Kobe Bryant had a profitable enterprise profession off the court docket. He had a profitable basketball profession even before joining the NBA. He tragically died in a helicopter accident in January 2020 alongside his daughter Gianna. Perkins and Kobe met twice within the NBA Finals in 2008 and 2010 when the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics confronted off, with each profitable as soon as.

His protection disrupted opponents and freed Nash from unfavorable matchups. After starting the season 1–4, coach Brown was fired. On December 18, in a 101–100 win over the Charlotte Bobcats, Bryant scored 30+ factors in his seventh consecutive game, the longest streak by an NBA participant after turning 34 years old; it was the fourth-longest such streak in his profession. Derek Fisher and Bryant with President Barack Obama through the White House go to honoring the Lakers' 2009 championshipIn early September 2008, Bryant determined not to have surgical procedure to repair his right pinkie. In the 2008–09 season, the Lakers opened the marketing campaign by winning their first seven video games.

Several months later Bryant was accused of raping a young lady in Colorado. He maintained his innocence, and all costs have been ultimately dropped when the lady refused to testify after a monthslong campaign of harassment by fans of Bryant and some members of the media. (Bryant later apologized, admitting that he realized his accuser did not consider their sexual encounter was consensual, and a civil go nicely with was settled in 2005.) The incident significantly tarnished his image. Led by Bryant, the Lakers returned to the finals in 2004, but they have been upset by the Detroit Pistons.

As a rookie in 1996–97, Bryant principally got here off the bench behind guards Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel. At the time, he was the second-youngest participant ever to play in an NBA sport and also turned the youngest NBA starter . Initially, Bryant performed restricted minutes, however because the season continued, he began to see some more taking half in time. At Adidas ABCD Camp, Bryant earned the 1995 senior MVP award whereas playing alongside future NBA teammate Lamar Odom.

In July 2003, Bryant was arrested and charged with felony sexual assault after a 19-year-old girl stated he raped her in the resort room the place he was staying in Edwards, Colorado. Bryant initially denied there was any sexual encounter but later told police that they had consensual intercourse. The lady, a front-desk employee at the resort, stated Bryant raped her, and a hospital exam detailed that she had a bruise on her jaw and vaginal lacerations. One of Bryant’s most enduring legacies is his Mamba Mentality, which lives on amongst today’s pro athletes.

He was suffering from soreness in his knees, toes, back, and Achilles tendons, and Scott deliberate to reduce his workload going forward. Three occasions Bryant had exceeded 40 minutes in a recreation, and the coach blamed himself for overloading him after he began the season in such great form. For the season, Bryant had been shooting simply 37 percent from the sphere, and the team's document was only 8–19. In his second recreation again after resting, he had 23 points, eleven assists, and 11 rebounds in a 111–103 win over Denver, and have become just the third player in league historical past to record multiple triple-doubles in a season at age 36 or older. On January 21, 2015, Bryant suffered a rotator cuff tear in his right shoulder whereas driving baseline for a two-handed dunk in opposition to the New Orleans Pelicans. Though he is right-handed, he returned to play within the game and ran the offense whereas taking pictures, dribbling, and passing virtually completely with his left hand.

It was the Lakers' first victory of the season towards one of many league's prime four teams, as they entered the game 0–5 in previous matchups and had been outscored by a median of eleven factors. During the season, Bryant moved from twelfth to 6th place on the NBA all-time career scoring list, passing John Havlicek, Dominique Wilkins, Oscar Robertson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Elvin Hayes, and Moses Malone. Bryant finished the season averaging lower than 20 pictures a sport, his fewest because the 2003–04 season.

His $680 million in earnings from taking part in wage and endorsements throughout his playing career have been a report for a staff athlete. Bryant died, along along with his daughter Gianna and 7 others, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, in 2020. A number of tributes and memorials have been subsequently issued, together with renaming the All-Star MVP Award in his honor. He wished to fulfill the Lakers legend, but he also understood the nature of superstar, and Prescott didn’t need to intrude on Bryant whereas he was at dinner with associates or household. Besides, the home where Prescott was staying was less than a mile from Kobe’s house.