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Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an All-Star shooting guard in the National Basketball Association who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. He is the son of former Philadelphia 76ers player Joe "Jellybean" Bryant. more...

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Bryant's combination of talent, skill, dedication, and work ethic have been instrumental in establishing his status as one of the premier athletes in the NBA. With his growing list of individual and team accomplishments, the 27-year old Bryant is expected to eventually rank among the greatest players in NBA history.

Early life

Kobe Bryant was born the only son of Joe and Pam Bryant. 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 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, the first guard ever to bypass college basketball.

Marriage

It was during this time that the 20-year-old Bryant first 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, daughter Natalia Diamante Bryant, was born on January 19, 2003. Soon after Natalia's birth, Kobe Bryant reconciled 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. Their second daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, was born on May 1, 2006, and happened to be born within 6 minutes of Shaquille O'Neal's daughter, Me'arah Sanaa.

Early NBA career

1996 Draft

Bryant's career trajectory as an NBA player out of high school has been nothing short of exceptional. 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. After overseeing the arrival of Shaquille O'Neal to Los Angeles, 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.

Read more at Wikipedia.org