• Faith: Christian - Catholic
• Career: Athlete
• Birthday:  August 23, 1978
• Date of Death:  January 26, 2020
• Accomplishments:  Mvp, All Star
• Fun Fact: Bryant’s parents named their son after Kobe beef, the famous beef of Japan.

Kobe Bryant has been an NBA professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers. His father, Joe Bryant, moved his family to Italy to pursue his own professional basketball career, which resulted in Kobe becoming fluent in Italian and Spanish at a young age. During summers he would come back to Pennsylvania and play in summer leagues and with this practice he made the varsity team as a freshman in high school.

The first guard to ever be taken right out of high school, he was chosen as the 13th overall draft pick by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996. 6’6 and 205 pounds, Bryant primarily plays as a guard. In 2007, ESPN ranked him the second greatest shooting guard of all time after Michael Jordan. At age 34, became the youngest player in history to reach 30,000 career points.

Despite his scoring success, he has been criticized as too selfish with the ball, which has contributed to him missing more field goal attempts in his career than any other player in NBA history. He also was accused of sexual assault in 2004, which tarnished his reputation and resulted in McDonald’s and Nutella dropping their endorsement contracts.