the best he had ever witnessed. West continued his quest to return the Lakers to championship status by trading then-starting center Vlade Divac to the Hornets for the 18-year old Bryant.

During his first season with the Lakers, he mostly came off the bench behind guards Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel. Bryant played limited minutes initially but this changed as the season continued. He earned himself a reputation as a high-flyer and a fan-favorite by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest.

In Bryant's second season (1997-98), he received more playing time and began showing more of his abilities as a talented young guard. He was the runner-up for the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year, and, through fan voting, he also became the youngest NBA All-Star starter as well as the first player to start on the All-Star team who was not a starter on his own team. While his statistics were impressive for his age, he was still a young guard who lacked the experience to complement Shaquille O'Neal and significantly help the team contend for a championship.

However, Bryant's fortunes would soon change when Phil Jackson became coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. After years of steady improvement, Bryant had become one of the premier shooting guards in the league, a fact that was evidenced by his annual presence in the league's All-NBA, All-Star, and All-Defensive teams. The Los Angeles Lakers became perennial championship contenders under Bryant and O'Neal, who formed an outstanding center-guard combination. Their success gave the Lakers three consecutive NBA championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

In the 2002-03 NBA season, Bryant averaged 30 points per game and embarked on a historic scoring run, posting 40 or more points per game in nine consecutive games while averaging 40.6 in the entire month of February. In addition, he averaged 6.9 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.2 steals per game, all career highs up to that point. For the first time in his career Bryant was voted on to both--All-NBA and All-Defensive 1st teams. After finishing 50-32 in the regular season, the Lakers floundered in the playoffs and lost in the Western Conference Semifinals to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs in six games.

In the following 2003-04 NBA season, the Lakers were able to acquire legends Karl Malone and Gary Payton to make another push at the NBA Championship. With a starting lineup of four future hall of fame players, including: Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton, the Lakers were able to reach the NBA Finals. In the Finals, that Laker team was eventually defeated by the Detroit Pistons in 5 games. In that series, Kobe averaged 22.6 points per game and 4.4 assists.

The 2005-06 NBA season would mark a crossroads in Bryant's basketball career. Despite past differences with Bryant, Phil Jackson returned to coach the Lakers. Bryant endorsed the move, and by all appearances, the two men worked together well the second time around, leading the Lakers back into the NBA Playoffs. The team posted a 45-37 record, a twelve-game improvement over the previous season, and played well enough in the first round of the playoffs to come within a game of eliminating the second-seeded Phoenix Suns before finally falling short. Kobe Bryant was further questioned for his atypical performance in the 2nd half only taking 3 shots in the game 7 in the first round.